Friday, December 27, 2013

Rejected!


I really do appreciate the schools that email me early on saying they don't want me.  Although the rejection email I got today was weird because this school requested letters from my references.  Does this mean my references wrote bad ones?  My guess would be 'no', but I'll never know.  GMP from The Academic Jungle commented on a previous post of mine writing that I shouldn't read too much into the letters.  I didn't fit in their department, whether because of pedigree, research background, research interest, teaching interests, or all of the above.  Here's what's interesting: I have an 'in' at the university, and they've let me in on some details:

The people they're bringing in are all in a specific field that I'm not in.  I applied to the position because it was a broad posting.  If you're looking for a specific type of candidate, why waste your time on a broad posting and reviewing applications that aren't tied into what you're looking for?  You're wasting your's and all the applicants' time.  Secondly, all the finalists are in an underrepresented demographic.  My demographic is underrepresented, but these are in the stratosphere of underrepresentation (I've never typed underrepresented so much!).  The university wants to diversify, so that's their deal, but I've never once hired with sex, race, tattoos in mind.  I find the best candidate.  I'm sure there are other factors at play, this is just what my 'inside person' told me.

This particular school is an R1 with a department that I'm not a fan of.  However, I adore the city.  I could see myself settling down in that college town.  I guess it's not meant to be.  I still have other opportunities, and I’m going to nail those interviews!

I decided to add an extra category to the job count: Outright Rejections.  Though it'd be a fun addition.  The slash shows how many schools I applied for so far.

Outright Rejections (their loss): 3/29
Phone/Skype interviews offered: 10
Phone/Skype interviews accepted: 3
1st campus visits offered: 0
1st campus visits accepted: 0
2nd campus visits offered: 0
2nd campus visits accepted: 0
Offers: 0

6 comments:

  1. Keep your head up! We need more gals that speak their mind!

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    1. I'm not sure where you got this gal thing...

      But thanks for the encouragement!

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  2. Although the rejection email I got today was weird because this school requested letters from my references. Does this mean my references wrote bad ones? My guess would be 'no', but I'll never know.

    It likely means you made the short list (maybe 10-15) so they asked for letters, but did not make the short-short list (whoever they intereview, 3-5). Although it's never a bad idea to ask yourself if your letter writers are douchey, or simply didn't submit letters on time.

    The university wants to diversify, so that's their deal, but I've never once hired with sex, race, tattoos in mind. I find the best candidate. I'm sure there are other factors at play, this is just what my 'inside person' told me.

    I would love to hire based on tattoos! I used to think just hire the best person and don't worry about this underrepresentation business. However, when you start reading the research on unconscious bias, you see that "the best" is very loaded, and that multiple biases work against female and minority candidates. I am a woman and have caught myself discriminating against women; it's a very sobering experience. There is also research into how people write letters for women and men, how for women one of the typical 4 segments of a letter is usually missing, how their personal lives are often emphasized while professional underemphasized, how people literally use different verbs to describe comparable men and women.
    Anyway, "the best" is not objective, as we all have built-in biases and it's good to try to correct for them; I am now in favor of affirmative action because there is so much system-level crap going on to keep underrepresented minorities where they are that a focused boost is a must. It turns out the people who consider themselves the most objective can in fact be the most biased, because they outright reject the notion that they might be biased; I have certainly seen that in a few of my relatively young male colleagues and it saddens me.

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  3. Just came across your blog - lots of great content already, thanks for writing.

    I'm curious about the fact that only 3 of 10 phone interviews have been accepted. Are you planning to accept all the rest or if not, why not?

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    1. Thanks for reading!

      I need to carve out time for the interviews, so I've accepted the ones from the schools I would most like to be at. This month is always the craziest month of the year. The other 7 have said they are fine with waiting a few weeks. I just told them that I have to find time when work isn't crazy. They seem to be pretty accommodating.

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  4. GMP: I completely agree about the hidden biases people have. I know I have it when hiring and realized after I was told that the people I was hiring were close to my demographic. I started to ask more people for input when hiring, but it's still there. Another group in my company (my group's closest competition) is full of white dudes, and they are inferior to mine. The thing that tipped my 'most qualified' opinion was when I was forced to hire someone fresh out of grad school (in my demographic...not the majority) over someone with a PhD and 5 years of industrial experience for the same salary and same-level position. After a year of watching this person fail at every project I tactfully shifted this person to another group. I think the underrepresentation stuff is very important, but there must be a way to balance talent with demographic. I just don't know what other that consulting people in different groups within my company.

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