• Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Good places to start

Memoirs of a SLACer

sociological views on life and the liberal arts

Feeds:
Posts
Comments
« Post-racial getting married
Tracking teaching »

A compilation of job market resources and advice

June 15, 2009 by John

Across the country, prospective job candidates are beginning to put vague ideas into Microsoft Word that will be shaped into cover letter templates, teaching statements, writing samples, and research statements over the next few months.  Since January I have written a lot about the sociology job market and my experiences with it, but I think that a general compilation of things I’ve come across in the past year or so will be helpful to those who are gearing up for an intense autumn.

As a sociologist, you may want to start with the ASA’s job market resources, although they cost  money, so you may be better served by reading blogs and going to the various “how to get a job” sessions in San Fransisco.

Beyond this, I think that it is helpful to read about the experiences of others who have gone on the market.  By seeing both the good and the bad, you’ll have a better sense of what you’re getting yourself into.  For this, the Chronicle of Higher Education is a good resource.

For general job market advice, Wicked Anomie has a great post and some good things are available from the Sociologists for Women in Society (there is also some good information in the advice column section of their site).  Finally, the Tomorrow’s Professor newsletter has a number of job-related posts.

After you’ve hardened yourself in preparation for the road ahead with general information, you can consider your first opportunity to interact with potential employers at the ASA employment service.  As noted before, this has been discussed at Scatterplot and on this blog.

Before applying for jobs, you will likely want to check out the rankings, keeping in mind that rankings aren’t everything.  The US News grad school rankings are here and general undergrad rankings are here.

Beyond the rankings, a sense of whether a school is likely to pay enough for you to live on Long Island or in Claremont, CA is obviously important.  You can search the AAUP’s faculty salary survey here.

Once you have applied, you will hopefully be invited to interviews where these tips from Wicked Anomie and these reflections from Pitse1eh will come in handy.  You can also prepare answers to frequently asked questions and be prepared to ask some questions yourself.

If you can stomach it, there is also the job market message board, which replaces the job market blog for 09-10.

I think that the most important thing to remember about the job market is that it is a long, difficult time during which most things are out of your control.  Once you’ve mailed an application, you have done all that you can, so make sure that your applications are as good as they can be and try not to think about them once they are out of your hands.  With luck, by this time next year you’ll be writing a blog giving people advice about the job market.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • More
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit

Like this:

Like Loading...

Related

Posted in Sociology Job Market | Tagged AAUP, Academic Job Market, American Sociological Association, Chronicle of Higher Education, Sociologists for Women in Society, Sociology Job Market, Tomorrow's Professor | 7 Comments

7 Responses

  1. on January 31, 2012 at 9:14 pm Popularity contest results « Memoirs of a SLACer

    […] 10. A compilation of job market resources and advice […]


  2. on August 3, 2013 at 6:22 pm Advice For Preparing For The Job Market (For Scholars On The Margins) | Conditionally Accepted

    […] Job Market Advice and Resources (Memoirs of a SLACer) […]


  3. on August 5, 2013 at 10:38 am [ConditionallyAccepted] Advice For Preparing For The Job Market (For Scholars On The Margins) | my sociology

    […] Job Market Advice and Resources (Memoirs of a SLACer) […]


  4. on August 6, 2013 at 1:27 pm More Than R1: Why I Chose A Liberal Arts Job | Conditionally Accepted

    […] at a small, liberal arts college.  “John” has many honest, reflective posts and advice about working at a liberal arts college.  Start with the heart of the dilemma: “Are You A […]


  5. on August 6, 2013 at 1:39 pm [ConditionallyAccepted] More Than R1: Why I Chose A Liberal Arts Job | my sociology

    […] at a small, liberal arts college.  “John” has many honest, reflective posts and advice about working at a liberal arts college.  Start with the heart of the dilemma: “Are You A […]


  6. on September 19, 2013 at 8:08 am Conditionally Accepted | Advice For Preparing For The Job Market (For Scholars On The Margins)

    […] Job Market Advice and Resources (Memoirs of a SLACer) […]


  7. on November 1, 2013 at 10:03 am Conditionally Accepted | On Choosing The Right Job

    […] all sorts of warnings about how difficult the job market would be.  The scariest, yet most sound advice was to acknowledge that at least 80 percent of what occurs during one’s job search is beyond […]



Comments are closed.

  • Pages

    • About
    • Contact
    • Good places to start
  • Previous Posts

    June 2009
    M T W T F S S
    1234567
    891011121314
    15161718192021
    22232425262728
    2930  
    « May   Jul »
  • Categories

  • Blogs I Read

    • Conditionally Accepted
    • Crooked Timber
    • Female Science Professor
    • Historiann
    • orgtheory.net
    • scatterplot
    • Small Pond Science
    • Soc'ing Out Loud
    • Sociology in Focus
    • Sociology Source
    • Sociology Toolbox
    • Tenured Radical
    • The Society Pages
    • whatisthewhat
  • Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

  • Meta

    • Register
    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.com
  • Site Meter

    Site Meter

Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.

WPThemes.


Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Memoirs of a SLACer
    • Join 117 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Memoirs of a SLACer
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • View post in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
%d bloggers like this: