The comment section of a recent post over at the Philosophy Smoker (“To Bail, or Not to Bail”) has — as is often the case — manifested bitterness and resentment over the job market. Although these feelings are understandable and likely even justified (the market is truly brutal), I can’t help but feel — as I often do when reading the Smoker — that people have no idea just how counterproductive their bitterness is.
As someone who struggled mightily for a time in graduate school, and who still does not have a TT job, I can empathize with these feelings. Indeed, I have some history of lapsing into bitterness and resentment myself. And yet…if I have learned anything from the experience, it is that almost nothing shoots you in the foot more than this. For, you see, bitterness and resentment do not remain hidden inside. No, they ooze out of you like poison.
I was recently told by someone I went to grad school with that I used to look so unhappy walking around the halls of the department. I had no idea it showed! And yet, the more that I think about it, I showed it in all kinda of subtle ways: through frowns, through insecure and defensive ways of responding to well-intentioned feedback, etc. Now, again, perhaps my bitterness was justified. But that’s not the point, is it? Justified feelings can be profoundly counterproductive and harmful, and it is now clear to me just how harmful. It is only when I finally set my bitterness and insecurities aside that, voila, people actually came to my aid — which is what I wanted all along. For let’s face it: no one wants to be around someone oozing negative vibes.
Perhaps more to the point, no one wants to hire a miserable clod. Indeed, for all of the discussion that’s always devoted to publishing, cover letters, and dossiers, it never ceases to amaze me how little time is spent discussing the obvious, which is that people who are considering hiring you are looking to hire a person — someone who, if all goes well, is going to be roaming the halls and participating in seminars and meetings for decades; and who, if the wrong person is hired, may prove to be a departmental cancer for years to come. Think about it for a moment. If you were on a hiring committee, and you had many talented candidates to choose from — which of course is always the case — who would you hire: the kind, helpful individual or the bitter, self-absorbed prig? Isn’t it obvious? Give up your resentment then, justified though it may be. It is not only corrupting your soul, and your behavior from the inside out; it is likely corrupting your career prospects.
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