tenure and other issues for country-hopping professionals

[biascut]

Hiya. I'm in my fourth year of my PhD at a UK university, which means I don't get any more funding and I have to hand in by September. (I could theoretically enter the job market now, but the advice I've been getting from my supervisor and my peers who are a few years ahead of me is to get the damn thing written and handed in, and then go on the

Comments

[elricmelnibone]

several dozen applications for one post

This has to be one of the funniest things I've read in a long time. Several dozen applicants for a position in English literature. Ha!

[biascut]

Eh, it's been a long time since I worked in HR, but whilst it would vary wildly depending on the institution and whether or not a particular period/specialism were sought, I don't think that's a bad estimate for an entry level position in the UK or Ireland.

[eye_of_a_cat]

Can't speak for Ireland, but the numbers I've heard run at around 80-100 applications for the average entry-level post in the UK. Lots of them will be from people who don't meet the requirements for one reason or another, though.

[biascut]

I'd count that as several dozen - perhaps we have different definitions of several! I was thinking of a friend who got her first job at Huddersfield (in Music, rather than English) from a pool of seventy applicants.

[elricmelnibone]

I also don't know if this is true for positions outside the US, but there is no US institution that would hire you on the tenure-track but wait 20 years before granting you tenure. Your first tenure review would be roughly 6 years after date of hire, and if you don't make it (some schools will allow you a second chance), then you are out of work.

[biascut]

Ah, OK. I was basing that on the character in Zadie Smith's On Beauty, who has been teaching for thirty years and is still waiting for tenure. But she's British too, so not a particularly authoritative source.

[elricmelnibone]

Well, I would not use fiction as the basis for the job market. Any person still waiting for tenure after 30 years should really rethink her career path.

[nesf]

There is no such thing as tenure per se in Ireland anyway. You are either offered a permanent contract or temporary contract (a year or whatever). There is no tenure track or time limit in which to prove yourself (well, formally at least). But then there are salary caps and such within the permanent job structure that you need to "get over". You might be stuck for years at the same wage level until you get made statutory etc.

UCC Academic Vacancies: http://www.ucc.ie/en/hr/EmploymentOpportunities/AcademicVacancies/

[biascut]

Thanks - I'm living in Dublin at the moment with my Irish girlfriend (who's also completing her PhD), so I'm fairly familiar with the Irish system, although I'm much more into knowing the precise details of the salary structure, pensions and union situation than she is!

Lots of the Irish vacancies come up on jobs.ac.uk actually, and I would seriously love to get something here and be able to stay in Dublin. But academia is not exactly the best profession in the world for being able to pick and choose where you want to live, especially in the early stages.

[nesf]

Tell me about it. My partner is finishing her PhD in Irish and looking to work as a lecturer, I'm further down the studies ladder and the odds of the two of us getting work in the same university in this country are small. Throw in a baby and us owning a place in Cork, and wanting to stay here, and I've got to look at working outside of academia unless I get really lucky.

[nesf]

Oh and read the file here: http://www.ucc.ie/en/hr/EmploymentOpportunities/AcademicVacancies/LecturerinEnglishOldEnglish/

It has a nice run down of the salary scale. I believe that to progress beyond 81K you must apply and get statutory, and then that tops out somewhere in the 90s from what I remember from conversations with senior lecturers. After that you must either get Associate or Full Professor and they have their own salary scales but honestly I don't remember them.

[helixaspersa]

Don't really have much to add to this, because although I spent a year in the States it was a while ago and I wasn't yet paying much attention. Others have already said all that I know about tenure off the top of my head

[biascut]

I applied for a JRF this week, actually! - which is probably the last academic application I'll make this year. I'm really quite into the idea of taking a year out to work in the private sector, staying in Dublin and being able to finish my thesis, viva, and then prepare articles and research proposals at a slightly more leisured pace

[owl_of_minerva]

Looking through the thread it seems that everything has been answered, so all I'll add is that the tenure system basically works more or less the same in the US and Canada, at least as far as I can tell.

[biascut]

thanks!