As long as a piece of string...

Published 13 June 07 11:59 AM

After Wayne's post on waiting for responses, I thought I'd share my current state of waiting with the blogosphere. At the moment I am waiting on:

  • any news about the edited collection I've had a chapter accepted for
  • to find out when the one-off editorial job is ready to go (because despite the mountain of typos in this blog, I can proof when I have to) [And in a stunning example of blogging the lost, I've just been emailed about the job - cosmos, can I please find my silver bracelet?]
  • any news about the job application I put in last week (have I mentioned I hate writing selection criteria?)
  • and a fellowship application as well

Unlike Wayne, I'm mostly content to put these things out into the universe and not think about them till they come back: after all, there isn't much I can do at this point. (My attitude may change, of course, when I hit serious job-hunting time). Instead, I'm focusing on the immediate return I get from constructing the things to send. The job application forced me to articulate my feelings on what a postgraduate education should do, and how the university can enable this doing. I also got to come up with a response to the criteria of 'excellent communication skills and teamwork' that was better than 'I shower semi-regularly and ask permission before punching colleagues' - honestly, what do they expect to hear? And the fellowship application has put in place the foundations of my five-years to world domination and/or an academic job plan.

Now I'll go back to waiting. One a side-note, I got a rejection letter from a previous job application about three months after applying - by that stage I'd figured the rejection out already. 

by Karen.Hall
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# wayne.griffiths said on June 13, 2007 2:53 PM:

Three months, hey? That's quite a delay. Then again, it was the same situation with my annual report this year. About 3.5 months after submitting it, I received a letter saying it had been approved. I guess that means I should quash all hopes relating to those jobs. Hmm...that kinda hurts. Still, I have one more application, where I was told interviews wouldn't be held until next month. But given my past lack of contact from employers, I am guessing I won't receive any such opportunity.

# Karen.Hall said on June 13, 2007 3:20 PM:

In my rejection case, the application was for an academic job advertised in between semesters - I figured once the semester had begun that my application wasn't going anywhere. I'm not sure what the turn-around times are like in industry jobs. I hope that you do hear some good news soon.

# Matthew said on June 13, 2007 4:22 PM:

I can top the 3 and 3.5 months with a true horror story. Gather 'round children an hear a tale of abject woe. Fortunately it was not something that happened to me. Oh no! But it is something that I personally witnessed - scout's honour!

A colleague of mine once applied for a fairly senior, brand new, challenging position that would involve establishing a new focus within the parent organisation. They had reassessed their longterm goals and decided that they had to branch out in another direction. At first glance this new job  appeared to fit my colleagues skills and temperament perfectly.

Two days after the closing date for applications, he got an interview appointment and breezed through several interviews with a very promising response. But, and there is always a but, the wheels of the origanisation's bureaucracy ground away so slowly, it was nine - yes NINE - months before he was told that he GOT the job despite forthnightly phone calls to the HR department!

By that time he had applied for and got a scholarship  and was about to start full time study on his PhD.

The general consensus was that after all the mucking about he should have run in the other direction rather than be involved in an organisation that took so long to fill such a "mission critical" position. However, at that time and now, he decided that he needed the income more than his sanity and has paid dearly from the internal politics tainted by the tall poppy syndrome. He's still there, but it really feels like some of his resilience and spirit has been eroded away.

Sometimes the best course of action is just say "No thank you" and move on to the next opportunity.

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About Karen.Hall

I've recently submitted my PhD thesis, titled 'Discovering the Lost Race Story: Writing Science Fiction, Writing Temporality', for examination. In the meantime, I'm teaching in the discipline of Communication Studies at UWA and starting a new project on medievalism and media through a Whitfeld Fellowship.