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Job-Market Reporting Thread (2025-26)
Job-Market Discussion Thread (2025-26)

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Job-market discussion thread (2023-24 season)

Now that it's August 15th and the job market will be ramping up soon, I figured now is probably a good time as any to open up this season's job-market discussion board. After all, readers who will be heading out on the market may already have questions you'd like to discuss (about application materials, the application process, etc.). So, please feel free to bookmark and visit this thread throughout the job season to commiserate with others, or just to see what others are talking about!

As many readers of the Cocoon may recall, each job season the Cocoon hosts two different job-market threads:

  1. A job-market discussion thread (the present thread): to commiserate about the market, discuss particular job ads, the market in general, questions about application materials, interviewing, alt-ac opportunities, and so on.
  2. A job-market reporting thread: to post news about interviews, on-campus visits, offers, rejection notices, etc.

This post will serve as the discussion thread, and as in the past I will open the reporting thread at a later date, around or after most job applications become due.

Because someone always asks, "Why two threads?", there are a couple of reasons. First, some people may want to discuss the market but not stress over daily news regarding which jobs they still do or don't have a chance for. Conversely, others may not want to discuss the market but just want news about the jobs they've applied for. Second, these threads can get very long already, so I think the best way for people to get the information they want in a well-ordered format is simply to have two threads.

A few final notes:

  • This thread (the post you are reading right now!) will be the home of this year's job-market discussion thread. So, if you want to discuss this year's job-market, just comment below.
  • Please reserve job-market news (i.e. interviews, on-campus visits, hires, etc.) for the job-market reporting thread, which I will open sometime in September.
  • A 'permalink' to this thread will be on the upper right of blog's right sidebar for the rest of the job season. –>
  • Because of Typepad's functionality limitations (which only permits 100 comments before starting a new comment page), readers may elect to bookmark each new page of comments as each new page emerges. I recognize that it can be frustrating to scroll through page after page to get to new comments, and I think this is probably the best solution given Typepad's functionality limitations.

Finally, as always, readers are asked to please bear in mind the Cocoon's safe and supportive mission. I try not to moderate with too heavy of a hand, as I don't like to squelch reasonable discussion and debate. I also realize that the job-market can be an emotional roller-coaster, and that passions can run deep on job-market issues. But the Cocoon has always been intended to be an unique oasis of sorts: as a refuge for early-career philosophers to support each other and discuss issues related to their careers and the profession in productive, supportive way. So, I will moderate carefully to ensure that these threads remain a welcome environment for everyone–and, of course, if anyone has any concerns, please do not hesitate to let me know.

All that being said, discuss away!

Posted in ,

270 responses to “Job-market discussion thread (2023-24 season)”

  1. Kathryn

    Hey all! There was a recent posting from Middlebury College for a TT position with a deadline for Nov. 1st. However, as of today (8/15), on the Interfolio application, it says “not accepting new applications.” Anyone else seeing this?

    Reply
  2. Guy

    Kathryn,
    I noticed the original posting too. It’s no longer listed on Higher Ed Jobs. Maybe they already knew who they wanted but had to jump through HR hoops?

    Reply
  3. not on the market

    If this is the philosophy of science position, it’s currently open on Interfolio and based on Facebook posts, I believe it is a regular old search.

    Reply
  4. A Picture Says 1000 Words, All of Them “Hire Me!”

    I have a very nice little graphic from my most recent teaching feedback data. For a job where the application materials are just a cover letter and CV, is it a good idea to include this graphic in either the cover letter or the CV?
    The application is for a UK job.

    Reply
  5. postpunkdoc

    Could we also do an updated croudsourcing job ads thread?
    Some other questions:
    How much biography is it appropriate to include in a diversity statement? (I have experienced some serious barriers, disclosure of which might risk being TMI, but I think also shows massive resilience and capacity to balance heavy demands while also doing good work)
    As a first time commodity on the job market, any tips for staying well through the process?

    Reply
  6. Justaminorthreat?

    @postpunkdoc, My sense (anecdotally) is that the committees are not looking for evidence of resilience and capacity (fairly or not). After all, the same evidence might also suggest an increased risk that things will get to be too much at some point! But, more to the point: I suspect that your biography might also be a resource for your engagement with students—that your distinct experiences and perspectives might both give you insights other faculty lack and present students a new model or access point. I suspect that, in general, showing how your biography will be an opportunity for the department is often a good strategy.

    Reply
  7. Benjamin

    @postpunkdoc – Honestly, we care about your impact on our students, not about what you’ve dealt with. Every finalist has clearly demonstrated that they can do the job we are asking of them. The diversity statement for us, at least, should focus on how you add useful diversity and can draw in a more diverse group of students for our department.

    Reply
  8. Mark Wilson

    I agree that stories about resilience are not relevant. It is not a suffering olympics. If in spite of the odds, you have generated excellent work or become an excellent teacher, then your excellence as a researcher or teacher is all that matters.

    Reply
  9. sigh

    I am getting very conflicting accounts on cover letter length from two people I trust. A friend who just looked at my documents suggested I should use as much of two pages as possible without any padding. A colleague suggested it shouldn’t go much over one page. This is quite the distinction.
    Any insight? I looked back into the recent cover letter thread here but there were only two responses and neither on length.

    Reply
  10. New parent

    Just wondering where to note that you’ve recently been on parental leave. CV? Research statement? Both? (Or neither? Though I’ve been advised to note it. . . )

    Reply
  11. not on the market

    New parent, I had previously seen parental leave listed on a CV. That seems to me like a good place to put it.
    That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also address it in your letter. I wasn’t on a search committee when I last encountered parental leave on a CV. (I think, by the way, it is good to include this information on one’s public CV!)
    Sigh, what I’ve heard during 5 years on the market was that if you can write a good one-page letter, that really impresses the people who really care about cover letters. This is especially true if you’re a graduate student! But I do not think there is broad consensus – and I wouldn’t even say that these people would count two pages “against” you. It’s just demonstrating a particular skill, which some people on a committee might care about. You can’t know ahead of time who cares about this, and if you discover your cover letter is better at 1.5 pages (with letterhead and signature and so on) then you shouldn’t make you letter worse by trying to cut it to 1 page.

    Reply
  12. Katie

    What are everyone’s thoughts on the Society of Fellows applications? Are they worth the effort?

    Reply
  13. shrug

    i’m about to apply to the same one for the third year in a row even though my contact in the department – in a very supportive way – tells me not to waste my time. they are extremely competitive, especially when they are humanities-wide.
    so it’s a matter of whether or not you think it is worth your time to throw your name into a lottery where your chance is probably a fraction of a percent regardless of the quality of application.
    like i said, i do it. but they say it’s not advisable.

    Reply
  14. Katie

    Thank you @Shrug; that was my impression from others. This is my first time on the market and it seems like I would rather put my energy into other applications.

    Reply
  15. feelin’ lucky

    Is it time to fire up the job market reporting thread? Some app deadlines have already past.
    Also, whenever it goes up, can we reiterate that the purpose of that thread is solely for reporting? It seemed like that norm was not sufficiently respected last year.
    Thanks!

    Reply
  16. Marcus Arvan

    @feelin’ lucky: I’ve always been a bit unsure when to start the reporting thread, but given that some deadlines have passed and you asked, I’ll try to get it up tomorrow!

    Reply
  17. wtf?

    If you’re interested in a full-time position teaching a 4/4 load for $20,000/year, I recommend this:
    https://www.higheredjobs.com/faculty/details.cfm?JobCode=178530499&Title=Instructor%20of%20Philosophy%20%26%20Religion

    Reply
  18. re: wtf

    That looks like 20k for one semester, not the year.

    Reply
  19. Michel

    Yes. One semester, four courses, $20k.

    Reply
  20. repeat

    Question about job talks: Is it a bad idea to present a paper that one of the faculty members has recently heard you present elsewhere? Would it be better to present something that will be new to all the faculty?

    Reply
  21. trying not to worry about everything

    @repeat: I would not necessarily refrain from presenting the earlier paper for that reason alone.
    It also depends on, say, 1) whether you have an equally good, second paper to present; 2) how much you’re trying to impress that one faculty member (which might not be worth it); 3) whether that one faculty member was impressed with the earlier presentation and wouldn’t mind hearing it again; 4) whether you’re able to add anything new to the earlier paper (It’s unpublished and still subject to revision, right?).
    Personally, unless I had some special information that suggested presenting the earlier paper would be problematic, I don’t think I would worry about it.

    Reply
  22. search

    does serving on a search committee go on your CV? if so, under departmental service?

    Reply
  23. Utahn

    Philosophers with non-western specializations may be interested in this job advert (not posted to PhilJobs): https://www.higheredjobs.com/faculty/details.cfm?JobCode=178514241&Title=Assistant%20Professor%20of%20Humanities

    Reply
  24. CVS

    @search: I’ve been on a few search committees and put that under my service section–I’ve seen other people do it on their CVs, so I figured it was reasonable.

    Reply
  25. Philosomom

    I’m surprised by the discussion here regarding parental leave. I’ve been told never to mention parental leave … what’s the going advice on this? It matters for me, I’ve taken a few. But I’ve heard that it will make a committee see you as a mom more than a philosopher, as ‘not committed to philosophy’. Like you won’t be as productive or involved and it’s better to just let them pretend you are childless until after you are hired.
    Maybe the advice has changed? Maybe attitudes have changed? I hope so.

    Reply
  26. Pomelo

    Looking at the Simon Fraser post – what do you all take “empirically informed philosophy of language” to be like?

    Reply
  27. some anon

    @Pomelo I feel like the best test for whether you are a fit for that position is to check whether any of your work is fit for the journal Mind and Language.

    Reply
  28. Pomelo

    Thanks @Some Anon. That was a great idea.

    Reply
  29. two jobs same place

    If you are applying for two different jobs at the same institution, should you note this in your cover letter?

    Reply
  30. motor city

    @two jobs same place
    Are the two positions within the same department (perhaps with distinct search committees)? Or are they in totally distinct parts of the institution with no overlapping faculty?

    Reply
  31. KT

    I have a couple job applications that ask for a “letter of interest” and then on the file upload it has it uploaded under “Cover Letter.” For a letter of interest, are they looking for traditional cover letter (on letterhead, Dear Members of the Search Committee…”) or is it just a statement of interest without those formalities? Thanks!

    Reply
  32. Philosomom

    KT–I would take that to be simply synonymous with ‘cover letter’.

    Reply
  33. Philosomom

    Question re: different level jobs. If I am going up for tenure and expect to be tenured, but am applying out, do I apply for assistant or associate level positions when a department (say, Pitt) is hiring in both?

    Reply
  34. Steve

    HI all,
    The nature of my research is a bit ecclectic (though always based broadly about ethics); it includes content on disability (both theory and applied) and to the social and political philosophy of space.
    I recognise that most applications are sought in a particular area and will likely want their hire to be able to teach core or foundational philosophical content in some area or other (in my case, surrounding ethics). How do I make my cover letter speak to my capacity in foundational teaching and research when my published papers are quite diverse and targeted, and not on foundational topics.
    Also, and I am assuming lots of people want to know the answer to this, but what makes one person’s application stand out from the rest of the applications? Having never sat on a hiring committee, I am not sure what kinds of thing stand out when going through all the applications.
    Thanks in advance!

    Reply
  35. Mike the Tiger

    Is the LSU, Baton Rouge job (https://philjobs.org/job/show/24086) still open? The ad seems to have been deleted from the HR website and the deadline is in a couple of days.

    Reply
  36. LSU why

    @Mike the Tiger I came on here to ask the same thing. It appears to already be closed. Did anyone happen to see if the HR deadline was a different date from what was listed on Philjobs?

