Because academic culture frowns on Ph.D.'s who consider leaving the ivory tower, most of those who jump ship find themselves at a loss as to where and how to begin a job search. Yet a nonacademic job search is actually quite similar to a standard research project. Both require advance planning, substantial research, collating evidence for an…

For the novice, the logistical challenges of an academic job search can be exasperating, especially when dozens of applications are involved. Getting things right (providing the correct materials, from CV to sample syllabi, in the style and form most sought by a particular search committee) and submitting the application on time (via sometimes…

The author reports on the academic job market that is showing signs of turning around after a multiyear slump. Job-outlook data released by professional associations in recent months show an uptick in the number of jobs available in several fields, including history, the humanities and foreign languages, sociology, geography, and political…

Discussion of nonfaculty careers for graduate students so easily disintegrates into dueling anecdotes. The author describes a story about someone who had to drop his Ph.D. from his resume in order to get a job at all. Stories cluster around both of those poles in the comments section whenever the author has written about nonprofessorial career…

Todd Wolfson just finished graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, and already he's landed a tenure-track teaching job in journalism and media studies at Rutgers University. One might think he's the embodiment of the academic dream, in which the struggle to earn a Ph.D. has long provided an entree to a fulfilling academic career. But…

Worries about a partner's finding a job are a major reason why colleges lose faculty and professional-staff recruits. Some institutions have hired people to focus largely on nonfaculty job searches. (Finding faculty jobs for spouses or partners is a more complex negotiation with the university.) But as the economy continues to dip into uncharted…

If one has set his or her sights on landing a tenure-track position and has endured (or expects to endure) all the uncertainty, angst, and serendipity of the academic marketplace, surely the worst fear is that there will not be any offers. Candidates worry that they will need to rely on Plan B for another year as they recover from the job-search…

A former vice president for academic affairs at a small college in New England describes his experiences of searching for a job in the nonacademic field, the failure of which led him to seek guidance from a career-counselor. Their assessment revealed that he was an introvert and suggested that his preferred approach to confronting new people and…

Academics welcome summer with a collective sigh of relief. Finally they can get to those tasks that are nearly impossible to accomplish during a busy academic year: working on that manuscript, completing the revisions on an article, learning the new laboratory technique from the colleague across the hall. However, those going on the job market in…

Increasingly, college career counseling centers are using the World Wide Web to provide career information, job listings, and telecommunications links for long-distance job interviews. The online listings tend to be specialized, and there is concern about accountability for them, but supporters find the greater availability of career information a…

Graduate students told a few years ago that the academic job market would open up significantly are disappointed in the shortage of tenure-track openings and glut of candidates. White males feel women and minorities are favored. Some observers find it unethical for departments to continue producing doctoral recipients. (MSE)

ACCESS: Networking in the Public Interest provides people and job placement offices nationwide with job listings and pertinent information on public-interest organizations. Students at subscribing institutions will be able to punch their employment interest into the computer and get back a listing of appropriate job openings. (MLW)