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APA blog posts and the job market

A reader recently wrote in by email:

I’m wondering if you know (1) how or even whether to list an APA blog post on a CV, and (2) what hiring committees would make of it?

Fair question. I suspect that you can always list it on your CV, and that if you do, you should probably do so under a unique heading (e.g. "Blog Posts").

As for how this will look to search committees, I'm not sure. I suspect that they probably won't count for much, and maybe some committees might even view it strangely. Then again, other committees might look at it as a nice little service to the profession, if for example the post discusses something of public or professional interest.

So, I don't know. What do you all think?

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7 responses to “APA blog posts and the job market”

  1. Tim O’Keefe

    I have a category called “public philosophy” where I list things like being a panelist on a radio show about Epicurus, writing a column for an internet site on what the Epicureans would say about Christmas, and giving an invited public lecture at a library about the ethical case for vegetarianism. I wouldn’t want to put these things in the same category as my regular academic publications or presentations, but I do want to note them somewhere.

    Reply
  2. you gotta keep it separated

    I think that as long as this is clearly separated from and listed after the standard publications, this would be viewed anywhere from neutrally to positively by pretty much everyone. I would put this after the regular publication section, and maybe even after presentations, in a section called something like “Public philosophy: blog posts” or “popular media” or something like that. Search committees will see it as one (albeit rather small) part of a robust indication of professional engagement. I struggle to imagine anyone looking at it negatively in any way, if it’s presented like this.
    What to avoid is appearing to try to pass this off as the kind of publication that would count toward tenure. I have seen people do this.

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  3. sad

    As Marcus notes, you can list whatever you want on your c.v. But you should not think that a blog post on the APA site will get you anything in terms of advancing your career. In fact, the APA has become quite partisan in a very bad way in the last decade – in the past I presented at numerous APA conferences. So some may think that you are probably just toeing the line – saying what all the good people say these days.

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  4. Bill Vanderburgh

    I don’t know what “sad” is on about, but the other advice here is good. List everything that’s related to your philosophy work, but categorize it properly and clearly. If you have less than five total presentations, you can just have one list but use parenthetical remarks before each entry like “(refereed abstract)” or “(invited talk for a public audience).” If you have more than that, you can create the appropriate sub-headings under Presentations. Ditto for Publications (different sub-headings or parenthetical remarks for refereed journal articles, invited chapters, conference proceedings refereed by abstract, public philosophy, works in progress, etc.).
    If the APA blog post is the only entry under publications, that will be underwhelming to a search committee. But alongside a couple of refereed journal articles, it will look good. It will be seen as part of a publishing trajectory, an attempt at public outreach, willingness to do service, evidence of an AOC, etc. That sort of thing is be unlikely to be the single factor that tips a decision in your favor, but as part of the gestalt of the application, it could be helpful and certainly won’t hurt.

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  5. Tech Lecturer

    There are occasionally TT and postdoc jobs these days that have some public engagement mandate built into them as required and not merely desirable. Those search committees will view professional blog posts on places like the Blog of the APA favourably. But yes, as has been said, don’t list them with academic publications without clearly differentiating the blog post category from peer-reviewed articles and chapters.

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  6. Helen

    I think it’s fair to say it won’t help immediately and it won’t count for tenure, but it’s still worthwhile for a holistic picture of you as a job market. Personally, I’ve found it important to do public engagement so I have a couple of sections in my CV on this. The APA blog entries go in “public philosophy” and next to that I also have “leadership initiatives” — see here: https://helendecruz.net/docs/CV_DeCruz_online_version.pdf
    There is not one right way to do a CV, you really have to tailor it to your profile (and be prepared to throw around the ordering of sections/names of sections as you go on).

    Reply
  7. Josh

    Having it on your CV will, itself, make virtually no difference to your chances. But if the search committee is interested in you for other reasons, it offers them a quick read of something you’ve written that, presumably, is meaningful to you. Depending on its content, this may give them easy access to some insight about you. Of course, that could work in your favor, or it could work against you. It could show that you have welcome interests that don’t show up elsewhere in your materials. Or it could confirm their worry that you can’t clearly communicate your research well to non-experts. Or…
    Of course there are other benefits to doing this sort of thing—like getting your name and ideas out there, practicing a certain kind of writing, etc. But if you’re mostly thinking about search committees: my overall advice is don’t do it because it will boost your CV (it probably won’t), and only do it if it will only reflect well on you (it might not).

    Reply

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