    Reply
  37. not a helpful adjective

    I’m looking at a job ad that makes reference to “critical epistemology.” Is this code for something other than ordinary analytic epistemology?

    Reply
  38. Mike the Tiger

    @LSU why
    I heard from the search committee chair, and he said they took the job down to change it to an open rank position. It should be open next week.

    Reply
  39. sometimes critical

    @nothelpful: I would assume it refers to work on topics such as epistemic injustice, perhaps also standpoint epistemology (although that’s a controversial approach).

    Reply
  40. lnwh grad

    Someone in the reporting thread was saying that Princeton does not do interviews for TT jobs. Does anyone know if this is still the case?

    Reply
  41. Advanced?

    Curious what an “Advanced” Assistant Professor is exactly. See the ad for this job at University of Maryland: https://philjobs.org/job/show/24654

    Reply
  42. Princeton info

    As of a couple of years ago my understanding is that they don’t do first round interviews and go straight to flyouts

    Reply
  43. Clarice Smith

    @Advanced? I think it just means someone who already has a TT assistant professor position, doesn’t yet have tenure, but is close to being up for tenure at their current institution (presumably within the next year or two). And presumably with a strong publication record.

    Reply
  44. Chris

    not helpful: I suspect “critical epistemology” may refer to the epistemology of the Frankfurt school. It isn’t a term used by most contemporary “analytic” social epistemologists (e.g., all the recent work on epistemic injustice) – though obviously there is some common connection/cause with Marxism in both traditions. So who knows.

    Reply
  45. applicant

    Just want to check that I’m understanding application instructions correctly. The below job ad for the Univ of Nebraska-Lincoln appears to be asking only for a CV, teaching portfolio, and writing sample (i.e., no Cover letter, and no research statement). And it seems like the instructions are to attach the writing sample in the slow for a letter of interest. Am I understanding this the same way everyone else is?
    https://philjobs.org/job/show/24178

    Reply
  46. lnwh grad

    @applicant, yes, that was my understanding when I submitted the application. My sense is that all of this is only for the first round of cuts.

    Reply
  47. Confused

    Can anyone help explain to me the difference between a cover letter and a “a personal statement to include research, teaching, and service philosphy (sic)”? If I’m understanding the instructions correctly, Texas A&M requires both, which is the first time I’ve ever seen that. I’m also a bit confused, as I thought that a cover letter should already discuss one’s research, teaching, and service “philosophy” (albeit in truncated form)…
    Here’s the job ad: https://apply.interfolio.com/124532

    Reply
  48. Non-American Applicant

    Could someone explain how responses to two questions on American applications work? The first is ‘are you authorised to work in the USA?’ and the second is ‘do you require visa sponsorship?’. Answering No to the first always makes me uneasy, as if my application will be discarded because of that, but that is the truthful response. Who needs to answer Yes to both questions? I would think that the answers indicate the same thing. Is it, perhaps, for people who have a visa connected to previous job and will need to be sponsored again in the new job? Thanks for any illumination into American bureaucracy.

    Reply
  49. Assc prof

    Confused:
    TAMU’s application requirements are abnormal. So, you should be confused. My guess is that the cover letter is supposed to be very short, whereas the personal statement functions as a long cover letter. Though I’m sure TAMU is overall a good job, I always have hesitations about departments that can’t put together a normal list of required materials.

    Reply
  50. Fellow Non-American

    @Non-American Applicant, as I understand it, the first question asks you for your current status. So the most typical applicants to answer yes to both questions would be non-Americans who currently work in the US in some capacity, but whose work authorization is tied to their current position and would therefore require sponsorship for a new position, e.g. people on F1, J1, or H1B visas. By contrast, applicants who don’t currently have authorization to work in America would answer No, Yes and citizens and permanent residents would answer Yes, No.
    I doubt that applications get tossed out on the basis of these answers. In fact, hiring committees probably don’t even look at them. Most likely, the information is just used by HR to initiate the right hiring paperwork should you be hired.

    Reply
  51. Non-American Applicant

    @Fellow Non-American, Thanks for the response. That’s helpful. I normally wouldn’t think that applications get tossed for such a reason, but the lack of any repsonse at all on the part of many hiring committees does make me wonder.

    Reply
  52. First-Timer

    Hi everyone, I’m a first-timer on the market this year. How common is it for TT jobs to open, say, in January or February of the job cycle? From the reporting threads last year I saw that SUNY Oswego had a position open later in the season, i.e., mid-January. Is this pretty typical?
    One other question: From last year’s reporting thread, it looks like most first round interviews are done over zoom. Are there any interviews still done at the APA? I know that practice is dying, but I curious whether it still happens sometimes.
    Thanks in advance!

    Reply
  53. Inside Knowledge

    @First-Timer: In the Fall run (October to January), most of the jobs are TT/senior hires, with some visiting jobs and postdocs mixed in. That proportion changes significantly in the second half of the cycle (January to April), where the majority of the jobs are visiting/postdoc and few tenure track jobs are in the mix.
    Remember, this is a dynamic process. Granted, some people who are hired TT will be hired out of grad school (viz., have never held a full-time teaching position before). But the majority of the open TT positions will be filled by people currently holding full-time positions at other institutions. When those people give their notice to their employer, then the institution will need to re-hire someone else in those teaching areas. Sometimes they hire someone on a Lecturer/VAP line to replace a TT line and just run a search the following Fall; but if the department is lucky enough to keep the line, then some will run ‘late’ tenure-track searches in the Spring. The trick is just to be in a chair by the time the music ends.
    As for APA interviews: very few. Most everyone gave that up after two big snow storms shut down APA-Eastern—Boston in 2010 (ish?) and later in Savannah in 2018. It used to be standard practice to put your intention to attend the APA in the closing lines of the cover letter. I can’t imagine doing so anymore.

    Reply
  54. core train to College Station?

    Very specific question here. Does anyone happen to have insight into Texas A&M’s spate of ads this fall – three in core, two in history? Did they recently come into some funding for this? I know they just lost Kenny Easwaran (and Nathan Howard, who worked in normative ethics, before that), but maybe I’m missing other factors that would explain all of these lines.
    I’m curious about having so many positions advertised specifically in core and history (and disappointed as someone who works in ethics and would be especially interested in jobs at A&M). It’s also somewhat surprising that value theory isn’t among the desired areas given their need for someone who can “contribute to our undergraduate program in Society, Ethics, and the Law.” So a second more general question is whether that desideratum might help make it appropriate for someone working in ethics to apply for a position in core “broadly construed.” Here’s that core ad: https://philjobs.org/job/show/24518

    Reply
  55. newly tt

    I think if one is an ethicist working firmly in an analytic mode, it would be worth e-mailing the contact person in that TA&M ad.

    Reply
  56. SLAC Prof

    @ core train to College Station
    I have no special inside scoop into Texas A&M’s searches, but it’s pretty clear from their ad that they are not seeing an ethicist. And if you take a quick look at their department, you can see why (they already have a number of people in value theory, broadly conceived).
    You can’t win if you don’t play, and all that. I get that. And I also get that people running a search are in a privileged position in comparison to people who are searching for a job. But we, collectively, may want to keep in mind how much work it is to be a search Chair, and every email that needs to be read and answered and every candidate who doesn’t fit the position takes time to deal with. This is time that is taken away from other things, including teaching, research, carefully assessing the other candidates, and basic self care.
    I know it is very challenging to be a job candidate, but it is also hard to be a search chair. It would be good to try to remember that search chairs are people too, and they don’t have unlimited time and resources.

    Reply
  57. postclock

    general postdoc question –
    i am thinking of using two referees that are not part of my dissertation committee. these are relationships i formed in the two years following my defense and whose work speaks more immediately to the present direction of my work. my hope is that such references will testify to my ability to advance as a scholar and form new connections. however, i also worry not using a supervisor or dissertation committee member might raise a red flag.
    thoughts?

    Reply
  58. sahpa

    postclock,
    Can you not just use the two references you’ve acquired since finishing your PhD, plus your dissertation supervisor? I do not see the issue. Generally, ‘outside’ references — those not from your PhD institution — have a higher currency, since they can be expected to be less personally invested in your career success. They would almost certainly carry more weight than someone who was on your dissertation committee but wasn’t supervising you. If/since your PhD is relatively recent, though, having your supervisor be one of the references is probably a good idea. If you have no one from your dissertation committee writing you a letter, yeah, that might raise some red flags.
    So I’d advise going with your supervisor, plus the two ‘outsiders’.

    Reply
  59. so many docs

    When applications ask for a “personal statement that includes research, teaching, and service philosophy”, is it permissible to just put a short version of one’s research and teaching statements one after the other, and add a paragraph on service? Or does this need to show a more holistic effort to integrate the three?

    Reply
  60. serving in the name of

    @so many docs, I assume you are applying to Texas A&M, no? I’ve never been asked for a statement of “service philosophy” before submitting my application there, and this is year six on the job market for me.
    Anyway, what I did was give them my research statement and teaching statement unedited, plus I wrote a “service philosophy” that was basically just a narrative of the service sections of my CV and some reflections on what I take myself to be doing when “serving.” That document came out to about 3/4s of a page single-spaced. Then I merged these three documents together into one document.
    I’d be curious as to what others did to satisfy this strange document request, too.

    Reply
  61. Dan

    First time i see this: for this job applications candidates should submit an anonymised writing sample, CV and cover letter.
    How is that even possible (especially for the CV and cover letter)?

    Reply
  62. Anonymizing

    @Dan – I think your meant to write “[REDACTED]” on your CV and writing sample docs anywhere that your name (including self-references to published works), your contact info (assuming it’s in the online application already, this isn’t a big deal), and other self-identifiers may occur, which may include indirect references to your gender, race, ethnicity, etc. Usually, the application is somewhat explicit about how much of this to redact for their purposes. So, if you have time to spare, it’s probably best to hit up the contact person listed on the job ad.

    Reply
  63. gotta be a misunderstanding

    Where is this job ad? My guess would be that only the writing sample is to be anonymized. Anonymizing a CV or letter is beyond ridiculous, so that’s what I would hope, anyway.

    Reply
  64. first time

    First time on the US job market! How long does it typically take, roughly, to hear back at the first stage?

    Reply
  65. Anon on anon

    The ad also says “Applications will be de-anonymised following the short-listing process.” So I take it the whole thing should be anonymized. It just means taking out your name, the name of your university, and perhaps the name of your advisor. Presumably there would be enough clues that someone could figure out who you are, but I don’t expect the committee will do that (what would be the point of violating a sanction nobody asked you to impose on yourself?).
    I think this is a fantastic approach! I would love to see the data on how many candidates from non-elite schools get short-listed (vs the usual pool). I guess it could be a misunderstanding, but I hope not. I wish more schools would do this. It would help address the notable class barrier in academia.

    Reply
  66. SLAC Associate

    @first time: For schools with application deadlines around Nov. 1, the committee will probably spend November reading apps and will draw up their short lists in early December. Contacting candidates in the second half of December for a late December or early January first-round interview is typical.

    Reply
  67. gotta be a misunderstanding

    Anon on anon … well, I think it’s bizarre, if those are the requirements, and almost impossible to navigate. I suppose one could keep the cover letter extremely short and redact the whole top portion of the CV, and then the basis is just the writing sample and publications? That is, why stop at PhD granting institution, or current institution, if one is employed? Should one also not include the date of the PhD? Or one’s earlier degrees and their institutions? What about job status, or clues to one’s age? But that’s also strange, because 2 great publications prior to earning a PhD is worlds better than 2 great publications 15 years post-PhD.
    FWIW I would presume “anonymizing” a CV only means removing my name, not my institutions or degrees, for the above reasons. In any case, it’s extremely silly. The burden on the applicants and the inevitable unevenness of implementation outweighs any potential benefit.

