By Jessica Riddell. I’ve recently had three opportunities to think about ways that scholarly activity is evaluated (and, therefore, valued) within the academy: first, as I compiled my sabbatical report and had to account for a year’s worth of productivity; second, when I was asked to serve as an external reviewer for a full professor-ship at a different university; and, third, during a retreat with the 2015 cohort of the 3M National Teaching Fellows. More...

By Jonathan Thon. There are many bottlenecks during an academic job hunt, but the fallout from your first year of interviews is by far the most trying. In my experience, it was between the initial interview and the tentative offer of employment that I saw the majority of my options fizzle. While there will be a lot of competition (typically hundreds of applications per tenure-track position and increasingly high expectations of the applicants), it should be noted that many universities unofficially screen desired candidates before posting academic job searches. More...

By David Kent. The words stick in my head because of the fury they inspired when they were uttered. One of my closest academic mentors gave me advice about job hunting during my postdoctoral fellowship: “Don’t mess about with lots of possibilities. Just apply for what you want and then get it.” Sounds simple, right? I didn’t think so. More...

By Melonie Fullick. On February 11th I participated in the Confronting Precarious Academic Work conference put on by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations. More...

By Jennifer Polk. I recently spoke with a humanities PhD who’s having difficulty securing meaningful employment. After a one-year stint as a professor soon after he graduated, he’s worked for a private company for the past 18 months. “General office work,” he told me. More...

By Jennifer Polk. One of the pieces of advice I give people considering their options after a PhD is to take risks. Not big ones, but small ones. One at a time. More...