How much does word about offers really travel?

[GuestGuest]

Inspired by the other thread about notifying departments, I'm wondering about people's impressions of how much word really travels about who has offers where in sociology. I was fortunate to receive an offer this year as an AP and I'm negotiating with that department and my current department. I've been surprised to hear of random people knowing about my offer through the grapevine, when I know virtually nothing about how searches are going at other places (besides this forum). People in my department had also learned about my job talk before I told them, when I thought there were norms against departments disseminating that information for APs on the market. Am I just especially not well networked? How do you hear about job talks and offers beyond these public venues? I've found the whole experience a bit unsettling and puzzling. 

[Wow]

I'm a bit surprised that people in your department knew about your job talk (unless the talk was advertised on a school's website).

My guess is that people in R1s talk to other people in R1s, faculty at community colleges speak to faculty at other community colleges, etc.

[Multipliers]

Here’s a different way to think about it. Consider all of the grad students you knew in your program, including those 1-2 years before and after your cohort. Now imagine that 75% of them got academic jobs. They can’t all be at R1 universities because there aren’t that many jobs open. Some are at R2s, regional universities, small liberal arts colleges, perhaps even a few at community colleges. With just one degree of separation, you have a vast network in a variety of institutions across the country.

5 or 10 years out, these connections endure. It is pretty easy for information to spread across these networks, especially when it isn’t random or trivial noise. You hear something, and it is an excuse to contact an old colleague to find out what’s going on.

And then you add post-graduate connections made in a variety of ways. It is really easy to hear a lot of murmurings if you are paying attention, even without social media.

[Serious_AP]

I've wondered this myself. I'm an AP on the market because I don't like the location of my current position. I was recently offered a position elsewhere, in a much more expensive city, but I turned it down because they wouldn't match my current salary. It wasn't even close. I wouldn't even be at my current salary after tenure. I am slightly concerned about word spreading that I'm applying around and reflecting offers to get a raise or something like that (which happens frequently) and I don't want this experience to hinder my future prospects.

All that said, no one that I knew of heard about me being on the market beforehand and I don't know if anyone who knew about it elsewhere. At least no one contacted me.

[whispers]

You definitely hear things if you're well networked, and you definitely don't hear as much if you aren't as well networked (such as if you didn't graduate from a dept where lots of other profs in the field graduated from).

Having said that, I think if I heard that it happened repeatedly over multiple years I would assume a colleague was not going to last in the department. But if I hear about someone getting recruited once, or going on the market at a logical time (such as when they're about to go for a promotion), I wouldn't assume they're a major flight risk.