    Reply
  68. ItalianScallion

    The job ads for Pitt don’t mention cover letters or anything like them. Is the standard practice to include one anyway?

    Reply
  69. Inside Knowledge

    @ItalianScallion: Yes, generally. However, for most Leiterific programs, the cover letter usually is not expected to be substantive. They’re more concerned about pedigree, pubs, and the writing sample.
    Keep the letter simple: just state the position you’re applying for, the materials included, and your contact information. All the rest they can glean from the other materials.

    Reply
  70. Don’t get fooled again!

    Re Oswego:
    Didn’t they run this exact search last winter? Compare
    https://philjobs.org/job/show/24714
    and
    https://philjobs.org/job/show/22717
    Does anyone know what happened last year? Was it a lack of candidates they liked, or something else?

    Reply
  71. Red Flags

    Is it generally considered a red flag if a department posts an identical job ad again from last season?
    The ones I’m seeing are from very attractive universities in exciting cities with AOS/AOCs that are specific (not open) and in high enough demand that it’s hard to imagine why/how they couldn’t fill them.
    Is this another way that employers “fish” for talent? (This is a little more obvious with annual open-rank, open-AOS/AOC ads like USC’s.) Or, is it fairly common for universities to post ads without knowing for sure that they have the funding secured to make the hire?

    Reply
  72. Ghosted

    Has anybody been ghosted by former recommenders before? I’m talking about people who haven’t replied for > 4 months about updating a letter, or to follow-ups from dept admin about the matter. Why would that happen? Isn’t it on them to say something if they don’t want to recommend you anymore?

    Reply
  73. ghostly anon

    If you really wanted to try emailing a third person as a final attempt, you could try the chair of the person who’s ghosting you, or the director of graduate studies, or placement director, if you have one of those. And I’d recommend framing it at least partly in terms of concern: “Is this person ok? Haven’t heard from them in a while!”.
    I was ghosted by a letter writer once. They wrote/updated for me for a couple years in a row, then stopped replying. I just didn’t bother pursuing it, since I had enough other enthusiastic recommenders.
    (What’s really “on them” is a complicated blend of job responsibilities, institutional culture, personal idiosyncrasy, etc., although it would certainly be better if this didn’t happen.)

    Reply
  74. confused again

    Cocoran asks for a “Cover letter describing your (1) research agenda, (2) teaching experience and (3) your contributions to the Department and University.”
    If I combine my research and teaching statements, and add material on service, the resulting document seems too long to be a cover letter (even if I shorten the material for this purpose). What are others doing? Just a paragraph on each? Or a shortened version of research and teaching statements that are a page or more each?

    Reply
  75. not confused anymore

    confused again
    Yes, just write a paragraph on each. The cover letter, if read first, will tell people if your file is even worth looking at. Pick the highlights.

    Reply
  76. Confused about Sheffield anon requirements?

    Has anyone emailed the contact person at Sheffield about the breadth of the anon requirements and got a response?

    Reply
  77. First-timer

    Curious about whether folks have advice about sending an updated CV after one had applied for a position, e.g., after one has a paper accepted or other relevant information for committees.

    Reply
  78. More CV drafts after interviews only (I think)

    @First-timer, I only send updated CVs to search committees after I’ve been interviewed, i.e., if I’m a first-round or second-round finalist for a job and I get significant publication news.
    My thinking is that search committees are overwhelmed, and that my initial application materials are, upon submission, what I’m committing myself to giving them for their initial assessment. But in subsequent rounds, I take it that the applicant pack is far narrower and significant changes to my CV (e.g., significant publication acceptances) are something they’d want to know about to do their jobs.
    I’d be curious to read other thoughts or opinions, though.

    Reply
  79. jobmarketvet

    @Red Flags. I wouldn’t necessarily interpret it that way. I can think of one case where I’m pretty sure a great job advertised last year and again this year was offered to a very in-demand candidate. That person ended up going elsewhere. If that decision dragged out into April or May (this I have no idea about), then the department on the losing end of that sweepstakes might have felt they were better off trying the same search again this year than going back to their shortlist (and it’s possible everyone on their shortlist was already committed to another job at that point).

    Reply
  80. r1 search committee member

    @First-timer as a member of some search committees I would say do it if it is a paper acceptance, especially if you have zero or few publications to begin with, or if you have a fair number but the journal is higher prestige than the ones you have. I’m not sure I would do it for anything else (except a large grant or something like that, so long as it didn’t interfere with your ability to start the job, or a very prestigious prize). I think this stuff can really make a difference sometimes in the first round, so while I get “More CV…”‘s reasoning, I think if you think it might materially affect you, it might be worth sending an update!

    Reply
  81. Clarinet

    I am on the market for the first time. I am trying to plan some international travel for May, but I do not want it to conflict with possible flyouts, campus visits, etc. I have the sense that a May campus visit would be quite late, but I don’t know if it would be like absolutely-unheard-of late or just somewhat unusual.
    Is there anything to worry about here? Also, is there somewhere on this blog or elsewhere where folks have discussed (or collected data on) typical and outlier timelines for being invited to interview or visit campus? Would love a link.

    Reply
  82. Daniel Weltman

    @Clarinet: When I went on the market in 2018, I got two flyouts. One was around April 8th and the other was around May 16th-17th. These were both relatively late, I think, because they were at international universities, and for various reasons we tend to look to get people near the end of the hiring cycle for permanent faculty. But I would imagine some American universities might have late flyouts too. And perhaps you are open to working at an international university. So, unfortunately, yes, it’s possible that you could be lucky/unlucky enough to have a flyout that late.

    Reply
  83. last time

    First-timer
    It used to be easier to send updated c.v.s and it was sensible as well, as someone above noted. Especially for early career people, it may make a huge difference, ensuring that your file gets a second look. But, these days, where HR departments are mediating searches, it may be impossible. They may work with the assumption that what you have at the time of application is all that matters in the decision masking (and they may block departments from consider other things). The academic job market has become quite bureaucratic the last decade, at least at state schools.

    Reply
  84. Ask and Ye Shall Receive, Partially

    First-timer,
    I have done this twice in the past, successfully. It didn’t get me an interview either time, but it was allowed.

    Reply
  85. SLAC Prof

    @First-timer, I think you should follow the good advice offered above to wait to send an updated CV until after/if you get a first-round interview.
    It would be good to think about what you would like to happen here and whether your expectations are reasonable. I take it you would like the search chair to update your file, i.e., remove your old CV and replace it with your new CV. Except that at every place I’ve worked, search committees can’t actually update your file on Interfolio in this manner. So would you like the search chair to send an email to every other member of the search committee with your updated CV? And what would you like them to do with this? Keep it next to their computers? Write a note to themselves to make sure to read First-Timer’s updated CV when they get to them in the queue? Or if they’ve already assessed your file, go back and reread it with the new CV in mind? And should the search committee do the same with all the other applicants who also write with an updated CV? Given that each search I’ve been on has had between 100-700 applicants and maybe 25% of these candidates will have updates to their CV between the time of submission and interview, do you understand how much time the search committee will spend doing the work of collating and organizing the updated CVs and rereading files?
    As I’ve written before, I understand the incredible stress and strain job candidates are under. I really do. And I do my best to be cheerful and charitable with applicants. But it would be nice if candidates thought more about the fact that the people on the other end of the search process are actually people with lots of things on their plate, and the more time committee members spend on this sort of thing, the less time they can actually devote to things like carefully reading the files.

    Reply
  86. First Time Application

    still no word from UCL? Is it usual that UK SCs would take this long for their searches? Asking because I am not sure on the differences in US/UK practices!

    Reply
  87. Recently Hired

    @SLACProf seems to assume that job candidates are way more familiar with the inside workings of job searches than many probably are. While overall the considerations @SLACProf brings up are helpful, I don’t think it’s at all fair to insinuate that First-Timer’s question is suggestive of a failure to see search committee members as “actually people”. If @SLACProf wants to be “cheerful and charitable with applicants”, they should try a little harder to actually empathize with the perspective of grad students, many of whom won’t have gone through this process before (which is why they turn to this thread with their questions).

    Reply
  88. Also applied for UCL

    @First Time Application: I don’t think it’s very unusual for UK universities to take this long. Keep in mind there’s no first-round interviews in the UK, online on-campus interviews with shortlisted candidates. Also UCL was clearly not in a rush (in terms of time until start date) and has multiple searches at once.

    Reply
  89. lnwh grad

    @First Time Application and Also applied for UCL, There are apparently way too many applications for UCL and shortlisting will take several weeks. There is no estimation as to when they would be done.

    Reply
  90. SLAC Prof

    @Recently Hired
    I’ve shared my perspectives here precisely to help candidates who, likely due to their lack of experience and mentorship, may not think about these matters.
    Candidates self-sabotage in strange ways on the regular; my hope is that my comments would give job seekers insight into (one perspective on) what the search process is like from the other side.

    Reply
  91. Kate Norlock

    @Clarinet, how long will you be gone? I have been on over a dozen search committees and we have never skipped interviewing of a candidate simply because they were traveling. If someone wants to hire you, they will probably wait a week if you say you’re out of touch during certain days. I could be wrong and maybe there’s a school where they’re allowed to radically modify their list of interviewees on the basis of travel (!) but anyone following a minimally decent process should understand travel in May. Unless you’re planning to be completely off the grid, go ahead and travel. One must live.

    Reply
  92. Sad ABD

    How do I know if letters have been pulled from an application? I use Interfolio dossier delivery also for non-interfolio hosted positions.

    Reply
  93. letters

    Sad ABD it will show up in your deliveries or, if you have it set up to notify you, you will receive an email notification.

    Reply
  94. Sad ABD

    @Letters, my deliveries on interfolio just say “Sent.” I did receive emails from interfolio saying that the letters were successfully sent, but I thought that having the letters “pulled” meant that you somehow know that someone is reading them. Am I wrong about that?

    Reply
  95. Apps

    @Confused about Sheffield anon requirements? I haven’t contacted them but just found this on their website.
    In our Department, we practise anonymous shortlisting. Please submit a writing sample, CV and cover letter, all of which should be anonymised. These should not contain your name, email address or gender; other information is acceptable.

    Reply
  96. Not confused anymore

    @Apps, thanks for that — I wish they had put that in the ad explicitly!

    Reply
  97. PD

    @Sad ABD
    There’s a broad sense of having your letters “pulled” which basically just means that Interfolio sent them to the institution in question. Sometimes you’ll notice that almost as soon as you apply for a job, you get emails from Interfolio saying that they’ve received a request to send letters and then more emails confirming when the letters have been sent. In those cases, the system automatically “pulls” your letters. But the normal context in which someone on here might report having letters “pulled” is when there’s a gap between submitting the application and getting those emails from Interfolio. The reason is that at least sometimes this indicates that the hiring committee liked your application enough to request to see your letters. It’s hard to tell from this side of things, though. It could just be a delay in the system. But sometimes the job ad may say that letters will be requested at some later stage, so if your letters get pulled later, it means that you’ve made it past some initial cut.

    Reply
  98. Sad ABD

    @PD Thank you, that was super helpful. I guess I haven’t had any applications where they didn’t already ask for letters from the beginning, and so when I asked interfolio to deliver them I almost immediately got confirmations.

    Reply
  99. Job market question

    Sorry if this is an obvious question but does Interfolio support sending letters to jobs that use their own submission platforms rather than using Interfolio? A number of jobs that I applied for have their own portals and I’m worried that Interfolio only supports sending letters to jobs that use interfolio as the submission portal.
    I’m paranoid because there is no record that the letters were sent on Interfolio (and the application portals do not specify if a letter has been received or not).

