Mark, As competitive as the academic job market is, serendipity is an important factor.
My wife is a historian, and in the early 1990's was looking all over for a "real" academic job, having done several part-time gigs. As we were closing the door to leave for a two-week vacation one August day, the phone rang. After some hesitation, she went to answer it. It was an offer for a one-year, retirement-replacement, full-time teaching job at a state college not too far away, and she took it. Fast forward 15 years: she got the tenure-track job when it opened up, and is now a full professor. Weird. Had we left the house five minutes earlier, who knows? Congratulations again! Rick --- Mark Roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Well sort of. Half, anyway: There's a considerable > separation from > reality, so the "real" part is somewhat dubious. But > I've taught a > college course before, and my mother spent here > career as a college > professor, so I'm well aware of the enormity of the > "job" part of the > deal. Lotsa work involved... > > There's a whole lot of serendipity involved in my > getting this job. I > picked up the Sunday (July 16) Pittsburgh > Post-Gazette classified ads > on Monday morning after a busy Sunday. I noticed > this teaching > position at Youngstown State University (in Ohio) > that looked > tailor-made for me so I made a note to apply for it. > It hadn't been in > the previous week's paper so I didn't think there > would be any urgency > about it, even though something in the back of my > mind thought it was > late in the year for this kind of position to be > advertised. > > I didn't get around to preparing my application > materials until > Tuesday afternoon, at which point I noticed that the > application > deadline was Wednesday, July 19 - the next day! I > continued scrambling > to get materials together and zapped off a quick > email to them asking > if it was OK to apply via email or if they wanted > hard copy (I > mentioned, while hoping not to sound too desperate, > that I'd be > willing to drive up Wednesday if necessary). On > Wednesday morning I > got a reply saying email would be fine (I was just > getting ready to > get in my car to drive up there) so I sent of an > email with a ton of > attachments. > > On Thursday morning I got a phone call asking if I > could come up to > interview and give a brief demonstration lecture on > Tuesday. > > So I spent the weekend preparing my presentation and > drove up Tuesday > morning. The woman who had led the search committee > recognized me from > my web page head shot (thanks Cesar!) and I > discovered that she: > > Also lives in Pittsburgh and commutes to Youngstown > And lives less than two miles from me > Did the same master's program at Duquesne University > that I did > And her husband teaches at Duquesne > And that she knows the guy with whom I taught the > sound course at > Duquesne last year > > Anyway, my presentation wen *very* well on Tuesday > and they called me > at 9:00 Wednesday morning and offered me the job! > > Job officially starts on Aug 16 (classes begin Aug > 28) but I'm going > to be up to my eyeballs in preparation until then. I > suspect the > teaching workload with new (to me) classes will > severely cut down my > PDML participation time from now on. Whether that's > good or bad is > another matter ;-) > > -- > Mark Roberts Photography & Multimedia > www.robertstech.com > 412-687-2835 > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > http://www.photo.net/photos/RickW __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
