On job aps and caffeine

My long silence has, in fact, been a moment of significant transition. I have finished writing the dissertation and graduated - by the skin of my teeth (and thanks to the magic of my advisor). Normally, I would begin adjunct teaching the fall, but I live in the educational wasteland of California where economic conservatism is winning the battle to eradicate public education. As a result, I've cast my net wide and applied for a government job last week. This was comparatively easier than the academic job applications I completed over the past several months. The ad asked only for a resume, transcripts, and on-line responses to about 80 questions, which, themselves, consisted of "have you ever completed a long-term project that required consistent focus and work outside of the normal work day?" Oh yes, I have.

I am not entirely optimistic about this one - the pool of applicants will, necessarily, be larger. But I do know that I am eminently qualified, which may work in my favor.

As I seek to broaden my job-seeking net, I am simultaneously struggling with my affection for caffeinated beverages. Long ago, my doctor warned me to stay off of them, so I gave up coffee and adopted a less-perilous tea affinity. Since completing my "long-term project," I've tried to wean myself entirely from caffeine (though not from soothing hot beverages, sweetened with milk and honey). Quite a challenge. Surprisingly, I've found that I miss coffee all the more.

My mate is a dedicated coffee-drinker, so we have plenty of this delightful nectar. And I allowed myself a small cup this morning, much to my delight. It was, indeed, just as magical and marvelous as I remembered.

oh my

My Spring Break last week included a visit to Knott's Berry farm where I did not go on Toyota's "Supreme Scream."

This ride takes on such a different connotation. I wonder if that is a Prius?

my overdue AHA comment...

I attended the annual AHA meeting several weeks ago in lovely San Diego and have been mulling my thoughts about it during my brief moments of down time. (I am furiously revising in the hope of finishing in March even though Advisor still wants three rounds of revisions. Sigh.)

The AHA was good overall. I ran into friends I hadn't seen in a while and met some new cool people right from the start. Also, it was sunny and warm. This was my first AHA, but veterans tell me that usually the meeting is dreary and tense. Their near-universal approval of this one seems to boil down to changes: 1) a horrible job market which kept all of the job-seekers - and their conference-infiltrating panic - away, and 2) the southern California sun. Precedent indicates that next year's conference in Boston will be much less pleasant because all Boston can offer is grey skies and snow.

The job market was, indeed, as bad as all the rumors made it out to be. I applied for 20 jobs and got one interview, which, as I discovered, was a small miracle (since I'm ABD and don't attend a top-tier school). I think this speaks to the strength of my project(s) and breadth of training (in public and world history as well as US). Anyway, the interview went fine but not well and I walked away from our very pleasant conversation know that I would not have a campus interview. I'm ok with that. I also applied for only one job through the job registry. This list was sickeningly short. There were less than twenty jobs posted and only a couple in U.S. (and these wanted someone who could teach every aspect of world and US history and supervise interns and teach public history - basically everything). I'll be heading to Boston next year, so I comment then on whether there is any improvement or not.

The boycott was... disappointing. I knew that HERE planned to coordinate a boycott long before the conference and I supported the issues that motivated it. I also thought that the AHA took appropriate steps to use the Manchester hotel as a forum to discuss LGBT issues and the controversies over same-sex marriage. The hotel is not unionized and HERE (smartly) wouldn't say that they were trying to unionize workers there (let's hope so; they deserve union representation). This is why I didn't accept the unsolicited offer by one AHA member to reschedule my session for me in a different hotel. I also didn't feel remorse when I walked past the 3-4 person picket line rallied outside the Manchester on Friday.

Boycotting the Manchester turned out to be easy. I spent some time there but no money; that hotel was way beyond the means of graduate students, new faculty, and even some tenured faculty. The rooms were over-priced and so was all the food (in table-service only restaurants). I had to walk next door to the Marriott to find food at the Starbucks, which ran out by 1 PM because 60% of attendees also went for breakfast and lunch.

What I saw of the conference sessions were predicable, some good papers, some good comments. I didn't attend many because the AHA is exhausting and I needed down time. So, this is what I got from my AHA: meet up with friends, try to attend sessions, avoid the job registry, eat good food, and remember to relax.

something to chew on...

I'm off to the AHA, under a particularly grim cloud that hangs over the profession. Here's the AHA's guru on the state of the profession, Robert Townsend's take on the job market.

If you're brave enough to read the above article then be sure to follow that up with the insightful questions Brainstorm asks of demand- and supply-side factors in the history job "market."

hunting

I just submitted my twentieth job application. I have only a few more to go. This effort has paid off; I have an interview, which was my highest expectation heading into the process the academic job hunt.

I've noticed that as the job hunting season heads into its twilight the application requirements are becoming more and more strange. The earliest applications were straight-forward and predictable: letter, CV, writing sample, maybe a teaching statement. Now, I encounter requests for a statement of scholarly philosophy, employment forms, and on-line applications (not to mention proof of membership in the Lutheran Sanhedrin - I couldn't apply for that one). The forms and on-line application are particularly tedious since they appear designed for the hiring of staff ("list your employment history for the past ten years") and the CV I submit with my applications is always more detailed than I could be in the form/ap.

But only a few more weeks of unusual requests, (*sigh*) for this year.

insanity by degrees

1000 words.

That is what I still need to cut from my article manuscript in order to meet the miserly guidelines of the review committee. And don't think that these are reasonable guidelines. I am supposed to submit a 7000 word essay (including footnotes)!! Who writes journal articles like that?! 7000 words is graduate-seminar essay length; it begins to tell a story but can't do it justice. Still, I think if the reviewers read the beginning of my story, they will be so enthralled that they'll want to read the full 13,000 word version. Let's hope so! Cross your fingers for me.


(This must be driving me nuts because it prompted me to update my blog!)

meeting the standards

California grade-schoolers work all year in preparation to pass the state standards exam. Here's a sample worksheet that is supposed to help them meet those standards.* Click on the image for a better view.

*and it passes on the tradition of ethno-racial stereotyping