    Reply
  100. It does!

    @Job market question, It absolutely does. I would say that’s their real important function. The way to do this as follows:
    1. Log in to your profile
    2. Click Letters on the left
    3. Look at any one of your letters and click ‘View details’ on the left.
    4. Once you scroll down the text on the left of the screen, you’ll see ‘Document e-mail’
    5. You can use that e-mail to send the letter to any portal you want, including ones that ask the letters to be sent to an e-mail rather than sent through a portal (You can do that through Deliveries tab on the left).
    Hope this helps!

    Reply
  101. Re job market question

    Thank you so much, this is very helpful!

    Reply
  102. Add that to the list I guess?

    Am I missing something, or did the Brandeis value theory job app open today (11/15), with a ‘first consideration’ deadline of two weeks ago (11/1)?

    Reply
  103. my guess

    @Add that, when that happens, my assumption is that the place is making an inside hire and posting a job ad that is mandated by their institution in the hiring process, but when no duration for the ad is mandated. I have no insider info about Brandeis, but that was my assumption.
    Another possibility is that something funky is happening with the posts at HigherEdJobs.

    Reply
  104. East Coaster

    @Add: If it was this job, https://philjobs.org/job/show/24726, that was created Oct 2 I think?

    Reply
  105. sahpa

    @Add that,
    I applied several weeks ago for a tt job at Brandeis in value theory with a deadline of 1 Nov, so I doubt the ad you’re seeing really only opened on the 15th — must just be a glitch.

    Reply
  106. richard

    what, if anything, can I infer from my website being viewed a bunch in the past couple of days from a city where there’s a university with a job I applied for?

    Reply
  107. somanyfalsepositives

    Richard, friend, take it from me, now a veteran in the job market, don’t let the hits get your hopes up. Nov-Feb is already such a roller coaster of emotions, you do not need to add to it
    I have had hits which then materialized into emails and interviews, I have also had many hits that did not. Already in this job cycle, I had many hits over three days from the same institution and found out from this very blog that I didn’t get the zoom interview. It feels worse that they clearly took a look at me but then decided “Nah”.

    Reply
  108. sahpa

    Richard,
    Do what I do – never learn how to enable/view traffic stats for your professional website in the first place, so you cannot be stressed about such things 🙂

    Reply
  109. the depersonalization of the job market

    i tend to forget the jobs i applied for at the minute i close the window. so when i see hits on my philpeople page, i often struggle to associate location with job. i highly recommend this method of ‘setting and forgetting’. people give the advice again and again that the market isn’t ‘personal’ and so try to invest as little as possible in these applications. they are mere abstractions!
    far more interesting to me are the hits and downloads i’m getting in china (where i haven’t applied to anything). i want to talk to fellow philosophers and know what led them to my work and what they think!

    Reply
  110. SFU?

    Did anyone who applied to the University of San Francisco get an email from a different address than the one listed in the job ad asking for materials? I can’t tell whether this is a weird sort of scam or whether they listed their email address incorrectly in the Philjobs ad.

    Reply
  111. richard

    @sfu? I applied for the gig, no emails as of yet. Could be I’m SOL, or you could be getting scammed. Maybe contact the point person on the ad?

    Reply
  112. Question

    Some interview requests and rejections have gone out for a job that I applied for but I haven’t heard anything yet. Does anyone know if committees make all their interview requests at once, or is this something that varies too much by institution/ committee to make a generalization about? I was trying to gauge the chances that I’m still in the running for the job. Thank you in advance for any insight on this question!

    Reply
  113. Least Boaster

    @Question: Although there are exceptions, my sense is that philosophy jobs rarely make it past the initial list. (Again: there are exceptions!) I have received my fair share of both interviews and first-round rejections, and I don’t think I have ever received an interview substantially after seeing a notice of an interview here (read: more than a day or two). By contrast, in some fields, I think that is relatively common. Just some anecdata…

    Reply
  114. Tentative Answer

    @Question
    In my experience, all interview requests go out at once. This doesn’t mean that they might not later ask for more, but I would have very low credence in this possibility.
    I would say it never hurts to dream, but I think it might be good to focus on your other opportunities at this point!

    Reply
  115. Clarity about Websites

    @Richard’s question makes me wonder: how do search committees use websites?
    Is it:
    (A) when they have a file in front of them, and when it is easier to look to the webpage rather than go through all documents of the file? Do SC members have all parts of the file in front of them when considering applications?
    (B) when they see something they like at an initial gloss of a CV or Cover Letter, and so, look for more on the webpage because a certain candidate has peaked their interest in one way or another?
    (C) when they have already knocked out some candidates and are beginning to look more closely at one’s who have made the long list?
    (D) a combination of all three options, where there is so much variance that it is hard to determine precisely when things are used?
    I think having some understanding of this would help those of us on the market with thinking about how exactly to construct our webpages. Especially since we now seem to be encouraged to have both a philpapers presence and a personal webpage.

    Reply
  116. Question answered

    @Least Boaster & @Tentative Answer
    Thank you for your advice on this!

    Reply
  117. Applicant

    Is there news about the Assistant Professor position at Boston University (AOS: Philosophy of Science)? The deadline for applications was on November 1st.

    Reply
  118. Corn

    So if a deadline for application passed more than a month ago, is it safe to assume interview invites are already went out? Nothing about it on the reporting thread but Nebraska’s deadline was October 20th.

    Reply
  119. T

    @Corn No

    Reply
  120. Michel

    Don’t expect the hiring process to be faster than the publication process. They’re run by the same people, except the person in charge hasn’t been selected for the organizational abilities.

    Reply
  121. Still west coast tho

    @SFU? There is currently a search by SFU (Simon Fraser University). Did you send you stuff to the wrong place?

    Reply
  122. Somewhat new SCer

    @Clarity about Websites
    With all the caveat about this sort of thing varying from person to person, this is what would cause me to want to see someone’s website:
    At the initial stage: only if I have strong reason (by looking at CV and reference letters) to believe that the file has undersold the candidate. Most commonly this is when a candidate sends in a writing sample that isn’t good but I understand why they chose it. Maybe it’s in the wrong AOS but it’s published, whereas the candidate’s more recent correct-AOS piece is still a draft. Maybe it’s one that’s squarely in the AOS but is too exploratory, whereas the candidate has another piece that we would count as falling under the AOS that is stronger. If the candidate is truly promising in all other areas, I will track down another paper to skim through. I only do this with people I’m leaning towards a “no” but want to be sure. I don’t look at people who are clearly “yes”.
    Around interview time: I spend a lot of time looking at the candidate(s) I favor so I can find reasons to defend them to my colleagues. There’s really no rule for what I look for here because it depends on what others have expressed as worrying points of this candidate. It might be teaching breadth, research breadth, productivity, etc. I sometimes look at other candidates if a colleague mentions something there that piques my interest and I might switch camp, so to speak, as a result.
    To answer your original questions: it is always easier (for me at least) to look at the file in front of me rather than the website because websites differ so drastically much and it takes a lot of cognitive effort to know where to find what information. Also, since there is almost always more information in the file than on the website, I only look at websites if I can’t find what I need from the file, which means I have read the entire file very carefully already.
    What to put on your website: drafts of papers, please. Works in progress especially, if you are proud of them. Preferably also downloadable preprints if you didn’t publish open access (yes I can access non-open-access papers but that requires logging into my library account). There are other things that may be helpful (such as a gloss of your research program or innovative teaching ideas) but I think WiP drafts are a must.

    Reply
  123. news to me

    Somewhat new SCer: I always assumed having work-in-progress drafts directly available on one’s website to be ruled out if we want to maintain some anonymity in the peer-review process? This is most likely stuff under review or near submission…

    Reply
  124. Also Lone Star

    Moving this here from the reporting blog- @disjunctive syllogism Do you know any details for the Lone Star job? The posting says almost nothing. I asked the HR person I spoke to about the interview and she couldn’t even confirm that it starts in Spring (which I think is correct)

    Reply
  125. Disjunctive Syllogism

    @Also Lone Star:
    My understanding is that it is a 5/5 position continuing contract teaching position (although, from friends who teach down there I’m told that one can split it 4/4/2 with summer teaching). And also, I do believe that it is a Spring start. If you look at the very bottom of the ad on Phil Jobs (here: https://philjobs.org/job/show/24922) there is a comment about agreeing to following the APA calendar which indicates this.
    It does not surprise me that the HR folk don’t know what’s going on. At a CC, they are responsible to handle the compliance stuff. They hire faculty to cover classes from literature to welding (and much in-between). When you talk to the search committee, they will be able to tell you more about the specifics of the position.

    Reply
  126. Lady Detective

    How often do people use pronouns (she/her, etc,) on their CV and/or cover letter for job apps?
    I realize I failed to do so for the applications I have sent out–and I was thinking about doing that for any upcoming ones.
    Will that give more information than search committees need, at this stage, at least?
    Thanks for your thoughts!
    Lady Detective

    Reply
  127. Somewhat new SCer

    @Lady Detective Not very common. But also, pronouns can often be found in ref letters.

    Reply
  128. unsure

    Thoughts on emailing a school if you haven’t heard back from them 3 months after the application due date to politely ask for the status of your application and express interest in the position?

    Reply
  129. sahpa

    I have a question of fit for the recently posted TT position at Rochester: https://sjobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Search/home/HomeWithPreLoad?partnerid=25483&siteid=5291&PageType=JobDetails&jobid=1567575
    They say they want someone in ‘philosophy of AI and/or philosophy of cognitive science’. My research is in AI ethics and nearby stuff – so not so much on the theoretical side of computing/AI. I’m wondering if people can tell from this ad which kind of ‘philosopher of AI’ they’re looking for?

    Reply
  130. ask a chair

    sahpa
    Just write the chair of tehs earch committee and ask. Otherwsie you will just get a bunch of guesses from other who do not know more than you know.

    Reply
  131. whatever

    I wonder – has any one landed on a helpful heuristic for determining when it looks like an advertised job is basically set up to be an inside higher?

    Reply
  132. zoom interview question

    post zoom interviews, is it costumery to to send a thank you note reiterating interest in the job, or am I overthinking this?

    Reply
  133. Thanks!

    @zoom – My sense is that 1) it is customary but 2) unless there is something very specific to follow-up on (eg, the interview touched on a topic, and you have a work in progress to provide), they really don’t much matter.

    Reply
  134. my impression

    @zoom I think some people follow up after a zoom interview but it’s less common, whereas more/most people follow up with a note of thanks after a campus visit

    Reply
  135. Kudos to UMD!

    Just wanted to share how much I appreciated UMD College Park sending out a prompt update to longlisted candidates saying, in effect, “You weren’t short-listed for a campus visit, but are still in consideration if our first picks don’t work out.”
    This is very helpful info, made me think very positively of their department, and I encourage other search committees to follow this good practice!

    Reply
  136. stackin’ em!

    last paragraph of the cu boulder PFO is wild. y’all tenured old heads are way out of touch with the pull up your bootstraps lines.

    Reply
  137. bootraps

    @stackin’em! can you share what they said?

    Reply
  138. DelaWHAT?

    There was a recent job posting for a TT job at Delaware STate with pretty broad AOS–looking for someone to teach intro, ethics, bioethics, ancient. But, the posting, nor the job application itself, indicates what materials are needed. I tried contacting the school with no luck. Anyone have any idea on what the deal is?
    Posting:
    https://www.schooljobs.com/careers/desu/jobs/4295161/assistant-professor-of-philosophy?keywords=philosophy&pagetype=jobOpportunitiesJobs

    Reply
  139. what does it all meeeean

    This was asked on the reporting thread but maybe it can be discussed here: what do you make of cases where you get neither a PFO (when others do) nor an interview request? Am I being ghosted? Am I on a backup list? Is there any reason to worry that emails aren’t getting to me?
    also I too am curious what the CU boulder paragraph said!

