Cometh the Season of Hiring

Following up on both Tim's and Jacqueline's posts, I am also interested in the hiring season, but from a different perspective (and thus the reversal of Jacqueline's title): I am going on the market this fall seeking a faculty position for fall 2010. My current visiting appointment with MSU College of Law ends in June 2010, so it's time for me to hop back into the system. I have struggled with how public to make my search here (on the Faculty Lounge), and for now my answer is: not very. I may post very general information at times, but generally I will be pretty quiet throughout the process. Once it's all said and done I may ask Dan to let me send an update, so perhaps you'll here after what my experience was during.

And no, Tim, I do not list UCC/commercial/bankruptcy as a "top choice" (though I do list Property Law, which I will be teaching twice before I finish my visitorship at MSU next June; does that count for something?).

Best of luck to all who are entering the market in what promises to be a very difficult year.

P.S. I submitted my AALS form yesterday, for what it's worth.

Edited to add categories and re-word a poorly worded phrase!

Comments

[Alfred]

Yes! Teaching property counts for a lot, at least with me.

But this raises a question: Property used to be a very good subject for job searches; it was hard to staff. I'd be interested in whether people think that property is still a good area (from the candidates' perspective) -- that is, is it still one that's hard to staff. My sense is that candidates have awakened to the cool things you can do and property and there's no longer an under-supply of property professors.

[Jacqueline Lipton]

I've been involved in appointments at CWRU for a number of years and we haven't specifically looked for property profs in the time I've been involved. Property has sometimes been a plus if the person is "property and [insert curricular need here]". But the actual needs have varied from year to year and property has not topped the list in recent memory.

[Tim Zinnecker]

Before reading Al's comment, I was thinking to myself that "property" is to the list of first-year courses as "UCC/commercial/bankruptcy" is to the list of upper-division courses: of critical importance, yet underappreciated by many. As I recall from recent hiring seasons, property is probably listed as a "top choice" by fewer candidates than any other first-year course. Therefore, as Al suggests, I do believe that listing property may open a few more doors than, say, contracts / torts / civ pro. (And for the scores who simply list "any first year course," be prepared to prioritize!)

My question for Rob, in his capacity as a candidate, is whether he would revise the FAR form in any way (perhaps the topic of another post). Does it solicit info that shouldn't be requested (e.g., ethnicity) or is of little use? Does it fail to solicit info that might be helpful to committees? Query what might happen if candidates were identifiable solely by a number, and all scheduling of interviews in DC was coordinated on a "blind" basis through a central agency. Good idea? Or have I lost my marbles? (It certainly would be a challenge to go "blind," as published scholarship is traceable to an author. But there are ways around this.)

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