how to get a job as a professor, part 2

February.

The search committee starts calling the references of those candidates whose applications haven't already been thrown out. They call everyone on my reference list. Then they start calling everyone they know at the schools I've been associated with, regardless of whether or not I've listed these people as references. Then they start calling other people whom they think might know me for some other reason. If I'm one of the candidates being asked about, my references generally call me to let me know. Those candidates whose references manage to paint a sufficiently rosy picture make it to the short list.

If I'm one of the shining few shortlisted candidates for a job, I receive my second communication from the search committee. (If not, I wait by the phone with my hands folded neatly in my lap.) The communication I receive is a request for a telephone interview.

A week or two later, the telephone interview takes place. Sometimes this is with the entire search committee on speaker phone; sometimes the committee divides up the short list of candidates and each committee member calls two or three people. It lasts about a half hour and is quite possibly the most difficult part of the whole process, at least for me. The search committee compares notes on the telephone interviews and shortens the list again. Those who remain are finalists.

I wait.

March passes into April, and interview season is upon us. The search committee may make a second round of calls to the finalists' references (who, at this point, have now written a letter and taken two phone calls in my praise--are they really saying anything new?), after which they decide which two or three finalists they'd like to interview. By this time, some of the top candidates may no longer be in the running, having gotten orchestra jobs, so there are generally one or two other "finalists" in reserve to be interviewed if necessary.

If I'm one of the chosen few, I receive my next communication from the search committee. This is to set up an on-campus interview. I pull out my credit card and book a flight and hotel, for which I am promised reimbursement at some vague future date. I pull out my suit (yes, I have one) and cry because the pants don't fit anymore. I make an emeregency shopping trip for new, larger pants. I amass more paper proof of my excellence: worksheets I've made, an academic paper I've written, programs from recitals I've played. I have this neatly bound at Kinko's and copied for each search committee member.

I get on a plane. I get on another plane. I arrive at a Holiday Inn. I sleep, maybe.

Then, the interview begins. Generally there are several things that need to happen during an interview day: an actual face-to-face interview with the search committee, another one with the dean, sometimes (if it's a small school) yet another with the president or another high-level administrator. A recital, performed by me, for which I am given half an hour to rehearse with the university's staff accompanist. A sample lesson with a member of the university's studio. A sample lecture on another topic I'm prepared to teach (for example, music theory). An "informal" meeting with students. And, of course, breakfast, lunch, and dinner with the search committee.

I return to the hotel. I call Husband and cry tears of exhaustion. I fly home, and I wait.

I wait and wait and wait.

May.

The search committee, the dean, and the provost agree on which candidate should receive the offer. That person is called with the good news, and is given some time (usually 2-3 weeks) to make a decision and to negotiate an offer. The rest of the finalists hear nothing.

Finally the chosen candidate accepts or rejects the university's offer. If s/he accepts, the department secretary sends a form letter to all rejected candidates (including those who didn't make it to the phone interview, and who haven't heard anything since December) informing them that the pool of candidates was exceptional; however...

If, though, the chosen candidate rejects the offer, the negotiation process begins again with the second choice. The third interviewee continues to wait. The rest of the candidates have been assuming they were rejected for months now.