|
|
|
Understand Expectations‹ Reading the Job Ad | Job Search Advice.Home Page | Readings and Resources › I was advised to prepare to make [a shift] in thinking and strategy: from writing a diss and focusing closely on it to writing about and talking about my work in a broad context (and talking about secondary interests). That’s one that grad students expect and—at least where I’m from—teach in classes on tech and professional comm, for instance. So, even though writing the job letters and CVs and portfolios is a challenge, it’s familiar in many respects. One other thing that hasn’t been mentioned yet: the job search makes people insane. Candidates definitely, search committees sometimes. It’s important to know this, because otherwise you can think that you’re doing something very wrong, and if you were only smarter/better/more mentally stable, you’d be ok. But you wouldn’t. It’s high stress endeavor, it all seems to be About You Personally (most of it isn’t, really, but nobody in the middle of it believes that, at least not at a gut level), there’s a lot on the table and no way to suss out all the rules. It takes up more time than it logically should; it slurps up more of your teaching/writing energies than it logically should; it makes you need to eat more chocolate than you logically should. So it’s important to be good to yourself and just ride it out as best you can. The good thing is, the insanity prepares you pretty well for the first year on the job. ;-) (Those of you who think you stayed entirely sane during your jobsearch, you just keep quiet now. You’re likely due for a breakout of Post-Jobsearch Stress Disorder any day now, and you wouldn’t want to hurry it along. <grin> All your friends who stood by you through it all know better, anyway; they just didn’t have the heart to say so.) Some of the most useful advice I got re: the job market includes: 1) Do what ever you do—note cards, emails to yourself, conversations with family or friends—to make sure you are fluent in what you already know (which is a great deal); ‹ Reading the Job Ad | Job Search Advice.Home Page | Readings and Resources › |