Preparing a Successful Job Market Entrance Chanon Adsanatham

Fourth year of PhD  Rigorous dissertation writing year: fellowship  Mental transition: student  scholar  Schools want: colleague/scholar —not graduate student  don’t appear grad studentish in your job documents, interview and campus visit

Fourth Year of PhD Spring 2013  Goal: Complete 3 of 5 diss chapters  Identified 2 writing samples  1 publication  1 diss chapter  Identified chapter for job talk

Fourth Year of PhD: Spring 2013 March  Presented the most interesting chapter at CCCC  Workshoped the same chapter at research roundtable with researchers in the field April  Presented chapter at fellowship symposium  Took hard questions  Cleaned up online presence: Facebook, blogs  Drafted website:

Fourth Year of PhD: Spring 2013 May  Finalized CV  Finished 3 rd chapter Summer  Drafted 4 th chapter  Assembled teaching portfolio  teaching phil  course evals (numeric and verbal data)  sample assignments  syllabi  Drafted dossier

What’s a dossier? dossier CV job letter (R1, teaching, administrative) teaching philosophy writing samples (two) letters of recommendation Other pieces employer may request: 1) Teaching portfolio 2) Research agenda 3) Administrative philosophy (rhet/comp only)

Does this look like a dossier of a scholar- teacher or a graduate student?

5 th Year of PhD: My Mantra Is it gonna help me finish my dissertation or help me get a job?

Fall 2014: Job Market Season August-September  Finalized dossier  Taught 2 classes  Launched website  Attended weekly job mentoring meetings  Started therapy October  Sent apps: applied broadly (ideal and not ideal jobs)  Practiced mock interviews  Designed sample grad and undergrad courses  Reviewed & interviewed applicants

Fall: Job Market Season November + December  Skype & phone interviews  Researched schools for interviews  Practiced job talk  First campus visit  Sent apps January  Sent apps  MLA interviews  Campus visits  Job offers  Negotiation Mid Feb.  Accepted job  Diss writing resumed

Tips  Plan NOW! Start from year one.  Review CVs of recently hired people at places you prefer to teach & plan.  Map backward: professionalize from year one  4 scholarship things a year : publications (article, interview, book review) and conference presentations—1 should be a publication  Scaffold seminar papers toward higher aims  paper  conference  article  paper  diss chapter

Tips cont.  Find a professionalization mentor—need not be your adviser.  Review your CV progress w/ a mentor every spring. Go in with a CV. How’s my progress? How well am I building a professional ethos?  Eliminate the dream job mentality or romanticized ideals.  Apply broadly: Use jobs you don’t care much for as practice interviews.  Do NOT over do service or administrative duties  rhet/comp students beware.  Have a focused, coherent scholarly identity as a specialist—don’t be disorganized or scattered by claiming too many fields of expertise.  Make summer productive: write, revise, submit.  Dissertation progress is CRUCIAL before app season.

The Big Question Year 5 Does this look like a dossier of a scholar- teacher or a graduate student?

Timeline This was a sample yearly plan of a doctoral student. Yours need not be exactly the same; it probably shouldn’t be. Consult your adviser to develop a viable plan appropriate to your goals and needs. Year One  Sent out a book review, presented at conferences, attended summer institute in your area of interest Year Two  Sent out article, presented at conferences, taught a new course  Read professionalization advice columns Year Three  Sent out another article and book reviews, competed for awards (teaching, research) and dissertation fellowship, obtained administrative positions in writing programs, taught another new course Year Four  Dissertation writing, job market prep  Sent out a lower stake manuscript: conference proceedings Year Five  Job market, taught classes

Key Questions for Job Market Success Scholarly Identity  Who are you in terms of a scholarly profile and academic identity?  What are your areas of expertise? (not interests)  How do they connect?  Are you a scholar-teacher/teacher-scholar?  How does your dossier present you: as scholar, teacher-researcher, graduate student? Scholarly Intervention  What is the major intervention (contribution) your dissertation or research is making? Why should people give a damn?

Key Questions for Job Market Success Dissertation Succinctness (for ABD candidates only)  What are the key arguments and important details of the different chapters of your dissertation?  Can you give a coherent pitch of your dissertation? 10 minute version, 5 minute version, 3 minute version, 1 minute version Research Agenda (Productive Potential)  Do you have a clear, coherent research trajectory?  When the diss is done, what’s next?  What is your research plan in 1-7 years? Teaching  What is your teaching style and philosophy?  What new courses can you add to a department? How will you teach them?  What existing courses can you teach, and how will you teach them?

Resources on Job Market and Professionalization Print  The PhD Handbook for the Academic Job Search by Coghill-Behrends & Anthony  The Academic Job Search Handbook by Vick and Furlong Web  Theprofessorisin.com  Chronicle.com  advice tab  Insidehighered.com  career advice  Chroniclevitae.com/news