Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Freaking out about job stuff

As I mentioned in my first post, I don't have a job for the Fall.

I applied for 2 grants to stick around my current position.
- both were not funded (one was a NIH NRSA, which was scored but not high enough to be funded).

I applied for 2 post-docs
- received 1 rejection letter and although I know the other position was filled and other people who applied received a rejection letter, probably lost in the mail

I applied for 2 faculty jobs
-received 1 rejection letter right away without an interview, and haven't heard anything for the other although it's been 2.5 months by now. Expecting the rejection letter any day now (or maybe I'll never receive one), this one was not a great fit so I'm not surprised. I only applied due to pressure from my post-doc mentor.

I have applied for 4 non-academic jobs.
- I received one rejection email (no interview, pretty sure I didn't make it past the HR phase of the process).
- Heard from the HR person at another job that they have closed that hiring spot right now while they "re-evaluate" and they'll be contacting candidates for interviews when they re-open the search. I assume that really means "if" they re-open the search.
-I have 2 others that I haven't received more than a "thank you for applying" email from their automated application website.

I have one more post-doc that I'm going to apply for.

Even though I know it's only April (well okay, May), and my current contract doesn't end until Aug and my mentor said they'd be able to float me for a couple for a couple of months if I needed them to, I am freaking out. I'm worried about not having a job, about not having health insurance, about how my husband's salary won't be able to cover our rent and allow us to eat.

I could probably adjunct next year but I'd have to do a lot of it in order to make enough money and a lot of places are advertising now for the Fall & Spring and I'm just not ready to go that route. I think I'd feel a lot better if I was at least being interviewed.

I meet or exceed the needs expressed in all of these job ads. I've had lots of people read my cover letters, I have great letters of recommendation, I've published a fair amount for someone at this stage of their career, I have a post-doc at a top 5 program in my field. I look great on paper, I could totally understand if I was getting rejected at the interview stage, with fit and all that being so important but I'm baffled why I can't seem to even get a second look.

And of course I keep telling myself that it doesn't help to freak out. But that doesn't help either. :(

6 comments:

Unbalanced Reaction said...

Yeah, it sucks to be in freak out mode, but at least you're being proactive in the job hunt...which is more then I can say for many of my peers. Good luck with everything! I'm sure you'll find a good fit soon.

Psych Post Doc said...

Thanks! I must admit that the one good thing about my freak out mode is that it's an active one. I know what you mean about others who freak out but don't do anything about it. I hope you're right about something turning up.

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry --- it makes it so much more difficult that you are looking only in one city. I've found numbers to be really crucial. I got offers for 10-20% of the postdocs I applied for, but applied to 20 of them.

Keep looking. I've seen new positions posted in the past few weeks. Good luck!

Psych Post Doc said...

For post-docs I've been applying to anything within a 2 hour radius, so not only in 1 town but not significantly better.

Thanks for the comment.

post-doc said...

I'm freaking out too! And on basically the same timeline! We have (terrible) stuff in common!

It sounds like you're being as proactive as possible - I very much hope something works out.

Psych Post Doc said...

Katie, you made me laugh out loud at the "we have terrible stuff in common" comment! :)

Misery love company right? At least we can commiserate. Thanks for the comment.