As a further attempt to think about my past failures as useful (and maybe even helpful) learning experiences for myself and others – see the previous blog posts I did on my publication rejection record 1, 2and 3– I thought I’d try to work out my job application rejection record to see what (or maybe even just if) I’ve learned anything. I’m assuming I have as I’m now where I am, but I also thought it’d be interesting to try to document my personal history in this way.
One of the things that motivated me to write this was a recent blog article in The Guardian on the lack of interview feedback we get when we apply to different universities. The lack of feedback is really unhelpful, but as I commented below The Guardian post (guess which one is me!), I think this may be because it’s very difficult to give feedback which goes beyond something like: “someone else fitted the post better”. Since it has become increasingly difficult to find secure academic jobs in the last few years – which I don’t think can just be down to the current economic gloom but has something to do with broader issues with the structure of the academic job market [see here for my take on this] – I thought it might be helpful to share my experiences on the job market. I’m only going to go back to 2004 when I first got a job as a research fellow at the University of Glasgow. I was midway through my PhD at that time and moved for multiple reasons, including personal reasons, a desire to move back to Scotland and the opportunities of the job itself.
So here goes …[see next post]