In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:
If you interviewed somewhere, did not get the job, but the same position is now being advertised again, seemingly indicating a failed search, is it worth applying again?
I don't know what I don't know here in terms of why I didn't get the position or why the search failed, but all things being equal, there is seemingly no harm in applying.
But is any kind of acknowledgement of having interviewed previously worth mentioning or not?
Just any general advice is appreciated.
Fair questions. One reader submitted the following reply:
I would not apply to places where you were brought in and did not get the job. The department has a new ad … and it is an opportunity to bring in three fresh people to interview.
This could of course be the case, but I don't know. Many things could have happened during the last hiring cycle, and I don't know if there's any way of knowing how last year's search might impact this year's. For example,
- How do you know the same people are on the hiring committee this year? Could the department have chosen a different hiring committee this time around, given that last year was a failed search?
- What if you're a significantly better candidate than last year (say, with some excellent new publications)?
- What if the committee liked you a lot, didn't bring you in as one of their 2 or 3 finalists, but ended up regretting the finalists they did invite (e.g., if each finalist "bombed"/did a poor job during the on-campus visits)?
- What if the committee liked you a lot, all 2 or 3 of their finalists accepted jobs elsewhere, and their administration wouldn't authorize another on-campus interview?
Sure, it's hard to know what the likelihood of any of these things are, but given the uncertainties, why not give applying again a shot (provided applying again doesn't take too much time)? Having served on many search committees, my experience is that oftentimes the committee likes most of the candidates they interview a lot, have to make difficult choices about who to invite to campus, and may wish they could invite more people than their administration allows. Since, as noted above, a search can fail for any number of reasons that don't necessarily reflect on your chances this time around, what's the harm in giving an application another shot?
But these are just my thoughts. What are yours? It would be great to hear from search committee members, as well from job candidates, particularly those who interviewed for a job and applied to the "same job" again the next year. Did you have any luck?
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