In my last column, I sketched a parallel between the humanities job search and the musical casting call. I want to update this analogy. What I've since learned is that looking for a job in academe is more like living in a movie.
Most candidates tend to find themselves in two distinct types of films.
First, there's the big-budget Hollywood movie. The protagonist applies for jobs, gets lots of interviews, gets invited to campuses, gets various offers, and gets his dream job. It's nip and tuck, but he will just make it, leaping into the cab of the moving van, diploma in hand, spouse and dog as proud as can be. Then there is the foreign art film version, probably called something like Sehnsucht in der Dunkelheit, or better, Saudade. The action takes place entirely in a dimly lighted, claustrophobic two-room flat.