Social Software and Job Search 10:38 am
Absolutely fabulous! Congrats to Brian Donovan and thank you for sharing this on YouTube! As an internet researcher, I too plan to document my academic career in creative ways! 
Job Search 11:16 pm
and for once, it’s not me doing the venting!
As a frequent visitor to the Academic Careers Comp/Rhet wiki, I noticed a week or so ago when all of its content disappeared. I mostly referred to this site before and just after MLA to see who had scheduled interviews and campus visits. Once I got my job offer at the beginning of this month, I didn’t really feel the urge to visit the site as much. Sure, that sounds smarmy, but I also hadn’t seen all that much updating beyond January.
Anyway, now that word has spread about the wiki being hacked, there is a “scratchpad” wikia site serving as a backup. At the main page of this one, however, one can find the “venting” area and all I can say is “WHOA! Am I glad I don’t have to even think about this stuff anymore!” Yeah, I’m still kind of annoyed that some schools haven’t bothered sending rejection letters and that some of the rejection letters I did receive gave me way too much information about who they DID hire, but overall I had a positive experience. Committee members had actually read my CV and expressed interest in my work, so what more could I ask for? I know if I had to go out again next year that I’d be better prepared, but thankfully I won’t be in that position!
I signed my official contract earlier this week and have already started a countdown to moving day calendar!
Now back to the dissertation 
Job Search 4:20 pm
As soon as I get the contract in the mail, it will be both the end of a trying time and the beginning of a wonderful adventure! Ever since Andy and I returned from eloping last August, it’s been nothing but stress related to establishing FL residency status in order to save my tuition waiver, teaching way too many classes at once, and writing up tons of job search materials, not to mention the jumping through the hoops of prospectus writing and IRB paperwork-ing.
In fact, only a few weeks ago my dissertation director and I started planning out my taking another year to finish up and focus on publishing. Then phone calls started coming in, quite out of the blue, and I learned the most important lesson of all–the job search isn’t over until you say it is! In December, I had over a dozen phone and MLA interviews–heard back from some then never another word from others. I was honestly relieved at getting some of the rejection letters. Sometimes you just know when something isn’t a good fit.
But then there are times you instantly hit if off with a place [and its search committee] and you don’t even think about being nervous…and that’s how it was for me this week at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Without gushing too much, I just loved the laid back meeting and greeting, interviewing and teaching demonstrating, and overall feel of the campus. It truly is a school that my previous teaching and tutoring experiences have prepared me for.
Now back to the dissertation!
Job Search 2:03 pm
It’s been a wonderful couple of days, with a trip to New Orleans for a conference last weekend [a post on that is already in the works], and then coming back to Tampa for Thanksgiving break and the end of the semester in sight. Only two more weeks of teaching and grading, and I couldn’t be happier. Next semester I am only teaching one class, online, so I will have all the time to dedicate to my dissertation. This semester, as you know, has been crazy with writing job letters, teaching 3 classes, and writing, writing, writing. But I do have to say that I am thankful for the experience.
Strangely, I find that the academic job search has been the best boost for me. Not only can I dream about my life in places all over the country–dreams that last minutes long before I run the ade.org search again and read the next job ad [:)] –the requirement of composing documents that ask me to express my teaching philosophy and research interests have challenged me in ways that no one in my program has challenged me before. I’ve had to reflect and reevaluate why it is that I want to devote my career to academia and to consider ways of designing/teaching new courses, something that our department doesn’t offer us the chance to do very much due to a standardized FYC curriculum. [I’m not complaining about this, BTW; I recognize the need for adhering to Gen Ed themes at such a large school and I do find having a standardized approach helps new TAs and adjuncts]. Still, if there was something that stuck out at the recent LACC conference I attended, it was how innovative teachers at smaller schools can be, and I remember fondly my own teaching experiences at Xavier University being that way.
There are lots of job search assistance sites out there, but the upcoming December issue of the Journal of English Linguistics has an essay entitled “Perspectives on the Academic Job Search,” in which the authors numerate 3 key principles:
1. Remember that you are applying to become a colleague
2. Do not apply for a job that you don’t want, nor should you forego applying for jobs that someone else thinks you should not have
3. Keep in mind options outside of academia
These are principles that may seem obvious to some, but they have reminded me of what to think about as I keep writing letters and checking the wiki. I think the most important of these principles has been the first one because in such a large department you can easily get lost in the shuffle unless you are your own advocate. Attending meetings, dissertation defenses, and events and asking to teach different courses moves you out of the student mindset and into the colleague one, and as I said before, writing up my job materials with specific outside audiences in mind has really pushed me to be able to articulate what it is I’ve spent the last 4 and a half years doing.
With that said, I’m looking forward to MLA and the months following. If I don’t get a job, I’ll spend more time writing and individualizing my syllabi. While I haven’t applied to any schools in Louisiana, I’m always thinking about ways my skills can help those in New Orleans too, so I’m keeping my options open.
Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!
