There are many things worth dabbling in: Pokeman Go!, the arts, alternative medicine, old films, astrology, gourmet cuisine….the list could go on and on. I really like when people, including graduate students, tell me they are dabbling in these things or other hobbies. It’s probably going to help both their productivity and their overall happiness.
As much as I like “dabblers” in those types of things, here’s one that I’m really tired of graduate students saying they’re dabbling in:
The Academic Job Market
Every year, I get students that contact me saying that they are planning to “dip their feet in” or “dabble” in the tenure-track academic job market this year. And, every year, I’m left wondering why the heck they would even bother. This blog post is a sort of plea to graduate students: DON’T DABBLE IN THE JOB MARKET.[1]
There are typically two types of student-dabblers: (1) those that determine they are early in going on the job market but think they still have a shot at a job they want and (2) those that are worried about job market failure but are in a position where they could/should be on the market. In both these cases, dabblers would like to apply to only 1-5 jobs that they have determined are ideal for them; they are not applying to all jobs they think are reasonable for their personal and professional goals. They typically think they have a pretty good shot at getting a job and, if they don’t get a job this year, they then think they’ll go on the market “all the way” the next academic year.
I applaud dabblers for actually thinking about where they want to work. However, I think this strategy is a giant waste of time for ABDs: if you are going to go on the job market at all, why not go on the market all the way? Going “all the way” on the job market does not mean you apply for every job listed on APSA eJobs: if you can’t see yourself taking the job if it was the only one offered to you, don’t apply. As such, if you don’t want a teaching-focused job, you can still go all the way on the job market without applying for those jobs. And, conversely, if you don’t want a research-focused job, you can still go all out on the job market without sending your job packet to research-heavy schools. If you go on the market, I just think you should apply to all schools you think you would be reasonably happy with, not just the 1-5 schools you feel like dabbling with this particular year.
Going on the job market, even as just a dabbler, involves a lot of sunk costs. You’re going to have to sink a lot of time into coming up with your cover letter(s), CV, research statement, and other job materials. You’re probably also going to have to convince 3-4 of your advisors to take a few hours each to write a letter of recommendation for you. These are the most difficult steps in the job application process. And, these steps basically take the same amount of time regardless of the number of jobs you are applying for. After these things are done, the costs of throwing in an extra job application beyond the 1-5 jobs you were going to dabble with are fairly minimal, typically just involving 10-30 minutes of work filling out an application and uploading your materials to a university website. [2] The potential payoff, however, is pretty great. And, in almost all cases, your odds of getting a job in year t+1 increase with every application sent out.
If you don’t go on the market this year (and haven’t sunk costs already coming up with job packet materials), you can use your non-dabbling time this year to work on publishing research projects. You’ll get the added benefit of not having to deal with job market anxiety: if you don’t dabble, you don’t have to worry at all about whether you’ll get an interview or offer. You know with certainty that you’ll not have a tenure-track job offer the next year.
Given all of this, I don’t think it’s worth it to dabble. Go big or go home. Either avoid the job market until the next year or attack it with all you are worth.[3]
[1] Disclaimer: Decisions about whether to be on the job market should be made with your advisors, not based on a blog post, especially this one.
[2] The extra application costs may be even lower if you use Interfolio or a related application service.
[3] At least, that’s my opinion. I’d be interested in your opinion and in any arguments in favor of dabbling. Please comment below!
Spot-on. Dabbling is almost always a dominated strategy, and should be discouraged.
I’ve had grad students tell me they’d been advised NOT to go on the job market early, for fear that they would embarrass themselves with substandard credentials and hurt their later chances. I thought and still think that’s completely insane. There may be reasons not to go on the job market–its soul-crushing nature, the sunk costs–but fear of being talked about seems utterly bizarre to me. I can’t remember the names of people we’ve brought to campus, let alone the names of the 80 grad students who applied and didn’t make it to a phone interview. I certainly don’t have the time to circulate a blacklist to people at other places.
Arguments in favor of dabbling is that you a) learn what it takes to be on the job market and b) make mistakes that only a first timer makes. Not sure they outweigh what you said Amanda.
I should also state that I spend over an hour on each additional application, tailoring my cover letter or research letter, going through the byzantine online application systems, etc. So the cost of 20+ applications is not nothing even if the first few applications cost more time.
I think dabbling can make sense for geographically-constrained job applicants: if you are early, and ONLY think it would be worth it to take a job in, say, the NY area – dabbling gives you the pro of knowing you didn’t pass up the opportunity to have a job in your dream location, without the stress of applying to upwards of 60 jobs. Especially if you are applying to jobs in several subfields (IR, Comparative, maybe some inter-disciplinary jobs) I found the time to send off an additional app was more like 1-2 hours, not 10-30 mins – so the “dabble” really does save significant time.