Faculty discussion of potential candidates

[brunch]

Now that another ASA has passed, ES and informal meetings have concluded, and the 2012 job season is in full swing, I thought this might be a good place to share any inside info about the searches. Perhaps what folks have heard from faculty or grad students regarding searches.

I can share that it was passed along to me that faculty were discussing new candidates and the current state of the job market. They acknowledged bottle necking and that many considered the "cream of the crop" are available to many, many schools.

Also, it was also discussed that with the pressure many state funded universities are facing with budgetary cuts, candidates, in any stage, that can get external funding are at an advantage. Post-docs will be considered over ABDs because they have a year to get their projects together whether it be research or writing a grant.

So, post-docs are already very competitive and it really seemed as if this put ABD folks at a great disadvantage, unless the ABD candidate has demonstrated the ability to get outside grants/funding. Yikes!

Anyone heard anything similar or perhaps contrary?

[stuart]

Ditto on bottlenecking as the market processes a 3+ year backlog of candidates.

Urban soc and stratification look to be hot this year.

It's going to be brutal.

[guestola]

With the bottleneck concern well taken, my advisor mentioned that the following are going to be important this season:

1. Quality of grad program/post doc
2. Personal relationships, especially between advisors and members of selection committee.
3. Pubs in top journals (lead and/or solo)
4. Innovative projects and collaborations (now and future) with top scholars in one's field

[mrobvious]

Those 4 things are important every year.