Comments on: Ten Habits for a Highly Successful Job Talk

By: Sin

Sin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

And this is exactly why I put my plans for academia on hold. Well, mostly because after having to sit on the job search/tenure committees at Georgetown’s English Department, I’d have slit my wrists at one more mention of the post-colonial paradigm.

I mean seriously. They were lecturing a Pakistani. One, in particular (Edward Said’s protege, whom we later hired), was so godawful condescending when explaining subaltern states to me that I was just a few seconds away from beaning him with a copy of my thesis. Still, he redeemed himself later on.

By: sepoy

sepoy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sin: “Still, he redeemed himself later on.” Thanks for the laugh, mate.

By: Sivani

Sivani — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I might be blind, but I have been unable to find an email address for you on the site (and I don’t fanatically google people who might have good reason NOT to want their email addresses public).

Which means I am butting in, off-topic to ask whether you’ve read Amitav Ghosh’s Glass Palace. He speaks strongly about the “native” soldier’s experience and perception in the British Army during the Second World War period.

Feel free to contact me at my given email address, or not.

By: S¬Ønee

S¬Ønee — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

1. How do you feel now??
2. Great Tips – especially the no. 8 -

By: Jonathan Dresner

Jonathan Dresner — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sin: one interviewer actually asked me a really dumb question as part of the interview to see how I handled it. I know it was deliberate because the guy actually had done graduate work in the area (which I discovered later in the interview), and this was a “I saw Shogun once” quality question…. I imagine this was a condescension filter. Neat tactic, though I’ve never tried using it myself (our interviews are so structured, and I never think of it when we’re planning the questions).

By: sepoy

sepoy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sivani: Sorry, I do not mean to hide my contact. It is now featured prominently on the right – inviting drunken missives from my fans.
Yes, I have read Glass Palace. And the army bits were my fav. parts. The historian in Ghosh is much better than the romantic in Ghosh.

By: Sin

Sin — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Oooh. Drunken missives. Just don’t put up your phone number, or you WILL be receiving drunken telephone calls. I have a habit of doing that.

Yeah, the professor did redeem himself. It turned out that in a paroxysm of Fanon-esque guilt, he was willing to buy me drinks every night after work for about three months. At the urging of his own conscience, no less.

By: Ms. World

Ms. World — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Great post and I`m not an academic or looking for a job! Thanks for the peep into academia!

By: Paris

Paris — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I think you’re leaving out all those important steps that an enterprising young seeker in the field of academe could take in the years leading up to the great job talk moment. Our friends of the gentler sex will find novels such as Pride and Prejudice, Middlemarch and Vanity Fair most instructive to their ultimate goal, a tenure track position at a university of great repute. Less important than comportment in the interview setting and choosing a field of research is the subtle art of establishing one’s self at the feet of a powerful male patron of good income who can then shepherd the career of the young lady to the point of ultimate fruition.

By: sepoy

sepoy — Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Yes, Paris. You are right on mark. I wish I was Becky Sharp.