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Message for Classics and Archaeology Job Candidates

 

Do you intend to apply for any position (even just one) listed by the APA-AIA Placement Service this Fall? Will any of the institutions to which you have submitted applications conduct interviews at the upcoming joint annual meeting in Philadelphia? If the answer to both of these questions is yes, please register as a candidate with the Placement Service by the upcoming extended early deadline of November 26. By doing so, you will enjoy the following benefits:

• The fee is only $20 for an e-mail registration. (The rate increases to $50 on November 27.)
• You will learn about new job listings at least several days (and in some cases several weeks) before they are posted on the APA and AIA web sites. (Jobs are posted on the web sites only once a month, but registered candidates receive e-mails listing new positions twice each month.)
• (NEW THIS YEAR): You will receive an e-mail notification of interviews requested with you in advance of the meeting.

Every year a number of candidates submit applications for jobs posted on the APA and AIA web sites but do not register with the Service until an institution offers an interview. This practice creates extra work not just for the Placement Service at a time when it is attempting to schedule over a thousand interviews but also for the institutions themselves. The Service cannot schedule an interview with a candidate who has not completed its registration form, and it is the institution (not the Service) that has the task of getting in touch with the candidate to remind him or her to register. It is not a frequent occurrence, but institutions have simply dropped candidates from their interview lists rather than taking on this additional work just before the holiday break.

More important, as described above, postponing registration until the last minute deprives candidates of all the benefits that the Placement Service has to offer. As indicated, we are now able to tell candidates via e-mail about a week before the meeting what institutions have requested interviews with them. However, these notices will be sent only to candidates who have registered by a newly extended early deadline of November 26, 2008 (this is a receipt date). In addition, these notices will contain information only on interview requests received by December 19, and not all institutions will be able to meet that deadline. While we look forward to implementing this advance notification system, it will not eliminate the need for candidates to check in with the Placement Office as soon as they arrive at the annual meeting to learn the exact date and times of interviews as well as to learn about any late requests for interviews the Service may have received.

Finally, we ask all potential candidates to register in a timely fashion because their registrations are essential to the data-gathering that makes the process of seeking a position in Classics and archaeology as fair and humane as possible. The demographic information that candidates provide - used only in aggregates and never in a way that would identify an individual - allows the Joint APA-AIA Committee on Placement to monitor interviewing and hiring practices and to assess conditions in the job market. The Placement Service is thus able to do much more than simply post information on web sites and arrange interviews, but that ability, which protects all job candidates, depends on the willingness of candidates to follow its procedures.

 

Carin Green, Chair

Joint APA-AIA Committee on Placement

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