Today's post is a Special Request post for several clients who are fretting about what to “chat” with faculty about during the informal parts of a campus visit. “What in the world do I talk about??” they inquire. It's always hard to know how to make … [Read more...] about How To Make Small Talk on Your Campus Visit
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Graduate School Is Not Your Job.
For today's post I direct you to my latest Chronicle column, entitled “Graduate School Is A Means To A Job.” It is an expanded edition of the post I published about two weeks ago, “Dr. Karen's Rules of Graduate School.” As I said in that post, too … [Read more...] about Graduate School Is Not Your Job.
Don’t Go To Graduate School (An Inadvertent Guest Post)
This post shares an email sent to me last week by a good friend, an NTT English professor with a secure and well-compensated ongoing position in English at an R1 institution. This email is a follow-up to an email she had forwarded the week before, … [Read more...] about Don’t Go To Graduate School (An Inadvertent Guest Post)
The “Be Yourself” Myth: Performing the Academic Self on the Job Market
Today's post is a reprint of my recent column in Inside Higher Ed, called "The 'Be Yourself' Myth." As some of you know, I write an occasional column for IHE under the theme "Academic Mythbusters." I take a prevailing delusion that afflicts … [Read more...] about The “Be Yourself” Myth: Performing the Academic Self on the Job Market
Academic Capitalism and the Shame of It All
The Professor and Family are skiing this week in the Cascades (Hoodoo for anyone interested). In place of my usual Thursday post I am posting a link to one of the best pieces I've read in a long time about the crisis and the shame of the academic job … [Read more...] about Academic Capitalism and the Shame of It All
Many Joys of the Videoconference Interview (A Guest Post)
This guest post is by a client who is a 2012 Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literature. She wrote last week to tell me of her success in scoring a top-ranked multi-year fellowship. In the email she alluded to a catastrophic skype interview. … [Read more...] about Many Joys of the Videoconference Interview (A Guest Post)
How Not To Invite The Professor To Your Campus
This past week a group of graduate students in one department at the University of Oregon approached their Chair and requested that I be invited by the department to give an intensive workshop on professionalization and the job market. The Chair, a … [Read more...] about How Not To Invite The Professor To Your Campus
What Should Graduate Students Ask Candidates? A Special Request Post
Continuing on my theme of speaking directly to current graduate students, today's post is a Special Request post for a graduate student reader who contacted me to ask what kinds of questions she and her peers should be asking the job candidates … [Read more...] about What Should Graduate Students Ask Candidates? A Special Request Post
What To Do Now in Grad School (Special Request Post)
Apologies for missing Tuesday's post and then delaying on Thursday's post. I had a family health crisis (thankfully, fully resolved) that kept me away from the computer this week. Today's post is a Special Request post for K, who asks, what can a … [Read more...] about What To Do Now in Grad School (Special Request Post)
Dr. Karen’s (Partial) Rules of the Job Talk
I've been asked by many readers to write about the Job Talk. I've resisted doing this because I believe that by the time you are writing your job talk, any meaningful advice has to be completely personalized. In other words, general rules about job … [Read more...] about Dr. Karen’s (Partial) Rules of the Job Talk