Job searches suck from either side!

This is the great realization from this week.

A few years ago, when I was on the market, I lamented at length the strenuousness of the process. Putting together a strong application packet is a lot of work -- and it should be. Good proposals are not just hard to come up with, they are hard to write. Cover letters are some sort of black magic. And then, there's the interview circuit. The overwhelming feeling of being under a microscope at all times, of giving the same talks over and over again and suddenly drowning in deja vue. And after all of that, the petty negotiating over startup costs, and finally the my-god-what-have-I-done panic.

Now, a bit down the road, I'm the associate chair on our current search committee, and we're filling multiple positions. I've read nearly 150 applications in the last weeks, and I thought that was hard. It turns out, coping (as a committee leader, and our subdiscipline head) with the interviewing is even worse. I haven't had time to do my own research in weeks (although there was an amazingly blissful interlude recently, see below).

I learned an amazing amount about the process, and some of the things I believed as I went through as a candidate have been validated, others not. The biggest thing I've learned is that the cover letter is the single most important part of the packet -- because in a field of 150, you have to make the first cut, and if the cover letter doesn't scream "this is a great, detailed, careful, insightful, and brilliant person," I'm going on to the next candidate. My time is too valuable, too over-committed right now, to spend on anyone who can't make a good first impression.

But now, the interviews have started. Wow, the hours of shepherding from meeting to meeting, of checking and rechecking itenaries, of browbeating lazier (or, conceivably, savier) other faculty into signing up, of holding one's breath, waiting for the goofball member to say something either stupid or offensive (usually the latter, or a combination of the two). And the candidates -- some are as good as their packets suggested. Others -- Oh. My. God. Some hints -- don't contradict members of the faculty during your proposal talk, especially if you have to say "I've been doing X for several years now" (as though that'll clinch it) to somebody who can (and will) reply "Well, I've been doing it for 25." You lose that one, no matter what. Oh, and don't get drunk. If you can't hold your alcohol, don't drink it.

I can't wait for this to be over. I especially can't wait for it to be over and to have landed a couple of really spectacular new faculty members! If I live that long. Sheesh.