My son is sleeping and I might have five whole minutes to write this blog. He is wonderful, labor and delivery were positive experiences and I enjoy being a parent. I don't sleep for more than an hour at a time, I am usually still in my pajamas when Hubby comes home from work, I remember to brush my hair and put on deodorant every other day and I am mastering holding a baby with one hand while trying to do everything else life demands with the other.
Besides adjusting to parenting, I'm trying to apply for jobs. Job applications in academia are demanding and no two job announcements have the same requirements. All jobs seem to want a cover letter and a CV. Those are the easy parts. Many require three letters of recommendation. The remaining application materials can include research statements, writing samples, teaching philosophies, copies of student course evaluations, syllabi of past courses taught, and syllabi of courses hoped to be taught in the future. Whether or not these materials are required mostly depends on the size of the university and its status as a research or teaching college. Jobs that are opening right now are more often research oriented, which requires me to send a version of my CV that highlights my research and leaves out most of my teaching background. Although the types of requirements for each job overlap, each document must be tailored for the position.
The first round of job applications will end sometime in December. I don't anticipate being contacted by any of the departments I'm applying to, and will likely choke on whatever I'm eating (or my spit if I'm not eating) if someone does contact me. I don't aim to come across as pessimistic, this is just the reality of applying for tenure track jobs.
The jobs I'm applying for will interview at either the annual Linguistic Society of America or Modern Language Association meetings, which are both the first weekend in January in two different Midwestern cities. After that, interviews involve flying to universities, giving a lecture, teaching classes, and schmoozing with department chairs, deans, professors and students for 24-48 hours. Again, I don't think any department will select me for an interview out of the 100-200 applicants for each position and I won't make it to this later stage this year, but it doesn't hurt to try.
I update my CV regularly and have a few versions of cover letters, but I haven't written a teaching philosophy since teaching high school 8 years ago. I have no idea what to write for a college position, nor if they require the same type of BS that teaching philosophies for K-12 positions do.
I have one writing sample ready. I really should have written another paper over the summer, but somehow I found 30 minutes to start transforming part of Geraldine into a journal paper on Wednesday. I hope that by the time I finish it, it a) won't be too late to apply for the position that requires it and b) it won't be obvious that I am not sleeping. Being that most students don't sleep in graduate school, (b) might not be an issue to worry about.
It's hard not to think about living in a new place with each job description I see. My thoughts tend to evolve from: I could apply for the job but there's no point > Wait, I do actually qualify for that job so I'd better apply > Quick, look up the university town on a map and get an idea of where on earth it is > Calculate how far away that is from anyone that I know > Read about the university and its department, would I even fit in there? > What variety of English would my son acquire if we lived in that area? > Am I a bad person for wanting my child to sound like me and have caught/cot merger instead of like his dad who doesn't have this merger? > Shut up stupid, you don't get to make decisions based on those things if you want a job next year > Crap, when am I going to have time to write an application?
Usually these thoughts come to mind when I'm trying to take a nap or at 7am when I am awake, my son is finally asleep and I have enough energy to eat breakfast. The only thing that shuts these thoughts off is an adorably cute infant who wants to feed for the millionth time, a screaming infant who is mad because I'm changing his diaper or praying the rosary. I swear I've prayed the rosary more times since my son was born than in the last 5 years.
And here I am at the end of my thoughts, my son is still asleep (not for long though), I have dirty dishes to wash, I should get dressed (or at least put on deodorant) before someone from my birthing class stops by in an hour, and I still have a mountain of documents to prepare for job applications. Thankfully, I still have 3 weeks before the first closing date for an application. Maybe before then I'll get to sleep for an hour and 15 minutes at a time.
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