I’m thinking this morning about what it would be like if academic job searches in North America required a LOT less from applicants.
Imagine if all you had to do was submit a CV and a cover letter that includes X key info (as specified)?
After an initial screen, 10-12 people could be asked for one or two additional documents. Then onto short-list interviews. Once the committee chooses who they want to hire, they check references (by calling! not letters). Offer, negotiation.
Done.
What got me thinking about this was this job ad from UCSC that was shared on Twitter. I mean, what the fuck.
Asks like these burden hundreds — because we know there will be hundreds — of applicants, not to mention all their letter writers (possibly over a thousand of them), and job search committee members with undue work.
And this at a time when we’re all living through multiple overlapping crises, always. We have other important shit to do.
PhDs are critical to solving our world’s many complex problems (so we’re told), yet academic job search committees willfully waste their time, and an awful lot of time and energy at that.
This must stop. It’s immoral.