In our November “how can we help you?” thread, a reader writes:
I recently learned that applicants for law faculty positions use a centralized online system called the Faculty Appointments Register (FAR), which is run by the Association of American Law Schools (AALS). Candidates complete one standardized profile (upload demographic info, CV, writing sample, teaching statement, etc.), and law schools then search the database to identify candidates who fit their hiring needs. The FAR is not a formal HR application. It functions as an early expression-of-interest stage, and candidates only complete school-specific HR paperwork if a school has already shown interest.
I would be interested to hear what obstacles people think might stand in the way of a system run by the APA, the PhilPapers Foundation, or another organization. Concerns might include whether university/college policies would permit this, cost and access (AALS charges a fee for each candidate profile, though hardship waivers are available), administrative demands on the organization running the system, whether departments would adopt and rely on the system, and whether a standardized form could accommodate the range of often tailored/job-specific materials philosophy searches request.
Spending hundreds of hours on job applications seems very inefficient. A centralized system wouldn’t solve everything, but it could help reduce some of these burdens. Law schools’ FAR seems to provide a compelling example of how such a system might work.
For reference: https://www.aals.org/recruitment/candidates/far-information/
I love the idea of this. Being a job-candidate is hard and time-consuming enough. All of the time wasted going through each individual university’s job-application system would save applicants an immense amount of time, and I don’t know what the downside would be.
What do readers think?
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