The Academic Job Search Handbook (3rd Edition)
Author: Mary Morris Heiberger, Julia Miller Vick
List Price: $15.95
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ISBN: 0812217780
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press (15 July, 2001)
Sales Rank: 20,803
Average Customer Rating: 4.11 out of 5
Customer Reviews
Rating: 5 out of 5
It is really helpful
It is a must-read book for any academic job applicants. Make sure you read it before you prepare your application materials. It will surelly save you a lot of time. It is really helpful in my job searching.
Rating: 1 out of 5
Worthless tripe
The authors seem to walk the line between stating the obvious and dispensing outright bad advice. On more than one occasion, they cross that line with reckless abandon.First of all, the book is geared towards newly minted Ph.D.'s or ABD (All But Dissertation) graduate students who plan to enter the academic job market. The authors seem completely ignorant of the fact that in many disciplines, particularly the biological and physical sciences, Ph.D.'s first hold postodoctoral research positions for 2 - 5 years before entering the market. I cannot find a single reference to the word "postdoc." Thus, the book completely ignores anyone with a science degree, and all of the advice concerning "timetables for your search" and the advice to "have your degree in hand" is useless.
Secondly, some of the advice in the book is dubious, at best. The section on cv construction states:
"If you worked prior to attending graduate school at jobs you now consider irrelevant, you may summarize them with a statement such as 'Emmployment 1992-1994 included office and restaurant work.'"
To which my response is, "What the hell for?" If the work was "irrelevant," it has no business on a cv. Period. Unless, of course, your goal is to give the hiring committee a good laugh before tossing your cv into the rejection pile.
Don't worry, it gets worse. The section on writing a "Statement of Teaching Philosophy," which almost all liberal arts schools require, is all of one paragraph long. The authors' best advice is to "try to look at statements written by others in your department as well as those written by applicants to your department, if those are available to you."
Here's an idea: instead of using the last 19 pages of the book as appendices (also known as "filler"), why not actually give some EXAMPLES of teaching statements? I didn't spend money on a book just so I could ask other Ph.D.'s for samples from their application packages!
The section on research interests is equally inane.
The bottom line: If you're a liberal arts major, then maybe you'll get something useful from this book. If you're a science major, then buy "Tomorrow's Professor" by Richard Reis. It's three times as long, and about a hundred times as useful.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Essential guide & companion for those on the market
The earlier in your graduate career you obtain this book the better, since the section on planning your job search gives great advice about positioning yourself as an attractive candidate well before you start applying for jobs. I found the guide an invaluable companion over the seven month period that comprised my job search. The sample vitas, cover letters, and statements of teaching philosophy were especially useful, as was the extensive section on interviewing at conferences, on campus, and by phone. The tone was reassuring but realistic, and the advice was helpful both in conceptualizing aspects of the search (e.g., think of the interview as a conversation in which the evaluative aspect is made overt) and as a series of friendly, pragmatic tips (e.g., don't check luggage when flying to an interview; bring an escapist novel to read at the hotel). The book also contains sensible discussion of how to negotiate an offer, how to handle illegal or simply bizarre interview questions, what to wear, issues surrounding dual-career marriages, and after you've gotten a position, how to handle your new academic responsibilites and secure tenure. I recommend this book to everyone who aims at an academic position, and in the future, I will recommend it to my students! Similar Products
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