ASA interviews on the TT

[Assistant]

Are the interviewing services at ASA only for those searching for a first tenure track position? Would it be strange or inappropriate for an assistant professor considering a move to participate?

[if]

If you want your current institution to know you are looking, then you can do the employment service. The process is very much comparable to speed-dating with an online booster. Your CV and name will be made available to schools online at the ASA ES...thus future employers AND possibly current employers could see. I can't remember if you can control who has access to see you as a candidate or not. Also, you will be sitting in the interviewing room with many, many other people who will see that you are interviewing. SO you essentially out yourself by participating.

If I were you, figure out which schools you may be interested in that have openings and email the chair to set up more discrete meetings at ASA. THe top programs talk about these "informal" meetings being set up by their advisors and things all the time. However - I am NOT from a top program and set myself up about 4 meetings outside of the employment service at ASA.

Also - for you ES skeptics - I had 7 ES interviews this year and 5 outside of ES meetings in Las Vegas... of the 11 mini-interviews, 3 led to phone interviews, 3 led to on campus interviews and ONE led to a TT job which I happily accepted. I found that I can much more easily sell myself in person compared to my CV alone. To be clear, I was definitely looking for either a teaching job or 50/50 kind of school and I landed a lac with a 3/2 load. The ES doesn't give lots of opportunities to talk to R1 schools though. I think Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Illinois-Chicago were there this year.

[herewego]

I worked around this problem by looking at the ES and then contacting the schools I was interested in ahead of time. In an email I briefly explained that I did not want my current department to know and asked if they would be willing to meet with me outside the ES. Most said yes and that they understood (a few never replied).

[Assistant]

I hadn't thought of handling it that way. Thank you. In order to keep your name out of the public domain, did you rely on others who were signed up for ES to share the list?

[waste]

This might not be the place to discuss the merits of the ES, but I thought it was kind of a waste of time. I only say "kind of" because I suppose it was good interviewing practice. But I got only three interviews despite my strong efforts. One doesn't count (Luther) since they interviewed everyone and their moms.

And I had success on the market -- 2 phone interviews, 2 campus visits, and a TT offer.

[herewego]

Assistant - yes I asked others & looked at this board. Also there is a nice advantage of this approach in my opinion. My meetings were often 40 min to an hour. I got quite a bit more face time than I would have through the ES.