I am sitting around waiting. I have quite a while before they even finish interviewing people. What should I be doing right now? I can't figure out what I should be doing right now.
I have no job offers at the moment, so looking at Craigslist and local tourism websites could end up twisting the knife, later. Likewise the potential uselessness of planning syllabi and book orders before hatching the chickens, or whatever the phrase is.
And I may not get any offers, so should I plan my contingency plan now? I just don't know.
Maybe I could start packing? Hmm. I don't know what I should be doing.
I do know that if I get rejected for one or both of these jobs, I'll probably bring on all of my health problems/stress attacks again. Sigh. I don't know that there is any way to prepare for that, though.
I'd rent some mindless movies to eat up time but I don't seem to be focusing on anything very well right now.
Gah. Blearhg. Meh.
15 comments:
Perhaps you could telepathically finish packing for me?
Or you could just drink alcohol to express your support of my packing....
Don't look at Craigslist, and don't plan syllabi.
Do: drink booze. Go for walks. Socialize, lots. Take yourself OUT to the movies.
In other words, celebrate! This is a bigass deal!
Two campus visits? Well, relaxing is good, but so is preparing. (Not driving yourself crazy, however.) Is your job talk all in order? Practiced? Able to be understood by people not in your field? (This is really important because this is what tells people who haven't seen a teaching demo whether you'll be a good teacher or not.)
I was just on a search ctee, so if you want to backchannel and chat, I'm happy to: earnestenglish@gmail.com.
Congratulations again!
Two campus visits is awesome! I agree with EE and RL, prep the talk just in case and go OUT to movies. The latter is what I always did when I broke up with someone because it's great for taking your mind completely off something!
Congrats!
Somewhere in my archives I have a post called "Crafting the talk," which you may find helpful. Loads of luck to you!
no job talk; these aren't tenure-track. They could give a shit about my research.
Sigh.
There's nothng to *do* here.
Get. Out. Of. Your. Place. Go someplace where there are people and distractions. The zoo. Write your novel - take a leap and write something fun and crazed. Do something fun and crazed. Walk on the beach. In the desert. In the mountains. Along a river. Go walk a dog at the local shelter and shower them with love and affection.
Then have a drink and virtually assist Crazy in packing.
Distractions, definitely. This is the worst part.
Good luck!!!
If you think there's nothing to do here, you should try growing up in Indiana. Talk about hair-tearing boredom.
Oh... You mean there's nothing to do while you wait. You're not commenting on CA. My bad.
Sorry they aren't tt jobs. But a job is a job. I hope one works out!
I agree: a job is a job. Take the money and run. And be sure to publish a LOT while you're working. I've been lucky. I had 3 VAP (non-TT) jobs in the past 3 years. And now I have a tenure-track job pending (still waiting for them to hand me the contract). VAP jobs are just fine to build your career. Just be sure to do more publishing than I did (i.e. none). I would have been more competitive for the dozens of jobs I've applied for each year.
Good luck.
These aren't asst prof at all, but lecturer positions in comp departments. The teaching load is crazy and I don't think I'd be publishing at all. And I think this would be permanent --- I don't see myself being able to jump to a different type of school after being "marked" with either of these.
My last 2 positions were lecturer positions; I just called myself VAP on my CV. It's full-time, I get benefits; it's a VAP as far as I'm concerned. All that working up new courses and teaching big classes (60 students/class; 3/3 load) meant I had no time for research--or anything else. But the department wanted to hire TT; it just took them 2 years to be able to convince the administration to permit it. They didn't hand me the job; I had to compete against stellar candidates in a full, national search. But I made it. I'm one of the lucky ones.
I think you're right about being marked. But it may take more than a year of being in comp. Full-time lecturer is much better than adjunct, after all. I hear your worries. I had them, too. But getting a job in a furniture store (or other non-academic employment), isn't that as time-consuming? I.e., you wouldn't be able to publish much there either? Do what you have to do. I graduated from a top-10 R1 and now I have a career at a Tier III school. Beggars can't be choosers, I say. I hope to work my up the food chain. You can, too. Good luck.
Don't sweat the fact that these are comp. jobs. You CAN parlay that into a tt-gig. In fact, most tt-gigs are in dire need of people who can successfully teach comp. while also completing research. Or at least, my job is, as was the comp-heavy VAP I had before I landed it.
This is GREAT news.
I was thinking more of the fact that it's a cc, non-tenure-track. But, yeah, I'm going to have to get my comp chops up either way!
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