D跟我既是同事又是朋友，她邀我回学校给TA们做一个关于找工作的演讲。我第一反应是，我是最不合适的人选啊，完全是夹缝中求生存，极其不成功的典型。D的看法是，我这样的坎坷挣扎找工作的人的感想，可能会对许多人有帮助。我想想也有道理。以前在学校听演讲，演讲者大都是行业翘楚，有光辉灿烂的职业历程。其实大部分人都是平常人，就让小同学们见识一下资质背景平常的PhD挣扎求生的 历程吧 :P 为了不给小同学们太大的打击，我用了很多鼓励性的话语。不过估计还是吓到了不少人。
其实现在回想找工作的那一年多，倒也没有很悲惨。大概主要因为我不是个心重的人，郁闷挣扎一小会儿，还是照常吃喝娱乐去了，从来没严峻思考过找不到工作的话是啥后果。其实如果找不到工作的话，当初移民去加拿大或者海龟回国，路一样不好走，但是结果也未必比现在差哈。
这是个10分钟左右的小演讲。我本来直到几个星期前还没好好想怎么说。按我以前的性格，很可能之前两三天想一下就完事了。但是有一天去J的课堂上听课。J是教英语的，给学生讲他们即将要写的一个paper，要怎样用心写，之后如何三番五次的改。她说，一篇好文章should reflect your heartache, loss of sleep and lots of struggles. 我听了很感动，觉得自己平时做事很少有认真的时候，都是觉得糊弄一下做了，结果也不坏。其实到了现在这个年纪，真是认真不认真自己心里知道了。我现在的英语水平，也是草草写一点东西吧也不会闹什么笑话，真正认真写呢，也好不到哪儿去，词句仍然很硌硬。这大概也是我一直不肯认真练英语的原因，一方面得过且过，一方面现阶段很多训练只看得到一点点进步。
受了J的启发，再加上最近常常觉得自己非常需要英语说和写的训练，所以就把这个演讲当作功课来做了，花了很多个钟头写和修改，又练习了好多遍。其实这次演讲的听众是最友好不挑剔的，所以我并不担心听众反应，希望做得好一些，听众可以take home的message明确一些，最主要的是相对自己的水平，讲得如何，还是自己心里最清楚。
另外，最近参加的一个会议，有一个很专业的speaker做了一个keynote speech，当时大家都觉得他讲得太好了。而且他讲得并不formal，一点都不费力气的样子。整个演讲信息量很大，提到了十来本书，都是经他一提我就非常有兴趣读。可见他平时读书有多么多，吸收信息有多么快。而且人家还不是职业演讲家，我一直没闹清他是做什么的，好像类似教育咨询的，估计工作中演讲的成分也占很大比例。后来一个领导跟我们提起，这个人是会议花了5000刀（plus travel expenses) 请来的，我们听了都倒抽一口凉气。据我所知，这个人在我们这儿演讲后又马不停蹄地去了另外几个城市大概也是演讲或组织workshop，我估计他一个月挣的钱就比我一年还多了。我们领导的意思是，我们这样的非盈利机构，花5000刀请人来演讲，太奢侈了。那个人要我们5000刀也太贵了。我也觉得我们这种机构，在当前经济形式下，这5000刀花得很奢侈。不过至于5000刀贵不贵，这就不是一下说得清的。反正那个人的水平吧，是那种我一见一听，就惊为天人，无限崇拜的。我估计我们大部分人，哪怕送去两年的封闭专门训练，都未必练出这个水平来。能有常人所不及的水平，当然就有资格开高价。比起这个人的水平，我觉得我的演讲，也就值50刀吧 :P
TA talk
Dear friends,
It’s a pleasure to come back and to meet you. Teaching has always been my career of choice, and it was the TA program that gave me all the training and confidence to pursue my career goal.
When I began my search for a teaching position, the job market seemed very challenging. I am sure many of you are well aware of job market challenges due to economy, market size of your specific field and other factors. Landing the first job is not easy, but I can assure you with confidence that, it’s no harder than your Master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation, and you will be able to handle it! Some of us have more options then others, but everyone will have opportunities. Weigh your options, find a balance between the reality and your dream job, and do believe you will reach your career goal!
