Going on the Job Market

The information below is on finding academic appointments. Students are encouraged as well to pursue employment opportunities outside of academia. It is always wise to have several alternative career paths in mind, since employment opportunities in the humanities are becoming ever scarcer, and each year only a small percent of the department’s fresh Ph.D.’s secure tenure-track positions. Most Comparative Literature graduates who accept tenure-track offers do not receive these offers in the final year of their Ph.D. program. Instead, they may spend several years as postdocs, Visiting Assistant Professors, or lecturers.

Your Dossier and Recommendations 

It is never too early to establish a dossier with Interfolio.

A dossier is not only essential when you go on the job market but also facilitates applying for grants or even seeking teaching fellowships. Your dossier may contain recommendations from faculty members who have seen you teach, have been your examiners, or from whom you have taken a class.

Allow a month for recommenders to write on your behalf. Faculty members are very busy and often traveling, and they will write more detailed and thus more effective recommendations when allowed the time to do so. Even if you ask them orally, remind them by email of the deadline a week or two in advance. (This is especially important if you are requesting multiple recommendations with different due dates: faculty members will generally tailor their recommendations to the different positions for which you are applying, so they need to have a timetable to remind them of which letters are needed by when and for which purposes.) For letters that cannot be submitted electronically, you should also provide an addressed envelope. 

Students are encouraged to ask faculty members to write personalized letters for as many jobs as possible. Be bold. Although it is good to have on file with Interfolio a letter (or letters) from each of your recommenders, nothing replaces a personalized letter in which a faculty member can explain to a hiring committee exactly why you are the perfect candidate for that particular job. Faculty members may be familiar with the departments to which you are applying and may have good friends or colleagues there, so it is always a good idea to let your recommenders know the precise institutions to which you are applying and ask for their input.

The Search Process 

In the fall, the GPD leads a workshop on job market preparation for students on the job market. In this seminar, the GPD and your peers will review your cover letters, CVs, research and teaching statements, and dossiers. In addition, the GPD and your Chair will be happy to conduct mock interviews in December, as well as throughout the spring semester as the need arises. It is your responsibility to reach out to the GPD and your Chair for advice on any aspect of the job search process---you should reach out to them early and often. 

Students also are expected to speak with their advisers about the job market, and they are encouraged not only to share their job search materials with their Dissertation Committee but also to invite members of their Dissertation Committee to participate in the mock interviews.

The MLA Job Information List is accessible online at www.mla.org; nonmembers may create a free JIL user account to search the Job Information List.

The program can also arrange mock job talks in January and early February for those who are invited for campus visits. Your Chair and the GPD can likewise help with negotiating offers and are available to answer any questions you have about the job search process.

The program keeps on file a number of sample cover letters, as well as research and teaching statements. These are available as PDFs on the program’s Moodle site.

Many books have been written on the academic job search. Most recent is Karen Kelsky’s The Professor is In: The Essential Guide to Turning Your Ph.D. into a Job (Three Rivers Press, 2015). Kelsky’s columns in The Chronicle of Higher Education and the blog on her website (http://theprofessorisin.com/) are additional, invaluable resources. Other very helpful sources are Julia Miller Vick, The Academic Job Search Handbook (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008); Sandra L. Barnes, On the Market: Strategies for a Successful Academic Job Search (Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2007); and Kathryn Hume, Surviving Your Academic Job Hunt: Advice for Humanities Ph.D.s (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).

Cast your net widely on the job market. There are many misperceptions of American higher education, most notably, that the only good jobs are to be found in Ivy League institutions or their equivalent. The United States offers a tremendous range of institutions and departments, with many different combinations of teaching, research, and other responsibilities. Jobs are increasingly available abroad as well, regardless of your citizenship. You are encouraged to speak with as many faculty members as possible about the job openings in your field(s). Non-academic jobs or positions in administration and campus life can be highly rewarding career paths.