fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2532 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2532 ⌋

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

even if they hire, it's an incredibly difficult process. I can't speak on history professors, but I know engineering is strict. You get hired as an assistant professor, first, I believe. During these first 3-5 years you do not have tenure. You have to work your ass off to get published, bring in LOTS of funding, bring in grad students and projects, be on several different university committees, etc. Meanwhile you still have to teach and research. And keep up this momentum for a minimum of 3 years. Once you're tenured you're safer.

The other thing is that if the school is only short one professor, they will just temporarily hire adjunct professors to cover for those on sabbatical, at least that was my experience.

This is accurate, although the funding is much less important with history (grants are great but there isn't exactly a history "industry" to appeal to). The thing is, it's increasingly hard to get that assistant professor gig.

It's not quite as bad as I made it out to be for me, but that's just because my subject's more marketable than someone doing obscure Norwegian nuns or something. It's still going to be really hard.

Edited 2013-12-09 03:25 (UTC)

As a humanities prof who just went up for tenure, I can tell you it's a crapshoot. I have done awesomely, and I've watched other people I graduated with do awesomely, and some get stuck in the adjuncting hell-hole.

My advice to you (which I hope does not actually fall within the purview of this thread) is to network. I got this job because I knew people. I was qualified for the position, but knowing people and having connections really helped. I also advise you to apply to a variety of places. Apply to community colleges and junior colleges and technical schools, not just four year research universities. Often you make more money and have the chance to have your voice heard and work on things that you would never in a million years get to do as a junior faculty at a university. The person I feel the sorriest for that I graduated with is one of the smartest people I know, she wrote a book as a grad student that got published, she is so so so qualified for anything but the only jobs she applied for are like the top tier ones so she is still stuck in a non-tenure track position where we graduated from. In contrast, I applied for like fourth tier jobs and got offered positions at two of the five places I applied the very first time I applied for jobs (both places I had networked and had connections to faculty there).

It is both as bad and not nearly as bad as it's made out.

I would totally be willing to talk with you or anybody off comm about cover letters and vitas and networking and interviewing because I feel very very strongly that graduate programs do not prepare their students in a meaningful way for their options after grad school, and I feel a deep obligation to pay forward what I've learned in the past five and a half years.

Thank you for responding! I mentioned universities but honestly I am going to apply everywhere. I'd rather be at a little liberal arts college than a research university to tell the truth; that's the kind of place I attended for undergrad and made me want to get into academe in the first place. And I think I'd be very happy at a community college. It's more that I'm afraid of not finding a full time gig period.

I would love to pick your brain sometime. I'd write more but I'm about to crash. But seriously, it's really comforting to hear this.

Anytime. :)

I just wish they pushed that not all degrees lead into a career, you need to figure out how to market your degree and what you can do with it. It's a big problem with our education system.

Best of luck, seriously.

[ SECRET POST #2532 ]

Re: "You'll make a great professor."

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