I'm back. Didja know I was gone?
I spent the beginning of the week finishing the first draft of my thesis and preparing for an interview at a university. I spent the end of the week undergoing the interview.
The thesis is a monstrosity; it's already over 200 pages, and I'm quite certain that it'll be much longer before all is said and done. I left out two proofs that, in retrospect, I'm 99% sure my advisor will want me to add. (Grumble grumble.) On the positive side, I do like the structure of the thesis, and I learned a lot already by writing it. I wonder if these were things that I shouldn't have learned already? eep!
Interviewing for a position as a university professor is a complicated affair that required three days. Everything is part of the interview, I'm told — everything, including the meals.
In this case, I was required to:
It was a lot of fun. I hope they like me better than the other two candidates they're inviting, partly because I really want a job as a university professor and no one else seems to be inquiring; and partly because what they can offer is probably one of the best environments I could find.
In case you're wondering, the two papers I've been writing for several months now are still not done; in fact, I am adding new material to them constantly. Part of this is popular demand (i.e., my PhD committee) while part of it is an idea I had while visiting the university. The idea has been percolating a while; I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner.
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8 comments:
Hi Jack,
Best wishes for the result of the job interview. I also hope they choose you over the remaining candidates. Do you like the Chronicle? They have lots of articles and columns about job hunting for academic jobs, in case you're not familiar with it.
oh, and in case you need a few pointers about how to answer if you can multi-task well, I have excellent hints :-)
Hi Alessandra,
Thanks :-) There's hope if Lamar doesn't take me: another university contacted me today and arranged a phone interview.
I don't know what you mean by "the Chronicle", so I can't really say if I like it. Do you have a link?
I have an easy answer for people who ask if I multi-task well: NO. I tend to obsess on the problem at hand. :-(
Fortunately, no one asked that question :-)
Hi Jack,
here it is:
http://chronicle.com/
It's a well known publication for and about higher ed. You can read a bit for free, but most of the interesting stuff requires a subscription. Fortunately, it's not expensive, you can subscribe online only too, even cheaper.
They also post a lot of job openings, aside from first-person accounts of people looking for jobs, hiring, and doing other academia stuff.
p.s. do all comments get forwarded to your email? I left a comment on one of your older posts, that's why I ask...
Okay, yes, I do know about the Chronicle of Higher Education. I actually don't like the publication very much; it seems that every time I look at it, it's grinding some political axe, and always from a particular point of view.
But, thanks for pointing it out. I'll peruse the job ads.
do all comments get forwarded to your email?No. If there's a way to do that, I haven't yet figured it out. I don't use HaloScan comments, if that makes a different. What was the topic where you commented?
About the Chronicle, yes, it´s about academic politics. However, as I mentioned, they not only have the job ads, but there are also people who write about what looking for a job was like, how the interview process was, etc.
my other comment is here:
http://cantanima.blogspot.com/2004/10/maybe-million-are-too-many.html
p.s. with Haloscan you can have the comments forwarded to your email, although I'm not sure how well it works.
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