Conference time and job market time is here!
The summer has gone by so fast. It’s been a blur of teaching, planning lectures, and grading. I appreciate so much having the teaching experience, but lecturing 4 times a week is killer. It’s too much packed in a too short a period of time and it’s hard for the students and for me. Fortunately, they’re all giving presentations this week so I don’t have to prep anything (although I do have grading to do) so that I can get ready for the conference and interviews.
Early Friday morning I leave for 7 glorious days in San Francisco. Well, four glorious days, after 3 days at the conference, complete with interviews, receptions, presentations, and suit jackets. I even had a horrible dream last night that I was having an interview and someone asked me what my dissertation was about and I blanked and couldn’t remember. Fun.
I’m having serious flash backs to last summer at this time– buying new clothes, photocopying my CV. But, last summer I was so wonderfully optimistic about getting a job. It was fantastic to be that sure– it shielded me from others freaking out, and mostly from any nagging self-doubt. This year, while I’m told that I’m a much stronger candidate than I was before (and I do know it), I’m also much more aware of the fact that the market crumbled last year and that competition this time is even stiffer. It’s hard to forget that more are competing for for potentially fewer positions. Sigh.
So I want the naive optimism back. I need it back. So much of the job market is completely out of the candidate’s control that sitting around and stressing out about things you can’t control is a waste of time and energy. So starting now I’m going to build my own little sound-proof job market cocoon and ignore everything and everyone around me job-market related, send in my best materials, interview and enjoy it, and covet the advice of my advisor and committee.
And I’m SO EXCITED for San Francisco. I’ve never been, and part of me is worried I’ll like it too much (but I’m a Northeast girl!). I have plans to eat great food, see friends, go to alcatraz island, run across the Golden Gate Bridge, and take thousands of pictures at Muir Woods. So if I can just get through the 3 days of academic outfits and dissertation talk, I’ll be richly rewarded!
Good luck! You’re already starting off on better footing than me, what with your use of plural in “interviews” at ASA. I have no interviews scheduled and only one informal meeting about a job.
Best of luck to you. I came over from Fidgetybudgie after reading your wonderful and supportive comment about her “isolation” entry.
good luck! and don’t be afraid of falling in love with SF!