You're the problem, you inferior being, you.
If you don't have a tenure-track job in academia, it's because you're a lazy, arrogant whiner, says the Chronicle's "Miss Mentor."
From her self-described "ivory tower", I'm sure she finds it very easy and pleasurable to spit contemptuously on the slaves being whipped in the courtyard below.
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Tuesday, February 08, 2005
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6 Comments:
Unfortunately her point is correct: the academic job market is so competitive that universities can afford to weed out candidates without laudatory letters of reference, overstuffed publication records, and extensive teaching experience. As one professor at ND said, only half-jokingly, "The best thing about academe is the flexible scheduling; you can choose which 70 hours a week you want to work."
I agree with Felix. She did a horrible job, provided inadequate information, and needlessly insulted her letter-writers. (She thereby insulted her readers, since they probably have more in common with letter-writers than with her.)
Take one of her key comments, "Faced with so many candidates, search committees HAVE TO screen ruthlessly." [emphasis mine] The don't HAVE TO, they HAVE THE LUXURY OF.
Now take the employer's perspective: If you're going to get lots and lots of qualified applicants--and let's not digress on what qualified may mean--you have the luxury of eliminating many of them and most of the unqualified ones as well by making them spend hours to apply.
A company I was at posted a job on hotjobs once, and we received so many unqualified responses (hundreds) that we called the company and asked if we weren't getting the whole resumes. We were.
So the Chronicle could have published a thoughtful response to some fair questions but chose instead some ad hominem attacks. We see who the real arrogant, lazy whiners are.
Pablo
Hey Pablo, you need to join the hallowed ranks of Public Domain Contributors!
I second Carlo's last remark. Come on in, the water's fine! It would allow Carlos and me to occasionally agree on something and gang up on you instead of always facing off against each other.
Was I a bit harsh in my response to Miss Mentor? Perhaps. Perhaps. But consider the practical mathematics of, say, the recommendation letters discussed by her first correspondent.
If we say for the sake of argument that there are 100 applications for a position, as "Laird" says, then that means 300 letters of recommendation. Now those safely ensconced in a tenured perch upon the ivory tower may very well summarily dismiss onerous time requirements on job applicants because, as all good academics know, nontenured staff members' time is of no value. But it's likely that many of those letters of recommendation will be requested from more senior co-workers, even from actual people with tenure. And if there are 100 applicants for every job, that means that on the average, every applicant will have to send out 100 applications before getting an offer. If every application demands three personalized letters of recommendation, that means asking ones' references for three hundred letters of recommendation.
Are all the members of all those search committees that cavalierly demand multiple letters of recommendation with every application willing to supply 100 personalized letters of recommendation for every competent non-tenured co-worker who is trying to find a secure job? Somehow, I doubt it.
*sigh*. Yeah, that was me one of these days I'll remember to sign my name to a comment. -- Felix
It is a failure of society to have so many qualified PHd's without the means to contribute what they are good at.
PW
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