ah, universities!
Dear Mr. Zafrin:
[ha, Mr. again]
This is to acknowledge receipt of your application materials for the position of Coolness in the Local University Libraries. Resume review is currently in progress and you will be notified by the end of the month as to the status of your candidacy.
Cool deal, I like knowing a timeline. But acknowledging receipt of my app two months after I submitted it electronically makes me giggle in both amusement and frustration. Particularly since another Local University managed to lose my application somewhere between [electronic-only] submission and its ultimate destination. So the person who was to review it didn’t receive it until Friday before Christmas. Way to keep me on my toes, Academe (and yet, I love you so).
I’ll only get through this job search if I don’t take anything personally. In the job search or in my personal life, for that matter. This is where the Buddhists come in handy: when there’s nothing to do, do nothing. Sit there. Abide, don’t think, and so on. Well, maybe think on the Nature of Things. But, if possible, without actually thinking.
In other news, I’ve found a favorite employment recruiter. She’s awesome, thorough and just casual enough to put me entirely at ease while instilling me with complete confidence in her abilities. Rock on.
January 16th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Universities can indeed be very peculiar about actually communicating with job candidates. A scant week ago, I received a letter from a major state university sorrowfully informing me that the search for which I applied had been closed for institutional reasons (read as: “budget shortfall”). Nice of them to keep me in you loop, you might think — but this was a position for academic year 2007-2008 which I applied for, and this is the first communication I’ve received from them since my application submission in December 2006 (and, on a related note, if they didn’t have an AY2007-2008 position filled by April ’07, it was just one of those not-happening things, so why the 7 months of limbo?).
Good luck on the market. Job-hunting is definitely no fun at all.
January 16th, 2008 at 11:05 am
Jake – that is wild! (No pun intended.) Seven months after it became obvious anyway… and they bothered to send it. Universities are a mystery.