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Stage 4 - Job Search

Going on the Job Market

The MLA Job List is published in early October and is the start of the “job market season.” When you go on the job market, you will have access, through the Graduate Division, to the MLA on-line job list. Hard copies of the job lists also are available for perusal in the Graduate Division. There is a smaller CCCC job service that is also available to you. Most preliminary interviews for jobs are held at the annual meeting of the Modern Language Association in late December.

The decision to go on the job market ideally should be made in the spring prior to the job-search season. You should be in good contact with the department’s Placement Coordinator, an individual who is in charge of helping all PhD students in their job search. Beginning sometimes in the previous spring and continuing through the next fall, the Department holds vita-writing workshops, mock interviews, and other informational meetings that you should attend. You will need to compile a dossier, including your vita, writing sample, and letters of recommendation to keep on hand in the Graduate Division. The Graduate Division mails out dossiers when they are requested by schools to which you have applied.

In the year you are looking for a job, you should be prepared to devote a good deal of time between September and February to the search. Letters of application are sent out in October and November, MLA interviews are held in December, and on-campus interviews occur generally in January and February. Your dissertation director is the best guide to the timing of your job search and you should remain in good contact with your director throughout the process. In terms of timing, the further along on your dissertation the better. When there is product, your recommenders are able to write specifically about your project and its progress. You also may be quizzed hard about your project–and when it will be completed–during MLA interviews and need to be able to talk about it lucidly and definitively. And the job search will drain time away from your work on the dissertation. However, it is true that the job market for candidates in rhetoric and composition remains robust, especially in comparison to jobs in literature, and so it is normal to apply for jobs while the dissertation is in progress.

Useful Links

All purpose information
Chronicle Careers Tools and Resources

Job Listings & Information
Rhetoric and Composition Job Wiki 2009
MLA (ADE) Job Information List
Chronicle of Higher Education Job Search
Inside Higher Education Job Search
Higher Ed Jobs

CV Advice
"CV for the academic job market" (@ CrookedTimber)

News

Congratulations to these Comp/Rhet graduates who have accepted job offers for Fall 2010:

• Scot Barnett, Assistant Professor of English, Clemson University
• Rik Hunter, Assistant Professor of English, St. John Fisher College
• Tim Laquintano, Assistant Professor of English, Lafayette College
• Annette Vee, Assistant Professor of English, University of Pittsburgh
• Kate Vieira, Assistant Professor of English, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
• Mira Shimabukuro, Highline Community College (tenure-track position)