Advised by an assistant professor

[Strangefox]

I also mention it because there were several suggestions by people on SCs in the same general area of copying the entire thread and forwarding it to fellow search committees to file in case they received the job application.

I like the crowd over there. Maybe I should re-phrase that the environment over there is a lot more blunt than it is here.

Hm, I can't say that I like such kind of people. Because it's not just blunt, it's cruel... What's wrong with asking for help??

[kateow]

What is SCs?

SC = search committee

[Eigen]

In this case, it was mostly about how the person who originally asked for help responded. After 5 pages of berating anyone who offered anything other than "your cover letter looks great", I think he kinda brought it on himself.

And it's not competition, because it was the search committees in his field that were doing the warning. It's not cruel to the applicant, so much as looking out for your fellow SC members, and making sure they have all the information they can prior to hiring.

Academia as a field can be fairly harsh- it's easy to get a bad rep, it's easy for that bad rep to spread really, really fast. I think grad students are sheltered from this a great deal, honestly.

[Strangefox]

In this case, it was mostly about how the person who originally asked for help responded. After 5 pages of berating anyone who offered anything other than "your cover letter looks great", I think he kinda brought it on himself.

And it's not competition, because it was the search committees in his field that were doing the warning. It's not cruel to the applicant, so much as looking out for your fellow SC members, and making sure they have all the information they can prior to hiring.

Academia as a field can be fairly harsh- it's easy to get a bad rep, it's easy for that bad rep to spread really, really fast. I think grad students are sheltered from this a great deal, honestly.

Ah, ok, if he brought that on himself then it's not so bad I misunderstood the situation.

[InquilineKea]

This is an amazing thread - and I'd really like to bump it since I'm now facing a very similar decision myself.

Does anyone know how I could ask "what percent of professors in department X get tenure?" My impression is that the tenure process is more brutal for some departments than for others.

[Eigen]

There's no easy way to ask it. But if you're accepted, and you're thinking about working for someone that's not tenured, I would straight out ask the department chair about it when you meet.

They'll (likely) be understanding about why you're asking.

And holy cow, a year old thread revival