Guidelines for posting new positions

[raig]

Many thanks (post-facto and in advance) to all who contribute by listing positions to the rumor mill.

This post has some proposed suggestions for posting information about job listings. It is by no means definitive, but I'll edit this to reflect any consensus in subsequent responses.

• Only post jobs for one institution at a time; don't put several unrelated jobs in the same thread.
  
  
• The "subject" field for the thread should be the name of the institution. If there's any possible confusion, also include the location. This is especially true for state schools with multiple campuses, but also for similarly named institutions such as "Augustana," "Bethany," "Concordia," "Loyola," etc.
  
  
• Err on the side of putting the full name of the institution in the subject field, this often helps differentiate types of colleges even when we've never heard of them before:
  
  -- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
  -- Estrella Mountain Community College
  -- Faith Baptist Bible College
  
  
• If an institution posts two or more positions with different descriptions, try to differentiate them in the subject lines with relevant areas of interest in parentheses, such as separate posts for
  
  -- Concordia College, Ann Arbor Michigan (Race)
  -- Concordia College, Ann Arbor Michigan (Theory)
  
  
• In general, users assume that listings are for tenure-track positions. If it is a fixed-term position, please annotate this in the subject field with something informative like "VAP" (visiting assistant professor) or "One-Year":
  
  -- Lenox Institute of Water Technology (VAP)
  
  Similarly, we generally assume these are junior (entry-level) positions; if not, please indicate this in the subject field:
  
  -- Loma Linda University (Senior Hire)
  
  
• Include all of the content from the original posting, including the "boilerplate" statements that usually appear at the end , i.e. "Middlebury College is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer ..."
  
  
• It's nice to indicate where the poster found the listing, i.e.
  
  (ASA Job Bank)
  (CHE Listings)
  
  If there's a public (non-subscription) url available, include that as well.
  

Once again, thanks to all who share this information.

[suggestion]

A couple suggestions:

1. If the job ad indicates multiple positions will be hired for the same specialty/job ad, indicate as much in the original posting -- no need for separate ads if its the same search, IMO.

Example: University of Michigan (Theory) - 1 Assistant, 1 Asst/Assoc

2. If you smell something 'fishy' in the posting details (like the department hiring for specialty X one year after they appointed a 2-year VAP in X), by all means post this information under the original posting as a new comment (again, keeping anonymity for the faculty member(s) as needed). Reference the 2010-2011 job market board's Wesleyan posting (aka Thunderdome 2.0).

3. Once a hired has been made (AND CONFIRMED/FINISHED), by all means update the board with that information. At that point, I would say names of the winners are fair game. Don't leave people hanging for months on end.

[question]

why do we have separate sections for announcements and statuses? after we start the Princeton thread with the listing, why don't we just later update that with info about phone interviews and campus visits and such? that way I could just bookmark the initial thread when the job is first announced and check it later.

[because]

It makes it easier to keep track of actually new positions and posts that are just discussions of old positions. If that were all combined and someone were only interested in seeing the positions but not the debates about info, inside info, interviews, non-hirings, etc. it'd be much harder to easily identify new positions listed vs. old positions with new information about them.

[question]

that makes sense. thanks.

[sociologynut]

Do we have to come and check this site manually, or is there a way to have an email sent to us everytime there is a new posting?

[ElDuderino]

there is no way to subscribe to threads that I know of. It likely wouldn't be practical, anyways. Last year's board ended up with 7400 messages over the space of one year.

[yep]

I just leave a tab open in firefox browser and hit "new threads" every couple of days