Changing academic jobs
Hello darlings!
Happy 2025, my bebes! I hope everyone is kicking january’s ass on down the line.
Someone asked on the MHAWS NGL:
And the answer is: compartmentalizing!! Or rather, focusing on one thing at a time. Sometimes that’s work! Sometimes that’s local political action. Sometimes that is protecting members of our community with money and resources. Sometimes that’s shit posting. Sometimes that’s writing bad advice columns. So here you go!
One way to compartmentalize might be to go on a writing retreat. Kelly and I are hosting a special mini writing retreat in April in Houston. Come write for 3 days / 2 nights in community, with goal setting and encouragement. Get shit done at the hardest part of the semester to get shit done! Details are here.
Changing academic jobs
Several people asked for my advice about changing academic jobs on the MHAWS NGL anonymous link! Thanks to all of you who asked questions – they are all in the queue!
Here’s my no good very bad advice about changing academic jobs. This is DEFINITELY based on my small n experiences on both the application and hiring sides in political science departments and a public policy school. One NGL I got asked “Does it weigh on you? Writing these newsletters?” the answer is yes! I have no idea what I’m doing!! Why are all of you listening to me?? But then I look around and realize that there’s no one else. So here’s my esoteric nonsense advice. If you don’t like it, go to hell. (or just go read anything else)
This is all advice for people who have a job currently and are looking for another job.
Please stop rejecting yourself
Here’s some shitty self-dialogue that I see all the time (/I’ve had with myself / people I know have with themselves):
“Oh that’s a job I want. But I am not qualified / not fancy enough / too old / too fat / too stupid / too loud. So I’m not going to apply.”
Stop that shit. Let the people reject you! Stop rejecting yourself! The only way you are going to get that job is if you apply for the job.
*This is often, it seems, out of some kind of misguided believe that people are thinking about you all the time and will look at your application and laugh about it in some dark room with other important people. Guess what? NO ONE IS THINKING ABOUT YOU AND YOUR SHITTY APPLICATION. I have reviewed so many job applications in my life and I remember NONE of them. I don’t even remember what’s in my OWN job application materials. What did I say I was going to work on? What was my expertise? WHO KNOWS. Everyone has something better to think about. So if you apply and you ARE grossly underqualified, guess what? No one cares. You will be rejected (well, you probably won’t even hear but that’s a different conversation).
Repeat after me: no one remembers my stupid like I remember my stupid. So you might as well give yourself a fucking chance.
Tell people when you want a job.
This is particularly important for people who have stayed at one job for a long time or you have a ‘good’ job (fancy, in a desirable location, a friendly place). People assume that you have a reason to stay there and that you wouldn’t REALLY be interested in leaving. So you have to tell people. Maybe you have a personal reason to move. Maybe you have a harasser in your department and want to leave. Maybe you hate the location. Whatever it is – that’s your business and it can feel weird to tell people your business! But you need to tell people.
- You can control how much information you give people. You can be vague with strangers and honest with friends (or maybe the opposite! That’s your choice!)
- If there is a particular location that you especially want to move to, you should be particularly loud and clear about that preference in conversations.
- If you know someone in a department or school where you want to work, you should absolutely be honest with them. BUT you should not hold your lack of a job there against that person (more on this later)
Build a resume that makes you hirable ‘in the discipline’
Every department or school I’ve worked at has esoteric ideas about what kinds of teaching and service and (especially) research is better than others. Is it grants? Books? Teaching big classes? Teaching small classes? Sitting on some specific stupid time consuming committee. If you want a different job, your task is to ignore these weird quirks of your current place and instead focus on the items that are broader currency. What is that? Publications, in top journals and a lot of them. Grants. Good teaching evaluations. Some vague evidence of service. This also aligns with my tenure advice!
Figure out what you are going to slack on and how you are going to get the easy hits
If you are really interested in getting a different job, then you need to figure out what pieces of your current job you are going to do a bad job on. Where are you going to cut some corners so that you have time to build a profile that is attractive to hiring committees. Most of the time, this means how are you going to carve out time to do more better research faster. But this can also mean [stop reading here if you don’t like honest advice about teaching and service] teaching easier classes so you get better teaching evaluations (and gaming / juicing the evals), skipping dept meetings that will include pressure to volunteer for stuff, not going to lots of university or department events, and not taking on time consuming graduate students. This is not the time to serve on a committee to reform the undergraduate curriculum or an external evaluation or whatever – if you have a choice. Teach the same courses over and over (or teach courses that will position you to move to a different kind of program). Create slack so you can use it to produce more of whatever you think will get you hired.
Similarly, what are the places where you can get the easiest hits? In research, what pieces are closest to being ready to go under review. Work exclusively on that article until it is under review. Then on to the next one. Then on to the next one. Then on to the next one. Tell your coauthors what is going on and work with the ones who will prioritize you getting stuff under review. Stop working on projects that are not progressing swiftly. Stop working with coauthors who don’t understand the assignment. These projects and coauthors will be available after you get a job or get all your easy stuff out.
Don’t be an asshole or a weirdo when you interview.
I feel like this shouldn’t have to be said but I also have interviewed a lot of people who somehow are assholes or weirdos or BOTH during interviews. Stop it.
(also, stop being an asshole and a weirdo when you are on the interviewing side. You are selling your department! What the fuck?)
Know that failures are probably not your fault (but you also can’t take all the credit for wins). So you just have to keep trying.
If you aren’t an asshole or a weirdo during the interview and you don’t get the job, realize how fucking weird this process is. Now that you have a job, you know how bizarre selection is and how it is absolutely not a fucking meritocracy and mayyyybeeee your job talk matters and maybe it doesn’t and that weird question you flubbed during a one-on-one is absolutely not about you at all.
One person asked NGL: When do you know when to stop trying to change jobs? And the answer is: right now and never. Or rather, apply to all jobs that you would take for as long as it takes for you to be satisfied with your employer.* Because you never ever know. I have not gotten jobs that looked like they were written specifically for me. I have a job currently that I did not have any confidence that I would get when I applied. Again, highly esoteric experiences (and yet, not all that esoteric from talking to people!)
*or slightly more satisfied? Less miserable? You need to determine your standard
Want more? Here’s my advice to graduate students on the job market:
The NGL link is here if you want to ask any more questions! Maybe you have a specific question about interviewing or applying for jobs. Or about negotiating? Or you want to know what the number one song on my playlist is right now (It’s White Sands by Tommy Guerrero) but ask away!
XOXOX
Mirya