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Dissertation Committee/Job-Market Question

In our newest "how can we help you?" thread, a reader asks:

I am an ABD graduate student at a top-50 currently visiting a top program. I have three professors on my dissertation committee: two at my home institution and my sponsoring professor from the institution I'm visiting. All have offered to write me letters for when I enter the job market next year, so I currently have three general letters.

I am currently sitting in on two seminars at the institution I am visiting. The first is the seminar of my sponsoring professor. The second is a seminar by a very well-regarded professor not in my AoS but in a nearby discipline where I have at least some specialist knowledge (if it helps: I work primarily in philosophy of mind, and the seminar is Mind/Language). The latter professor has repeatedly thanked me in personal discussions for my contributions inside and outside of class and offered to look at a paper I've been working on broadly related to the course topic. In general, we seem to vibe really well.

I have three questions: should I ask them for a recommendation, despite their not being in my AoS nor being the professor I am specifically visiting at this institution? Second, and relatedly: should I ask them to be on my committee? I really value their input generally and we've talked a bit about my dissertation topic, which they seem to be interested in even if it's not strictly in their AoS (it's more on perception than language). Their being on my committee would also seem to help with 1., insofar as they can become more familiar with my core work. Third, should I worry about this putting off any of my extant committee members/letter writers? I've had a lot of really good interactions with my sponsoring professor, for example, but I worry adding a second member of the department to my committee would look desperate, or like social climbing.

Any input is appreciated! Can also supply more details if needed.

It definitely seems to me like a recommendation would be a good idea, given that the professor is well-regarded and at a top program. Strong outside recommendation letters may even be given more weight by hiring committees since (unlike recommenders in your home program) the recommender doesn't have a vested interest in your success. As for whether it would be a good idea to ask them to serve on the OP's dissertation committee, I'm not sure.

What does everyone think?

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3 responses to “Dissertation Committee/Job-Market Question”

  1. Michel

    My intuition is that there’s more value to the outside letter than the committee membership (though that need not mean you can’t run things by them sometimes).
    This person might make for a good external examiner, however.

    Reply
  2. placement director

    I would ask for a letter but not to be on your committee, but I would ask in a way that allows them to decline and make sure that you find a way to communicate (more politely and carefully tnan this!) that you only want a letter if it will be very strong. Assuming the place you are visiting has a PhD program, you need to weigh the potential strength of a letter such a person would write you against the fact that they have reason to favor their own students, and may implicitly or explicitly rank you below them and hurt your chances on the market even if they think highly of you. (Not just because they have pragmatic reasons to favor their own students, but because they will know their work much better too, and that will come through in the letter as well.)

    Reply
  3. Daniel Weltman

    I don’t think it’s a big deal one way or another. The weight a letter carries will depend on who reads it, so what would be a stronger letter for one job application will be a weaker letter for another. On average a letter from someone outside your grad program will be perceived as stronger, everything else held equal, but if they’re not in your AoS that might make their letter weaker, simply because they’ll have fewer specific and detailed things to say. Then again, it might be an advantage for a job that is looking for someone who works in that other area rather than (or in addition to) your AoS. This is all to say that most of the process is random and almost any reasonable thing you do has about the same chances of helping you as hurting you.
    I wouldn’t worry about the social climbing/looking desperate stuff. If you aren’t in fact desperate, then you will only appear as such to people who are not accurately apprehending your status in the first place, and they’re just as liable to misread anything else you do in similarly disastrous ways (e.g. they see you took a class with someone but didn’t put them on your committee so they assume you must’ve made a fool of yourself in the course). Life’s too short to trouble yourself with what unreasonable people will think, since you can’t stop them from being unreasonable, which is the real source of the problem.

    Reply

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