    Reply
  140. anon

    @What does…
    Here’s the paragraph:
    “My own experience, based on over three decades in the profession, is that the only way to combat the misery of seeking a job in philosophy is to keep working doggedly and persistently in developing an attractive scholarly profile, while being prepared to wait patiently, over the course of years if necessary, until the right job comes along. Although the odds of success in any single search are dismal, you need to succeed only once to find yourself launched on a fruitful career.”
    Personally, this seems fine to me.

    Reply
  141. bootstraps!!

    Not the OP, but this was the last paragraph in the CU Boulder PFO:
    “My own experience, based on over three decades in the profession, is that the only way to combat the misery of seeking a job in philosophy is to keep working doggedly and persistently in developing an attractive scholarly profile, while being prepared to wait patiently, over the course of years if necessary, until the right job comes along. Although the odds of success in any single search are dismal, you need to succeed only once to find yourself launched on a fruitful career.”
    I was surprised to see positive comments about it on the reporting thread! I found it incredibly tone deaf and condescending. It may be that people who haven’t been on the market for as long as I have were less turned off by it?
    In any case, search committees: Don’t do this.

    Reply
  142. It’s Easy to be Zententious About Strangers’ Disappoinmtents

    “over the course of years if necessary”
    That definitely sounds like someone from a bygone age, where several years on the market pre-TT was regarded as a long time. Even pre-2020 was a very different job market and those who got a TT job market in it should be wary about unsolicited advice, especially in these contexts.

    Reply
  143. Not very helpful but somewhat of an answer

    @whatever, there is no great way to tell. But it can sometimes be helpful/can provide hints to see if there is a postdoc or VAP in the department whose area is exactly in AOS for the advertised position. In some cases, the postdoc is postdoc-TT, or departments can convert a VAP position. In these cases, however, the only way to know is to have inside information.

    Reply
  144. Job Market Support Group

    Hi all, I’m thinking of setting up Zoom chats for all of us on the market (especially those of us having a tough time with it) to get together, commiserate, support each other, talk about our experiences, and maybe just rant without judgment.
    I know quite a few people feel alone in this and don’t really have anyone to talk to during this time.
    So anyone interested in joining one of these Zoom chats at some point, email 2324philos@gmail.com and I’ll shortly send out a poll to find the best meeting time.

    Reply
  145. anon

    Putting this in discussion so as not to clutter up the reporting thread.
    I’d like to gently encourage everyone to refrain from posting about skepticism when it comes to the reports that show up in the reporting thread, or at least to put that skepticism in the discussion thread (but really, just better not to post it).
    Having followed this page for several years, I can’t recall any post that actually turned out to be a joke/hoax. But every year I do recall some pointless questions raised about the accuracy of reports. And reporters can get discouraged when they know that they might face some hostile-feeling responses after sharing their news.

    Reply
  146. rice-curious

    I just saw a new appointment at Rice posted on PhilJobs.
    Does anyone know if that person was hired for the position Rice advertised this fall? Or are they filling some other position?

    Reply
  147. Anon

    The rice search is independent of that hire.

    Reply
  148. confused

    I was recently interviewed for a TT position (zoom, first-round) and yesterday, while sharing my experience with a colleague who was also interviewed for the exact same position, we realized the chair of the hiring committee gave us two radically different dates by which she should expect to hear back from them (something like 20 days apart).
    We were interviewed the same day, so I dont understand how the committee’s expectation could be so different.
    I am wondering if, for me, that was a silent rejection, a way of letting me off the hook asap.
    Could the more senior folks around here, especially those who have served in hiring committees, offer some insight?

    Reply
  149. postdoc

    @rice-curious I noticed this too, but I just got an email from philjobs saying the deadline for open rank search at Rice (ethics/philsci/epistemology) was extended to 12/31

    Reply
  150. Continentally Curious

    Question for a niche audience:
    Continental philosophers, how many of you work on topics that would fall more squarely in that camp as it is standardly conceived as opposed to those who, say, attended a Leiter top 25, have analytical training, but work on European figures? I am largely curious because I fall into the latter camp and almost never have success in jobs with ‘Continental Philosophy’ as an AOS, which seem to go to DePaul, Emory, Vanderbilt, Villanova, Stony Brook PhDs far more often than Riverside, Columbia, Chicago, Boston, Indiana ones.
    For example, I’d gather that Kent State is interviewing largely from the former pool, whereas UCR is interviewing from the latter, yet both jobs ask for a similar AOS.

    Reply
  151. The Real SLAC Prof

    @confused: I think the most likely explanation is that the search chair was the one who was confused. Maybe it was a slip of the tongue, or maybe they got pushback from the rest of the committee after offering the date the first time. I think your interpretation is unlikely since it presupposes that they came to a consensus about your candidacy before ending the Zoom call with you.
    If I were you, I would try to resist the temptation to compare notes like this going forward. I don’t see what there is to gain doing this, and you can really make yourself crazy. My friends and I kept such talk to a minimum, and while my curiosity sometimes made that difficult, I think it helped both the process and our friendships.

    Reply
  152. Old School Continental

    @Continentally Curious: I definitely fall into the first camp, but it’s my first year on the market so I can’t speak to success rates.

    Reply
  153. timeline query

    Timeline Query:
    What would y’all say is an average timeline between first-round interviews and fly-out decisions? In one case, the committee told me their approximate timeline, but in other cases they haven’t.
    For interviews that have happened in the past 1-1.5 weeks, does it seem most likely that we wouldn’t have decisions on fly-outs until January, after the holiday break?

    Reply
  154. re: query

    Just to warn you, I think out of the past few years of interviews, I’ve had precisely one (1) committee stick to their stated timeline plans.

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  155. success question

    In everyone’s experience, what constitutes doing well on the market? Approximately how many interviews/flyouts does one need to feel like they are in a safe position/likely to land something?

    Reply
  156. VAP Q

    Are most VAP positions for one year unless otherwise stated in the job ad?

    Reply
  157. VAP Q2

    @VAP Q…I too am wondering about the length of the Mississippi VAP position

    Reply
  158. i quit

    @continentally curious
    i fall into the first camp (did all my postgrad work in europe in very ‘continental’ settings). three years on the market with a book and i can’t even get an interview to a VAP position that specifies phenomenology as teaching AOS. that’s more a lament than useful information, sorry. i have no clue what these positions are looking for.

    Reply
  159. UK Letter

    What are the “covering letter” norms for UK jobs? I’m looking at the cardiff posting that says, “candidates should include a covering letter explaining and evidencing the strength of their candidacy for this post and detailing their plans for a strong submission to the next Research Excellence Framework exercise”

    Reply
  160. re UK Letter

    here’s the REF website
    https://www.ref.ac.uk/about/what-is-the-ref/
    It is as uninformative as it seems. And as someone who just arrived, I only have a very vague idea of what is expected.
    But here’s what I know: you will need good publications, most likely something after 2021. They say quality over quantity, reason is that each person only gets one or two paper nominated to be REFed. They say that journal prestige doesn’t matter, but I’ve been told that referees will be directly or indirectly influenced by journal prestige. (Like, if something is published in Nous, surely I would hesitate to say it’s bad right?) If your work has good influence on other disciplines or governmental policies, it counts as some sort of impact. And there’s a third element that I just didn’t understand. I must have fallen asleep during the meeting or something, but I guess it’s not something we can control ourselves. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.)
    Regarding a cover letter, here’s what I did
    My greeting (I’m applying for…), my AOS, my background, and my awards
    My past research and publication record
    A summary of my research plans and shoehorn some institutional fitness here
    My teaching history
    My proposed teaching
    Other stuff like my services and outreach
    Maybe you should say something about being REFable regarding your pubs or future research plans or impact. But I really think what’s going to happen is that people will just look at you CV and decide whether you are REFable.
    And just an additional note: UK Visa is expensive. UK salary is pathetic. UK living cost is crazy. UK welfare for migrant children under 3 is virtually nonexistent. UK healthcare is not sustainable.

    Reply
  161. UK letter

    Thank you, re UK letter! Did you have to cover the cost of your visa out of pocket?

    Reply
  162. In The Dark

    Is it completely poor form to follow up on an application? I applied for a TT position after the head of the department reached out to me. That was just under a month ago. I did have a couple email exchanges back and forth after that initial reach out. I’m wondering if I could email so see where things are in the process. Is there any point, though?

    Reply
  163. re: dark

    I understand you’d like news, but one month is really early, in my view. I’d wait until well after the break.

    Reply
  164. Don’t reach out

    There is no point in writing, save for one scenario: you have an offer from another department and it would be declined if you could get an offer from the one you’re reaching out to. In all other scenarios, you’re either going to annoy, come off as desperate, or accomplish nothing.

    Reply
  165. re UK letter

    Yes and for a family of 4. I sometimes wonder whether I made a huge mistake remaining in academics, tbh.
    Yet, if you get an offer, negotiate. Remember that in addition to visa application fee, which is cheap in comparison (but in fact already quite outrageous), there is this thing called immigration health surcharge (IHS). It is a form of double taxation: you pay for healthcare when you pay tax, but before that, you also pay for your healthcare when applying for Visa. If your employer doesn’t pay for both, you are basically working for the government in servitude.
    Here’s the idea:
    £624 per year for all other visa and immigration applications [which is you], for example £3,120 for a 5-year visa.
    I personally think that hatred on an institutional level towards migrants here have gone out of control, and I think this just reflects the dispositions of the electorates. They seem to blame all their misery on migrants and COVID, where COVID is also probably due to migrants…and the brilliant plan they have is to put more pressure on migrants, e.g. nurse and caseworkers can no longer bring family. Just imagine what implications this would have on an already overwhelmed healthcare system.

    Reply
  166. Still in the Dark (but it’s okay)

    Thanks @Don’t and @re: I know all this? But I needed to hear it!

    Reply
  167. olemissVAPplicant

    @VAP Q2 I believe the Mississippi VAP is for 9 months (based on the job ad). I don’t know about the possibility of renewal.

    Reply
  168. Molly

    @Continentally Curious
    The UC Riverside ad uses the term “European Philosophy.” This is usually code for the second camp. You’ll find that past ads for hires at places like NYU and Yale and other “Leiter” or “Analytic’ departments use this term to mean, loosely, ‘we want someone who works on figures in 20th Century ‘Continental’ Tradition but who are trained in ‘analytic’ or other historical methods of philosophy.” When ad specifies “Continental Philosophy,” this is usually code for the first camp: they want someone who was trained at one of the 10 or so Continental PhD programs.

    Reply
  169. Limbo king

    I was wondering if anyone has an insight as to what happens if a university sent both rejections and flyout requests, but one has not heard one way or another. I am in this situation for multiple positions and trying to assess how hopeful one can rationally be that something good can still come out of these applications.

    Reply
  170. L&C

    @Limbo king, I know of at least one school hiring this year that didn’t send PFO’s to all of the people they meant to because they messed up somehow. Unfortunately, I think being in limbo usually means the search committee is sloppy and careless in contacting everyone they’ve ruled out.

    Reply
  171. L&C

    @Limbo king, I know of at least one school hiring this year that didn’t send PFO’s to all of the people they meant to because they messed up somehow. Unfortunately, I think being in limbo usually means the search committee is sloppy and careless in contacting everyone they’ve ruled out.

