Improvement
Well, it's official. The 2005-2006 job search is better than the 2004-2005 job search.
Last year, I had one phone interview for a tenure-track job.
As of tomorrow at 1:30pm, I will have had two phone interviews for tenure-track jobs. Western Washington, as has been chronicled here, already gave me the cold shoulder, but yesterday, I was contacted by Gonzaga University (Spokane, WA) for a phone interview for their vacant position. The position will require teaching biochemistry and organic chemistry, one of which I can do easily, the other of which I can do with a little brushing up on my organic skills.
There are a few things about this that amuse me:
1) I'd finally come to terms with the fact that I wasn't going to get a permanent job this year, that everyone had already completed their hiring process and I wasn't a part of it. The chances are good, even if this doesn't work out, that I can spend another year here at Whitman, which takes some of the pressure off.
2) Apparently I am only allowed to interview for jobs in Washington state.
3) Gonzaga, as you may or may not know, is a Jesuit school. As you may or may not know, I am an atheist. The irony is delicious, don't you think? Still, in the reading I've done on the Gonzaga website about their philosophy, if I were going to work at a non-secular school, I'd want to work at a Jesuit school. An address from the university president on the website suggests that all human beings are inherently scientists in their understanding that their knowledge of the world is imperfect and the desire to expand it is one of the highest callings. Which I think is a fantastic philosophy. I just don't happen to personally agree that there is a perfect intelligence (i.e. "God") at the end of the search.
Last year, I had one phone interview for a tenure-track job.
As of tomorrow at 1:30pm, I will have had two phone interviews for tenure-track jobs. Western Washington, as has been chronicled here, already gave me the cold shoulder, but yesterday, I was contacted by Gonzaga University (Spokane, WA) for a phone interview for their vacant position. The position will require teaching biochemistry and organic chemistry, one of which I can do easily, the other of which I can do with a little brushing up on my organic skills.
There are a few things about this that amuse me:
1) I'd finally come to terms with the fact that I wasn't going to get a permanent job this year, that everyone had already completed their hiring process and I wasn't a part of it. The chances are good, even if this doesn't work out, that I can spend another year here at Whitman, which takes some of the pressure off.
2) Apparently I am only allowed to interview for jobs in Washington state.
3) Gonzaga, as you may or may not know, is a Jesuit school. As you may or may not know, I am an atheist. The irony is delicious, don't you think? Still, in the reading I've done on the Gonzaga website about their philosophy, if I were going to work at a non-secular school, I'd want to work at a Jesuit school. An address from the university president on the website suggests that all human beings are inherently scientists in their understanding that their knowledge of the world is imperfect and the desire to expand it is one of the highest callings. Which I think is a fantastic philosophy. I just don't happen to personally agree that there is a perfect intelligence (i.e. "God") at the end of the search.