I started out with the strategy of applying to all relevant positions, including post doc and industry positions, but with a focus on teaching positions. As for how many applications to send, people use very different strategies. I sent out more than 100 applications. A friend of mine sent a total of 7 or 8, but spent weeks to prepare for each application. Another friend of mine, once I complained to her how few responses I received after sending out 50 applications in the span of 3 months, she said, “Come on! In my field it’s typical to send 50 applications over a weekend!” As you know, there is great variation among different professional fields. You will need to determine the best strategy to use based on your background and the market you face.
The strategy of starting with local opportunities worked very well for me. I sent resume to all local colleges, whether or not they were recruiting. In some academic fields, every department chair keeps a candidate pool for potential adjunct professor positions. All the colleges carry out national search when they have a tenure track position open, but for candidates of part-time or temporary positions, usually the department chair will turn to the adjunct candidate pool. And that’s how I got my first full-time position. I sent my resume to a local college early in the year, before they even knew they would have a position open. Then in the summer they invited me for an interview and soon I got a 1-year full-time contract. It was a 1-year contract so my job hunting continued. Later I found that this one year of full-time teaching experience made huge, positive difference in my job search later on.
As C mentioned, when you apply for a teaching position, the search committee values your college teaching experience probably more than anything else. Putting yourself in colleges’ candidate pool may lead you to some part-time or temporary teaching job that strengthens your resume. Sometimes it may not work out. Some adjunct jobs are not well paid and most are only temporary. But when the market is tough, it’s always nice to have one more option.
Since my job search was on a large scale, I used an Excel file to track all applications and keep notes about on-going progress. If you send out many applications in a short period of time, you can’t possibly keep track of all of them just in your mind. The easiest way I’ve found is, sending the application, recording all information in my Excel, and then moving on to the next application. In this way I could focus on the next application, and when I was called for an interview, I would pull out the job information from my Excel file and be instantly familiar with all necessary information.
As for interviews, there is significant variation depending on professional fields, employers and the formats of the interview. There are numerous books out there coaching people how to succeed in interviews. I didn’t find any books that exactly fit my career objectives. But I did read one good interview book and obtained some good basic suggestions. The best interview advice I’ve learned is - At any moment, be ready to use 3-5 sentences to summarize 3 of your signature strengths – that is, your best characteristics, either personality, or certain talent, or some valuable experience. These characteristics of yours are what defines you as a highly competent professional and ideal candidate. The signature strength statement works great for all phone interviews and on site interviews. And your strength statement can serve as a perfect base for you to answer many interview questions. Of course you should know how to describe your strengths in a few different ways, and know when to emphasize which one in various situations. But once you are very sure of your strengths and ready to convince people of your strengths, you can talk people into hiring you. Many of us are not good at self-promoting. But the strength statement is not bragging. It describes what you can provide, based on solid facts, and it reflects what you value the most on your career path. Even today, at my job, I will constantly reflect what my strengths are. This keeps me well aware of my career objectives.
Since I sent out many applications, and most ended up without a result, I did get quite a few phone interviews and on-site interviews. Believe it or not, at the end, I almost enjoyed the interviews. Of course I would still have the butterflies-in-stomach feeling at every interview, but I did enjoy the opportunities of visiting different campuses and talking with different people. As you know, college professors and staff are the most adorable people! I know when I relax and be myself, I would do well in an interview. But we all know it’s hard to relax under those circumstances. I found it helpful to focus my mind on exchange of professional information with the interviewers. Most of the interviewers are people who are already in the teaching position that you would like to have. Talking with them is a good opportunity for you to know more about this profession and their particular institutions. In this sense, as long as you give your insights, be attentive to others’ opinions, and ask good questions, your interview will always be rewarding, whether followed by a job offer or not. And when you focus more on the subject, on curriculum ideas and teaching philosophy, you will be acting as an enthusiastic professional, but not a nervous candidate lacking self confidence.
I believe all of you are well prepared for your future career. The interpersonal communication skills you gained in your TA work, the writing techniques you practiced in your thesis, and the critical thinking you developed in graduate study will all be great assets. You've already gained great strengths in years of hard work. All you need to do is to bring them out in your job search and in your professional life. Good luck to everyone!
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