    Reply
  172. L&C

    @Limbo king, I know of at least one school hiring this year that didn’t send PFO’s to all of the people they meant to because they messed up somehow. Unfortunately, I think being in limbo usually means the search committee is sloppy and careless in contacting everyone they’ve ruled out.

    Reply
  173. Australia

    How do Australian job searches work? Do they do flyouts? Do they do first-round interviews like in the U.S., or skip them like in the UK?

    Reply
  174. Confused

    I am a bit ignorant about the norms here but I’ve had two different people reaching out to me to “encourage” or “invite” me to apply to a job in September but it seems (from the reporting thread) that both jobs have moved to interviews/fly outs. What’s the purpose of encouraging someone to apply exactly? Not complaining or anything, just wondering.

    Reply
  175. Someone

    @Confused, happened to me too.

    Reply
  176. hiring committee member

    @Confused as someone who has encouraged people to apply to jobs in my own department before (though I always issue a disclaimer), I don’t think one should ever read it as a guaranteed interview. Often times, it is one member of a hiring committee who likes your work or knows of you, or has simply heard of you. But then when it is time to review files, your file is just compared to everyone else’s in the normal fashion–the other committee members might not love your work, or it may turn out that even the person who asked you to apply isn’t as excited as they thought they were, or you may have a not-great letter in your file that tanks you. In general, I think the range of things an invitation to apply indicate go from almost nothing at all (in terms of the bump you will get in likelihood of getting an interview) to near-guarantee, but there is not usually any way to tell from the outside where things lie on the spectrum, so I would just try to treat it like any other job/not get attached.
    Another thing that happens and which I think is much more unfair to candidates is that people who are members of underrepresented groups in philosophy will get invited to apply to increase the diversity of the pool. I’ve seen people (not my colleagues, but other friends’ colleagues) patting themselves on the back for securing such a diverse applicant pool, and then not hiring any of the non-white candidates in that pool. Unfortunately, I suspect that non-white candidates who get invited to apply to jobs probably should be even more suspicious of those invitations.

    Reply
  177. Perplexed

    “I’ve seen people (not my colleagues, but other friends’ colleagues) patting themselves on the back for securing such a diverse applicant pool, and then not hiring any of the non-white candidates in that pool.”
    Why’s this a bad thing? Diversity in pools can be a good thing, from a procedural perspective, even if the winner is white. For example, it’s good to have a diverse ballot even if a white person is elected.

    Reply
  178. hiring committee member

    You’re totally right, I should have been more specific about the issue I think is a bad thing. I think it’s a bad thing when (a) the person wouldn’t have otehrwise applied (they put in time and effort to apply; they, say, already have a tenure track job and weren’t planning to apply to jobs at all that year, so their letter writers also had to update, etc.–work for everyone! and (b) they weren’t going to be taken seriously from the beginning–they were a part of a posturing effort (perhaps they are even given a first round interview, to impress the administration, but were never going to make it past that stage–or perhaps they are even invited to campus as a token minority who was never going to get a job offer). I actually think this combination of things happens quite regularly on the philosophy job market. It’s only this specific sort of thing that I think is pernicious–if the increase in the diversity of the pool leads globally to better results (even if in some particular search the white man wins), it seems good.
    (Though: I’m less convinced that in a philosophy search with a bunch of white people running the search, most of whom have some internalized and sometimes explicit racist stuff going on, that it helps anything to have a diverse pool if the winners just continue to be white. That seems very different from an election where some of the non-white candidates may better represent the specific and explicit interests of non-white citizens.)

    Reply
  179. Confused

    @hiring committee member: Thank you, I will now develop an irrational paranoia about my letters (/s). But seriously, I appreciate the perspective!

    Reply
  180. Canadian R1s

    Do most Canadian research institutions have a 2-2 teaching load unless otherwise specified?
    On a related note, search committees, please include info about teaching loads in your job ads!

    Reply
  181. Ric

    Idea: it’d be nice to have a spreadsheet going where we could collaboratively indicate where universities are at with hiring. Certainly somewhat a chore to maintain, but I like the idea of continuing to streamline the process of seeing where universities are at in the hiring process. Could be a Google Excel sheet where people simply make “edit suggestions” and are approved by the spreadsheet owner(s).
    Part of the appeal for me is that I am appalled by how crappy the treatment is for those of us on the job market. I’m aware that faculty are overworked, that there are zillions of applicants, but I ultimately think it’s inexcusable not to keep applicants abreast of where things are at. Continuing to build our own systems of notification is a meaningful project for me in terms of building community amidst and beyond the crumbling institution.

    Reply
  182. justdoit

    ah yes, more work for the underemployed – things working exactly as they are supposed to!
    jokes aside, it does sound like a nice idea, but you also get the picture.

    Reply
  183. bullet dodged

    PSA for anyone who is considering applying to the New College of Florida Environmental Ethics job that was recently posted.
    https://www.insidehighered.com/news/students/academics/2023/08/16/chaos-reigns-new-college-florida-fall-semester-nears
    https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/22/us/new-college-florida-desantis.html
    [In case the links don’t work or aren’t allowed, just google New College + DeSantis]

    Reply
  184. Candian R1 Prof

    @CanadianR1s — yes, for TT gigs

    Reply
  185. pro-sheet

    I think a spreadsheet sounds like a great idea. @Ric I’m not sure why updating a spreadsheet would be any more “work” than posting on a thread like this. Also, it would be much easier to check a spreadsheet to see the status of a job than search through pages of comments. Also, nobody would be required to contribute. I don’t get @justdoit’s “picture”

    Reply
  186. additional Canadian reply

    I agree with you that more should be in ads, but I’ll also add that you can often find very detailed information about this sort of thing in the faculty collective agreements for Canadian institutions.

    Reply
  187. Confused impostor

    I have just found out that I have a fly out for a super top-tier Leiter school, my PhD is from a school that is firmly 3rd tier Leiter. Is this normal??? Is it ‘horse-trading’??? I am genuinely surprized that such a place would consider me.

    Reply
  188. Curious

    @Confused Impostor, it would be helpful if you could tell us where this fly-out is, in the reporting thread.

    Reply
  189. MU

    For anyone else who interviewed at Memorial University, did they give you any sense of timeline in terms of when we might hear back?

    Reply
  190. you’re not an impostor

    @confused impostor
    I find it unlikely that mere horse trading could get someone an on-campus at a place like that. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think the most likely explanation is that people read your work and think very highly of it. Now, go prepare for that campus visit and let the cards fall where they may.

    Reply
  191. sahpa

    @Confused imposter, I don’t know what you have in mind by ‘horse trading’ – I seriously doubt that your alma mater and that Leiterrific school are doing tit-for-tat if that’s what you’re getting at.
    There are outcomes that don’t track the prestige hierarchy exactly – I personally think people overestimate prestige effects in philosophy – so just be glad for the good news 🙂 and good luck!

    Reply
  192. more memorial

    @MU , I interviewed with Memorial and did not get a sense of when they’ll be moving to finalist interviews from what they said during the interview.
    Judging by their first contact with me, they’ll be doing first-round Webex interviews through early next week, i.e., through Tuesday, 1/16. I’m guessing they’ll meet after that to decide, like maybe sometime later in the week? But who knows.
    (On a related note, what an epic flyout that would be, given their location.)

    Reply
  193. anon

    Question re UK jobs: how much in advance are people typically invited to interviews? As in: how much time between invitation and interview?

    Reply
  194. Timeline

    For North American TT jobs:
    (1) What is a typical timeline for hearing back from a first-round interview?
    (2) How much notice are applicants typically given when invited for campus visits?

    Reply
  195. bushwick bill

    @Timeline, I find there’s a lot of variation. Here are some data points from my experiences in this year’s job cycle:
    (1) I’ve heard back about flyouts as quickly two days after the first-rounder, and as long as about a month or so after. It’s good to have a sense of when their first-round interviews are ending. Also, I always try to make my last question to the committee during the first-round interview the question of when they expect to move to the next round.
    (2) This year, I got a flyout invitation about two months in advance in December, and another flyout invitation exactly four days before I was expected to be on campus. Again, there’s lots of variation here, but in past years, I’ve found it’s usually between two weeks to a month ahead of time.

    Reply
  196. re re UK jobs

    It’s been a while and I lost all my old emails, so this is merely by unreliable memory. I received invitations for uk interviews 6 times over the past 3 years.
    The shortest from invitation to interview was like just over a week. (I think this is reliable, because I thought to myself omg are you serious? and have a preference for on campus? but thankfully also can arrange online) The longest was just over a month.

    Reply
  197. whatever

    I guess I’ll post this here. Is it just me, or did the job market get really stagnant after a seemingly bright start in August? I don’t recall ads coming this slowly to Philjobs ever in the last few years. Even the ones getting posted feature a lot of very niche postdocs or positions in Europe that seem fairly exclusionary. And i am not alone: I’ve got friends who run the gamut from hardcore analytics, to historians, to continentals all noting something similar.
    Can we conclusive say this was a down year?

    Reply
  198. verstiegenheit

    i don’t know if applications sent is an indicator, but last year i sent out 61 total applications (that’s TT, lectureship, postdoc, vap, etc.) and this year so far 66.
    last year two first round interviews and one flyout. this year one first round interview. i do 19th and 20th century continental philosophy and am not analytically trained.

    Reply
  199. some numbers

    There are other ways to carve up the searching, but here’s the PhilJob search results for TT or similar, all areas, checking the “include expired ads” box.
    August 1 2022-January 18 2023: 225
    August 1 2023-January 18 2023: 212

    Reply
  200. typo

    (oops: the second line of numbers should reference January 18 2024)

    Reply
  201. richard

    the interfolio link for a recently posted tulane job (https://www.higheredjobs.com/faculty/details.cfm?JobCode=178665095&Title=Assistant%20Professor%2C%20Assistant%20Director%20of%20Graduate%20Studies%2C%20Master%20of%20Science%20Program%20in%20Bioethics%20and%20Medical%20Humanities) goes to an ‘unavailable’ job. Any insight on this?

    Reply
  202. VAP inquirer

    Do VAPS usually just have one round of interviews over Zoom or do they also do flyouts?

    Reply
  203. vaps

    my impression is that it is usually just a round or two of zoom/phone interviews. i think i may have heard word of a flyout here or there, but that is a lot of money to commit to a job that gets recycled every 1-3 years. given vaps are generally money savers for departments, it seems counter intuitive to fly candidates in.

    Reply
  204. maple leaf

    General question: do canadian universities (often? rarely? never?) do couple hires?

    Reply
  205. re: maple

    Most Canadian universities have publicly posted collective agreements. In those agreements, you can sometimes find a policy surrounding spousal hires. In absence of a policy, there might be an informal practice of doing it, but it depends. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it’s a hard no.

    Reply
  206. BJPS Short Reids

    Hi,
    Where would folk put something like a BJPS Short Reads piece? On the one hand, it is a titled and DOI’d piece. On the other hand, it’s a summary and explanation of your existing research, rather than new ideas.
    Would it go under a heading like Research Promotion? Or as an article?

