Friday, May 15, 2009

Why this list and why should i help?

This blog is to help reduce the stress associated with faculty recruitment in departments of computer and electrical engineering and sciences in the USA and Canada. For all of us who went through this process, it is a very stressful process. One of the factors of the stress is having everything unknown. We are not sure which schools has positions. After spending days identifying the job openings, we sent out our applications and wait. This wait time is in months until we start to hear from search committees. Some of us have to wait till May to hear back that we were not selected for even a telephone interview. It will definitely help to find out earlier in order to re-manage our lives and find other possible jobs.

Why should I email the blog if I was short-listed or selected for telephone interview for one school?
You will definitely want to email us in one way to increase your chances to be selected for another interview. That is, when one school finds one you were selected for another one, the search committee might revise your application one more time after they discarded it and will contact your for an interview. Furthermore, you are also letting other departments know that you are a qualified candidate who is getting interviews from other departments, and that you are in the academic job market.This way, you are definitely increasing your chances of getting an academic interview.

Why Should I email the blog if I accepted or denied one academic position which i was offered?
We all went through the painful time of waiting to hear from search committees on the outcome of our interviews. Dont you think you would like to know if your collegue who was interviwing for the same position as you got the job, such that you can find out other alternatives? If you are the one who got the job, dont you want to share this news with your friends and community? By emailing the website, you are also announcing it to other faculty who might be writing your tenure-reviwing letters,,, so, it is to your advantage to let them see your name coming up as a faculty in the news. It is also adds a prestige to our own school where you are graduting from, which will allow other faculty to invite more candidates from. This, in turn will improve the ranking of your school, and benefit you personally on the long run.

Who is managing this list?
I am another faculty candidate who have been through this process of interviews, and was very frustrated by the extent of secrecy that search committee take during their hiring process. It is not an easy process to fly all the away across the country and spend two of the most stressful days of your life in the academic interview process.... then hear nothing for a month till the committee comes back to you. The committee neither gives you feedback on your interview, nor tells you how to improve your skills for next interview. Therefore, I decided to take the initiave and break this secrecy process by establishing this blog.

How should I contact the blog?
send us an email at

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