No News is, Well, No News

It's been two weeks, and so far, I've gotten no invitations to visit a campus. Out of the interviews, I promptly received one rejection letter. But I've heard not a peep from the others.

This means one of two things. First, there's a high likelihood that some schools simply never send the rejection letter. Yes, I agree: how rude. At most, a school interviewed probably forty-eight people in DC (two schools split their interview teams in half), and to send less than a mere forty-some-odd letters should be nothing. It's at a minimum common courtesy. (But then again, there's nothing common about this interview process.)

The other possibility is that I'm simply down on the list. Invitations to visit and participate in the on-campus interview have been extended to the top choices. This could lead to a few different paths. First, those folks might get and accept offers. Second, those folks might not present as great a package during the extended interview, leading teams to move on down the list (and maybe call me). Third, an offer is extended, but the candidate accepts what's a better offer to the candidate elsewhere, leading the team to extend the offer to someone else, or, if running out of those already invited to visit campus, maybe call me.

Regardless, it's a a very long shot. The more people I talk to, the more I hear stories of leading faculty members at places who had to do the DC thing two, three, or more times. The competition is intense, and a lot depends on finding a school looking for someone to teach things you teach. Besides, I'm in the company of about seven or eight hundred other people right now who are going through the process and don't have spots or potential spots. Perhaps for me, at least, this fall was merely a warm-up. ;-)

What happens from here? I focus on the end of the semester and my exam for my students; then focus on Africa (assuming that's still on; we haven't gotten confirmation on tickets, worrying me they don't have enough registered participants to pay for us to come over); then focus on NYC; and focus on the spring semester. In the middle of this, I improve the paper package I can present next fall by working hard to get an article out in the spring submission and another in the summer. I'll be busy.

Oh, a job? Well, the interview cycle for visiting gigs hits around February, so I'd do that, looking for another chapter for next year.

Yes, something still could work out. But in realistic terms, I'm prepared for Plan B. In other words, expect this adventure of mine on the road to a permanent spot to be extended. Perhaps I have more sights to see before I get to where I'm supposed to be. :-)