    Reply
  207. sahpa

    BJPS, I’ve increasingly felt the value of having two ‘publications’ sections on my CV – one is titled something like ‘Research Publications’, and the other is ‘Other Publications’. In the latter, I specify what it is (white paper, blog post, magazine article, or even fiction if say you do aesthetics). Since I put a star next to any and all peer-reviewed publications, these will be clearly shown to not be peer reviewed. That’s an important distinction in its own right, as you probably know. I’d probably put a BJPS short read in ‘Other Publications’, not starred. Unless I just an misunderstanding what it is 🙂

    Reply
  208. ApparentlyBadInterviewee

    ABD candidate here. I’ve received 7 interviews for a mix of positions (lecturer, TT, fellowships), I’ve gotten 3 post-interview rejections so far (I’m pretty sure there are 2 more coming, based on updates in the job market reporting thread from people who received flyout invitations).
    Some of these interviews, I admit, I knew right afterwards that they hadn’t gone well. But there were 2 interviews in particular (one that that resulted in a rejection, and one that there’s a rejection coming for) that I thought went extremely well. The interview in both instances went over the allotted time (not because I was talking too much, but because they kept wanting to talk about my research or comment on the things I was saying to say that they’d, for example, tried a similar teaching method that went really well or that a proposed course seemed really interesting and they wanted to know more about it. They seemed really excited and I clicked really well with everyone on the call on both occasions. When I asked a question at the end, they went into tons of detail and seemed excited to answer. In both instances, it was very clear that the committee members were talking up their university and trying to sell it to me.
    I’m curious about everyone’s take on this. Could it be that the interviews didn’t actually go too great but the search committees were just genuinely nice and sociable people and behaved this way with all the applicants, or that it went well, but there were just better applicants that I was competing against?
    It’s a little frustrating not understanding what I’m doing wrong in these interviews or what’s swaying their decision in the other direction or how to improve in the future. It’s also really hard not to take it personally.
    Any thoughts from those with similar experiences or even advice from those who have served on search committees?

    Reply
  209. Daniel Weltman

    @ApparentlyBadInterviewee: The most likely answer is that you are not doing anything wrong. You are getting unlucky. Every position gets many qualified applicants. By the time the search committee gets to the initial interview stage, basically everyone they interview is good enough to get the job. At that point who gets chosen for a flyout (and eventually who gets chosen for the job) often comes down to what are effectively random factors over which you have no control.
    Even if you were aware of these factors, it wouldn’t be very useful, because they’re typically things you can’t change or they’re things that, if you changed, you’d be just as likely to end up not getting a flyout the next time. (E.g. you might not get a flyout because you do interdisciplinary research, and someone on the search committee prefers a “pure” philosopher. But if you were a “pure” philosopher, your next interview might be with a search committee with a member who prefers a candidate who does interdisciplinary research.)
    I think your best bet is to realize that you are clearly a great candidate who is well-qualified for all sorts of positions (or else you would not have gotten any interviews in this harsh job market, let alone seven) and that’s the best you can do. The rest is up to what is effectively luck. So, try not to take it personally!

    Reply
  210. re ApparentlyBadInterviewee

    There are just way too many possibilities. I went through 20 interviews before landing my current job. Sometimes there are just objectively better competitors, or at least that was my reaction when I found out who got certain jobs. Most of the time, however, I think, it comes down to institutional fitness. You are doing something very right to get so many interviews.
    That being said, do practice interviews a lot more. It is always possible to get slightly better. And this is probably one of the few things we are in control.

    Reply
  211. wardrobe question

    How should you dress for a campus visit, esp. for the job talk? Does it matter whether it’s an R1 or a teaching institution? Does it matter your rank, e.g., if you’re already senior? As a grad student I saw everything from suits to safari gear.

    Reply
  212. tk

    @wardrobe question, imo you want to be your most polished comfortable self. Campus visits are such marathon events and you don’t want to be fighting with your clothes all day. You also, though, don’t want people do be distracted by wondering or thinking about your clothes. I felt more pressure to dress up as a jr applicant so I wore fancy shoes once and ended up with foot cramps by the end of the day.

    Reply
  213. wear what you want within reason

    don’t believe the hype about wearing a suit, heels/makeup (I was told I had to do those things!), etc. but remember you are meeting with deans/high powered administrators. I’d aim for the vague category of “business casual”: cardigans and professional looking sweaters are okay, so are blazers/suit jackets without the matching pants; even jeans can be okay if they are darkish/trim, but maybe some slightly dressier pants or a skirt/dress (I’ve worn corduroys that were more professionally tailored on a flyout and it was fine). Button down shirts are fine but so are lots of other shirts if they just don’t look messy/look somewhat professional. I also ignored advice not to wear bright colors and patterns on fly outs (but I did try to really make sure those didn’t look casual) and it all seemed… totally fine? And I’ve now seen a million job candidates come through my department, and only noticed one’s clothing, which was ill fitting and VERY casual (think e.g. torn jeans anda band t shirt) and even then it wasn’t held against the candidate (though I really don’t recommend doing that).

    Reply
  214. email awkwardness

    When you’re in touch with the chair of a search committee, do you refer to them as “Dr. so-and-so,” or by their first name? I’ve had a few emails now where the chair signs their emails “Firstname,” but I feel presumptuous addressing formal emails to someone I’ve never met with their first name. Am I being silly in continuing to email them as “Dr. so-and-so”?

    Reply
  215. butmaybeImwrong

    @email awkwardness: If they sign the email with their first name, they want you to address them by their first name. Otherwise they’d sign it with their first initial and last name or something like that.

    Reply
  216. Community colleges heck yeah

    I’m specifically aiming for a permanent position at a community college. Two questions I’ve been pondering:
    1 After submitting an application for a community college job, is it unwise/risky/bad to just email a chair (or other current faculty) simply to express interest, make contact, and make oneself available for any questions?
    2 I have the impression that community colleges will be particularly interested in someone who is sincerely looking for a community college job. What is the smartest way to let them know that you are someone like that? Obviously, you can just say so in your cover letter, but I imagine that pretty much all applicants make such claims in their cover letters. Is there a better (e.g., less easily faked) way to communicate that you really want a community college job and it’s not just something you’re settling for?

    Reply
  217. Assistant Professor

    @wardrobe questions: I agree with other replies and would emphasize that feeling good in your clothes (that they reflect your style and that they are physically comfortable to wear all day) is key. I don’t think there are formal rules anymore for attire besides looking generally “put together,” whatever that means for you. I’ve found that there can be a lot of moving around campus for different meetings and meals, so thinking about shoes as well as outerwear and the bag you will carry with whatever you want to bring for the day with that in mind.
    @email awkwardness: personal take is that it is polite to write to someone you don’t know or haven’t communicated with using a title initially, and then take their lead after initial correspondence or your first meeting with them.
    The flip side of this is to encourage those people who like to sign off their emails just with their initials, or worse, to just include their full email signature with no name after the sign-off, to reconsider this practice when communicating with people who don’t know what to call you.

    Reply
  218. email or not?

    I had a Zoom interview a month ago. I have not heard back. Should I email and ask what the status of my application is or not?
    In the reporting thread someone said they got rejected from this job after the Zoom interview.
    What, if anything, should I infer from this?
    (a) That they forgot to reject me?
    (b) That I am on some long short list?
    (c) That a month is not that long?
    I have not come across any information of whether or not flyouts were scheduled or completed.
    So, should I email the chair and inquire about the status of my application or should I wait or forget about it?
    Thanks!

    Reply
  219. same boat

    @email or not — this post covers this question! https://philosopherscocoon.typepad.com/blog/2022/02/follow-up-job-market-emails.html
    I can’t tell you what it means, but I recently had a similar situation and personally made the call to reach out after 4 weeks. By that time, it seems totally reasonable to me to check in, particularly if they gave you a specific timeline they haven’t kept to. I got an informative response.

    Reply
  220. patience sucks

    email or not? – best case scenario, they tell you that they do not yet have any information. Worst case scenario, you irritate the people who are making the decisions.

    Reply
  221. community college q

    @community colleges —
    1. I’m curious why you’re thinking of doing this? I feel like if you wouldn’t do it for any other institution, I wouldn’t do it for a CC. Is this something you’ve done at other institutions with success?

    Reply
  222. email or not?

    @same boat & @patience sucks, Thanks for your advice and for sharing the link. I reached out and got the response that the selection process is still in progress and they are unable to share any updates at this time. Sigh.

    Reply
  223. unselected

    If you had flyouts in mid-January and still haven’t heard anything, is it reasonable to assume you were not selected?

    Reply
  224. frequent bridesmaid

    @unselected, it’s hard to say. Sometimes deans and admins take a long time to push the paperwork through, and that might be happening here, i.e., the hiring department hasn’t yet made an offer yet since they’re waiting for admin OKs.
    It’s also possible that someone else was selected, that they’re negotiating (and possibly negotiating with other schools), and that you still have a shot were the negotiator to pass on the offer.
    But if you’re a month out from the flyout, then that’s probably closer to a bad sign than a good one, albeit not decisively so.

    Reply
  225. it takes time

    @unselected
    No. a) You don’t know when the other fly-outs were. Sometimes they’re spread out quite a bit. b) It can take time for a verbal offer to result: in addition to other candidates’ visits, there’s the need for the department to meet and for any recommendations to be given the stamp of approval by the powers that be. There’s also the additional complication of a first choice declining, whether initially or after two weeks (when they use the offer to get a counter offer). There will be a point when you can probably assume you were not selected, but I think it’s not quite yet.

    Reply
  226. love

    Have a job related question but more CV oriented. If you think it isn’t for here, I’ll ask it in the next “how can we help you” installment.
    In any case, I have a “publication” listed on my philpeople page that gets more hits than I would have expected. I don’t know how people end up at it. But it was written for a “private collection”, a sort of gift for a colleague (a private Festschrift as it were). Others in the collection have had modified versions published, but I just posted mine to philpeople a year or two after the initial “publication”. Can/Should I list this under “other publications” on a CV? I don’t want to look like I’m needlessly stacking my CV, but people keep downloading it on philpeople.

    Reply
  227. Frustrated

    Has anyone not gotten a single offer their first year on the market while ABD? (and I mean not even a VAP or postdoc?)
    I feel like no one ever talks about that. There’s a lot of talk about people having to take postdocs and VAPS for 7 or 8 years before landing a TT job, but can someone talk about their experience not getting a single offer for even temporary positions? What did you do? What’s the plan? Is it safe to assume Academia just isn’t for you?

    Reply
  228. this is very common

    @Frustrated yes, this happens to tons of people! (But also, if this is happening to you this year… there are still going to be a lot of temporary jobs advertised.) Many of the people I know who it happened to adjuncted and went on the market again. (That may be more or less of an option for you depending on where you are located, but I am in a large city with many universities so adjuncting work is basically always available.) Many of them also delayed defending for another year if they could get any kind of teaching from their own university (this is better than adjuncting in terms of time vs. money for most people financially if it is possible, or sometimes people do both). Anyway the main point is that this happens to a huge number of people (and it does not mean academia is not for you! I know many people who have gotten tenure track jobs in the years following this happening).

    Reply
  229. anon

    I can talk about that a bit, Frustrated.
    One thing to note: lots of jobs are still to be posted. I’ve been interviewed for full-time VAPS starting in September as late as July, for example.
    Another thing to note: there’s VAPs/post-docs, and there’s also the (far less well paid) per-course jobs. A person can bundle together these jobs and make things work for some time. I’ve been hired for per-course teaching starting in September as late as the last week of August.
    Also, if someone doesn’t get an offer and they are ABD, depending on where that person is a student, this can be a good thing. It means that in the year following an unsuccessful job market run, that person may still be eligible for various grants/job opportunities that are available to students only. I had one semester where I was under-employed and wished I didn’t actually have the degree in hand for these reasons.

    Reply
  230. Question

    I found out I’m on a ‘shortlist’ for a postdoc. I was wondering if anyone with experience on the other side of the market knows how long short lists tend to be? Just asking out of curiosity.

    Reply
  231. 3-4 people usually

    @Question, if it is a single position, it is usually 3-4 people on a shortlist, if they already offered the position to someone.
    Also do you mind sharing which postdoc? I am waiting to hear back from a bunch of them and any information would be appreciated!

