Common Courtesy in the Job Market?

[justathought]

just some thoughts here, from the perspective of having been both recently interviewed (with no follow-up from the search committee chair) and involved in a job search where i work. remember, the job search is not the only thing going on in the department, esp. at this time of year. you are applying for a job at a college whose primary business is teaching students: faculty are both interviewing you (after having spent hours reading through hundreds of applications, lost evenings to candidate dinners, afternoons to job talks, etc) as well as teaching several classes (and probably grading final papers, exams), meeting with students, trying to publish, serving on college committees, etc. there is a lot going on and while the job search feels like the most important thing in the world to the applicant, it's just not for everyone else.

yes, it's disappointing not to hear anything. and there are many reasons including waiting for the first choice to say yes/no, incompetence, desire to avoid an uncomfortable "you didn't get the job" conversation. i write this not to excuse the lack of a courtesy rejection phone call, but to contextualize it for those who feel anger about it.

[guest]

I'm sure that the incompetent departments appreciate all of the excuses. Nobody is asking for a phone call, an email letting us know is fine. Nobody expects to be notified before the search is completed, we just want to be notified when the position has been accepted.

Wouldn't it be nice if we let schools know that we expect common courtesy from them rather than providing them with rationalizations.

Many of us will be in a position to give peer assessments for college rankings. I, for one, will take their incompetence on a search into account.

[attention]

Speaking of rejection notifications...

Dear Chairs:

If you're going to post physical letters -- and you should -- pay attention.

When you requested that all your applicants print, sign, and pay to physically mail you their application materials, you became obligated to also physically sign the rejection letter. It takes literally seconds of your time. The pain in your hand is a tribute to how wonderful and enticing your department is. If you can't bear to do it, have a grad student forge your signature.

If, due to some incurable physical malady, you're going to print an electronic signature. First, know that it's still gauche. Second, at least have the decency to make it a good quality reproduction. Do well, and your tackiness won't stand out too horribly. I won't name any names, but I'm looking toward the middle of the state of Ohio. This "signature" looks like it was printed off an Apple ][.

Hugs and kisses,
Candidates

[reinstrumentalist]

If you have been brought in for an interview departments have created a social relationship (albeit one that is heavily one-sided in terms of resources) with all of the exchange/reciprocity obligations that go with that relationship. A department may not care much about this new relationship and may not make the necessary effort to maintain it (exchanging information, extending courtesy etc.) but they do so at their personal/departmental detriment as well. Instrumentalist may be right and that the goal of a search process is not to make a new BFF. However, most candidates will eventually land jobs and do all of the things that effect members of the rejecting department (review papers, tenure cases, admit students, hiring, let the world know that person/department x is bad at professional social relationships). Sociology has taught me that people can be petty dicks, and when put into positions of power and authority they can and often abuse their position and act like a petty dick to get pay back against an enemy real or imagined.

[anonyms]

all this talk of "obligation" and "common curtsy" and the departments owing you something for applying there...departments owe you nothing. Get real. My (non-academic) husband has been unemployed for over a year and has applied to dozens if not hundreds of jobs....99% of them don't even acknowledge they've gotten his application, let alone send along a rejection letter. Why do you feel you should be treated differently? Some specific school should send you a rejection letter cause you *really really* want their job? The chair are obligated to sign your letter by hand (like department chairs have nothing else going on in their jobs)? Why? That's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. You would think that by the time you get to the "almost a professor" stage people would get over their special snowflake syndrome...

Actually academia is much better than pretty much every other field....Last year I did get rejection letters from most if not all schools that I applied to...but some didn't come until May or June.

But the point of this all is...these departments owe you nothing. Life owes you nothing. No one "owes" you a job just because you went through the trouble of getting a PhD. As far as I can recall, there was no contract I signed at the beginning of grad school saying "Complete these phd requirements and we will guarantee you a job." The sooner you realize that life owes you nothing and lose the entitled attitude, the better off you'll be.

[however]

Anonyms,

Academic circles are much smaller than the non-academic world that your husband is a part of. Applicants and selection committess will attend the same conferences, publish in the same papers and engage in common discoures and therefore it is appropropriate to some extent, to extend courtsey to those applicants who have gone though the trouble to:
1. secure letters of recs (from professors that SCs know);
2. have paid money to rush transcripts and priorty mail and'
3. to create extensive dossiers (that are far more extensive than a resume and a letter).

So, I think that departments have some obligation to let applicants know where they stand.

[agreed]

I mostly agree with Anonyms! And seriously, you except a chair of a major department to hand sign 200 or more rejection letters? I hope you never have to apply for a job in the real world.

[ridic]

Search committees owe you nothing special because you "rush" transcripts and priority mail your applications. If you don't have your materials ready, that's your problem.

[also]

Also if you are going to hold it against a department or chair that they did not send you a personalized rejection letter when you later see them at a conference or review their manuscript, then wow! I hope I never reject you!

It would be nice if we were all told where we stand but luckily we have the job boards and can help each other out. Also - with winter break winding down, let's hope we all start hearing good news soon.

[question]

So if you interview at a department, and they hire someone else, do they typically let you know at that point? What are people's experiences?