I know at least a few of you, dear readers, are getting geared up to apply for faculty positions if you haven't started already. I know at least one student who is applying for a position that closes tomorrow (good luck!).
Depending on your discipline, you may have a lot of positions to choose from that want to "buy" what you're "selling," but other disciplines you have to start thinking about applying for positions that might be a "stretch" for you based on what they're looking for in the ad.
Here are a few helpful readings for you:
The Professor Is In: When to Apply for the Stretch Job
In the Chronicle Fora: Applying for stretch jobs
I have advised students in a similar fashion. This is one of the best quotes from this forum entry (emphasis mine):
"AFTDJ* and let the SC** sort out their own priorities. I can tell you from
being privy to a number of SC deliberations - the Job Wishlist discussed
after reading all the applications is often quite different than the
Job Wishlist plucked out of thin air when writing the job ad. By the
time they're making campus invites, qualifications not even mentioned in
the ad will be deciding factors. Meanwhile, everyone will have
ignored/forgotten that One Thing tossed into the ad because one person
wanted it and no one cared enough to argue it for 20 minutes instead of
ending the meeting on time. As long as you can reasonably claim that you
will be able to teach A even though it's outside your specialty, no one cares.
Don't
put too much reliance on the details of job ads. They are not
necessarily the carefully-crafted encrypted message that you think.
Sometimes it's just the best a committee could come up with in 20
minutes or less without stepping on anyone's toes."
(posted by lucyr on 09.27.2013)
Yes, yes and yes...
In the first article, there's also a brief discussion for international students applying for faculty positions in the United States that my international student colleagues may find helpful.
Good luck job applicants...
-- Dawn
* AFTDJ = Apply For The Damn Job
** SC = Search Committee
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