    Reply
  232. @3-4 people

    It is the Princeton moral philosophy postdoc. Thank you for answering the question!

    Reply
  233. solidarity forever

    @3-4 people usually, if you post a query on the reporting thread people may have info!

    Reply
  234. anon

    Question’s comment invites the question: is there a consensus or standard to the various lists hiring committees speak of? E.g., how accurate would the following conception be:
    Longlist: ~10-12 people. Roughly, these are the people who get first round / Zoom interviews.
    Shortlist: ~3-4 people. Roughly, these are people who get second round / on-campus interviews.
    In portefeuille: ~X (?) people. Roughly, those from the longlist who do not initially make the shortlist but who do are not initially dropped from consideration. (This is something I’ve experienced on the market a number of times, though I only heard it given a name this year.)
    Additional questions:
    1. Is there a name for first cuts that don’t yield a longlist (in the sense above)? E.g., a long-longlist? I suppose the length of this kind of list varies much more than the above.
    2. Is ‘long shortlist’ a common expression? Does it mean what ‘in portefeuille’ means, or is it just a name for an intermediate stage of the list of candidates, between the longlist and the shortlist?

    Reply
  235. response to anon

    @anon, I’ve heard these terms used differently in US departments. In these contexts, “longlist” has meant the 40 or so applications drawn from the initial pile that are now under serious consideration. (This is what you’re calling a “long-longlist,” and sometimes entails requesting some extra documents.)
    “Shortlist” has meant the 10-12 people getting first-round Zoom interviews. As I’ve heard it, the term “flyouts” is used for what you’re calling “shortlist,” i.e., those getting campus visit invitations. I’ve never heard anyone use the term “in portefeuille,” but maybe that’s my fault, i.e., I just don’t know the term.
    I’ve seen “shortlists” (i.e., Zoom interviews, or as I use the term) as long as 20 and as short as six. I’ve seen flyout invitations as few as two (for geographically remote jobs) and as long as about eight (for elite jobs).

    Reply
  236. deadlines

    Does anybody know what happens when one communicates a ‘decision deadline’ to an ongoing search? That is, when one search learns you have an offer from somewhere else, do they pull your application to the top of the pile and take a look? Or might they think “oh well, there’s no way we can make a decision in time for them, we’ll let them go”.

    Reply
  237. Michel

    Frustrated forget offers, I went years without even a single interview! This is quite common in my low-status subfield. We either string something else together, or leave academia.

    Reply
  238. unfair

    This entire process seems rigged and unfair.

    Reply
  239. love

    it is very true, unfair. there are explanations for it. unfortunately don’t think you’re going to find a ton of empathy around here. for some reason academics have convinced themselves it’s totally normal for people with the highest training and qualification in their subject to either go jobless or work exploitative, soul sucking jobs for 10-15 years before getting a sniff at job security.
    my love to you and to me.

    Reply
  240. postdoc

    Applied for a postdoc, and some are reporting PFOs, but I haven’t heard anything. Is it appropriate to reach out for a status update?

    Reply
  241. Columbia

    What’s the deal with the Columbia lecturer position that just got posted? Seems late for a position starting July 1, and including undergraduate directorship responsibilities…. Do you think they will get a lot of applicants?

    Reply
  242. anon

    Given the number of people not getting TT jobs, the fact that it’s Columbia, and the fact that it’s full-time and potentially more than one year – yeah, I think plenty of people would be willing to apply.
    As for how many applications they will get – well, the ad says review begins immediately and until the position is filled. If they like one of the first view apps, maybe that will be that.

    Reply
  243. Am I looking in the wrong places?

    Where are you guys seeing the Columbia ad? It doesn’t look like it’s on Philjobs.

    Reply
  244. There it is

    @Am I looking in the wrong places?
    It is on philjobs but it is a lecturer in cognitive science so maybe your settings have it filtered out?? https://philjobs.org/job/show/26114

    Reply
  245. Ben

    Does anyone know what’s up with the Southampton open job that was just posted? They had a nearly identical job due back in November, no? Did the first search fail?
    https://philjobs.org/job/show/26178

    Reply
  246. nyu?

    Does anyone know what’s up with NYU posting a senior M&E search with only 7 days until the deadline? https://philjobs.org/job/show/26202

    Reply
  247. got the message but want the literal message

    What’s the record for how long you’ve had to wait to get a rejection after a campus visit? I imagine some people never hear back, but I’m interested only in those who actually heard back eventually. I’m at two months now, and I’m curious whether this is still the minor leagues.

    Reply
  248. Another Another Applicant

    @got the message but want the literal message What job is it?

    Reply
  249. Formality

    @nyu,
    I suspect that that NYU posted this ad as a mere formality. They most likely have someone in mind who they want to hire but because of some regulation they must post an ad or open up the position to competition.

    Reply
  250. Curious

    I wondered if people have thoughts about this job posting.
    https://bu.silkroad.com/epostings/index.cfm?fuseaction=app.jobinfo&jobid=313887&company_id=15509&version=1&source=ONLINE&jobOwner=1018629&aid=1
    In light of https://bugwu.org/
    I won’t apply to this job for geographic reasons, but also don’t think I’d be comfortable doing so even if it was someplace closer to me.
    I was wondering if others would see trying to get this job as crossing a picket line or otherwise unethical?

    Reply
  251. anon

    Well, the TAs are still on strike, based on what I’ve read. And if BU is looking for someone to start that job almost immediately (unclear from ad), that looks like an attempt to hire someone to do struck work. And yes, I view both the hiring and working side in those situations as doing something unethical.
    It’s too bad – in principle, I think it would be a good thing for more large universities to move towards getting some of this work done by full-time, potentially long-term workers, rather than only using short-term workers bundling together multiple small contracts. They should explore this after the strike concludes, though.

    Reply
  252. Nope

    @curious
    That’s a job for scabs.

    Reply
  253. no sir

    @curious no scabbing

    Reply
  254. BU faculty

    Hi all, faculty at BU here. To clarify, that job post is (unless something bizarre is happening in my own department that I am unaware of!) a post for a job that starts in fall 2024 (when I think we can anticipate the strike will almost certianly be over). It’s not a scab job that is replacing grad student labor. (I’m not sure why it doesn’t make clear that it starts in fall 2024.) Basically, we have a Teaching Fellow shortage; the graduate school won’t fund enough grad students (this is a longstanding thing, unrelated to the strike) to cover all the sections we need teaching fellows for, and the compromise has been to give us this position each year. It’s totally unrelated to the strike (except insofar as the administrative refusal to fund more graduate students is connected to the administrative refusal to pay graduate students what they deserve, but that’s a complex connection that is separate from the on the ground issues with the strike).
    Our department has pledged not to use scab labor and to support our grad workers in every way possible. I assure you we would not advertise a scab job.

    Reply
  255. Curious

    @BU faculty
    Thanks for clarifying. I asked because I was genuinely unsure of the situation. Given the response from others without your perspective, I hope it’s helpful to have this information out there for those who might be in a position to apply.

    Reply
  256. ADUS

    Anyone know what’s up with this Assistant Director of Undergraduate Studies job at Harvard: https://philjobs.org/job/show/26246
    Is it actually an open search or do they already know who they’re hiring?

    Reply
  257. offer messiness

    Should you keep interviewing after accepting an offer via email, but are still waiting on an official signed contract (that may take weeks to arrive)? I would like to stop interviewing (it’s a hassle), but I’ve also heard you shouldn’t until you have a formal signed contract in writing, because ‘things can always happen’. Yet it also seems in bad form to continue interviewing when you already intend to work elsewhere. My goal is to be completely professional and respectful of everyone involved, but also not to find myself without a job in the fall.

    Reply
  258. wondering

    Is there a specific website for Australian job market? Thanks!

    Reply
  259. want to go home

    For Australian jobs, subscribe to Aphil-l Digest and check PhilJobs. For all the jobs I applied for (which isn’t a lot sadly), if they had show up at jobs ac uk, they had also showed up in the two sources I’ve mentioned.

    Reply
  260. Buffalo

    Gotta love this line from an ad: “Working at UB comes with benefits that exceed salary alone.” This is either false–the value of benefits surely doesn’t exceed the value of the salary–or trivially true (salary + benefits > benefits). Who writes this stuff?

    Reply
  261. kopi

    does anyone know: how many people are usually interviewed for VAPs?

    Reply
  262. VAP lifer

    @kopi, I’ve seen as few as three and as many as 12 interviewed for VAPs. If I had to guess, something around five or six and in one round (i.e., no flyouts) is typical, but there seems to be a lot of variation.

    Reply
  263. kahi

    Some universities specify as to who will be given priority in the hiring process, stating something like ‘ All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents will be given priority.’ I am not a Canadian citizen so I will probably not apply (I am not sure how to interpret the ‘all qualified candidates are encouraged to apply’ part of the statement…) So my first question is how should I interpret it? (and whether my inclination to not apply is right)
    I am also wondering: how do such statements (stating that persons from a particular group will be given priority) compatible with the diversity statement of the university?
    thanks!

    Reply
  264. kahi

    sorry there was a typo. I meant: how are such statements compatible…?

    Reply
  265. tt in the US

    @kahi Many countries “prefer” to hire their own citizens; this is not something universities generally have much control over. (And departments even less so.) But unless a department is really strapped for cash, citizenship is not going to matter when they are deciding who they want to hire. This is something that gets sorted out later. It could mean, of course, that they want to hire you and try to hire you and can’t fund a visa (this happens with US departments lots of times). But it could also mean that they want to hire you and hire you and can fund a visa. It’s possible that neither you nor the department is in a position to know, so if you think it is a job you want, you should generally apply for it.
    You could certainly talk about the perspective you bring as an international job candidate in your diversity statement. (Diversity statements may be another requirement over which departments have little control.)
    Maybe this is actually a question about diversity statements generally. If so, I think that topic might be too far afield for this thread.

    Reply
  266. depressed

    @kahi Many jobs in US universities explicitly state that they cannot sponsor visas. I guess you are an American applying to a Canadian university? Let me welcome you to the sad reality of many international scholars working in the US. Sigh

    Reply
  267. anon

    For Canada, the “priority” is not so strong that it entails that non-Canadian applications are getting thrown out if a single Canadian has also applied.
    Instead, it’s more like a boost that could be overridden if the department likes some other candidate enough (the boost actually applies to non-Canadian permanent residents of Canada, too).
    You can get a rough estimate of how strongly a department tends towards Canadian hires through looking at where the faculty there got a BA.

    Reply
  268. It is what it is

    The letter of Canadian hiring guidelines and how they are applied in practice are often two different things.
    Many Canadian institutions have what sound like quite demanding guidelines on the books, e.g., that preference must be given to qualified Canadians unless doing so would be detrimental to the institution, or that, other things being equal, preference must be given to Canadian applicants. In practice, however, these can often be circumvented in various ways so that a department can hire their preferred candidate. There was a search at my institution recently where–rightly or wrongly–demonstrably more qualified Canadians were passed over in favour of a non-Canadian candidate who better contributed to the department’s EDI goals.

    Reply
  269. Remember the previous Sydney job?

    Maybe we’ve indeed dodged a bullet…
    University of Sydney proposes to cut 25 Philosophy units in 2025
    https://honisoit.com/2024/05/university-of-sydney-proposes-to-cut-25-philosophy-units-in-2025/
    While it says “there were no plans to reduce staff members within the discipline as part of the changes,” it’s hard to believe, from my point of view, the truth of this claim. It looks like cost-cutting.

    Reply
  270. sad kookaburra

    @Remember, I fear the whole sector in Australia is only going to get more unstable, what with caps on international enrollment. Sigh

    Reply

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