PSA to job market candidates: if you didn't get a particular flyout, it may have had nothing to do with the quality of your interview. Departments have a myriad of internal constraints and goals that are unobservable to you, and the process is a lot more complex than you think. - ThreadSky

tderyugina.bsky.social • 49 days ago

PSA to job market candidates: if you didn't get a particular flyout, it may have had nothing to do with the quality of your interview. Departments have a myriad of internal constraints and goals that are unobservable to you, and the process is a lot more complex than you think.

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valearle.bsky.social•48 days ago

I have been alive long enough to experience having one or two interviews that led to a job offer. The new Byzantine hiring process of the 2020s is ridiculous, inefficient, and wasteful. There is no excuse for it.

tderyugina.bsky.social•48 days ago

I'm curious, how is the 2020s different from the hiring process before, in your experience? My impression is that everyone is happy that the first-round interviews have moved online. What else changed, compared to the 2010s, for example?

valearle.bsky.social•48 days ago

There were no more than two interviews, usually one, and with one or two people, and that was it. Your references were called, and you received a job offer or a denial letter. Now it’s several interviews with people you won’t even be working with. Teams of people. Months go by, and nothing.

valearle.bsky.social•48 days ago

Or you’re asked to work for free by doing a project and not getting paid for it. You might receive a thoughtless “we’ve gone with another candidate” only to see the job posted again. Nevermind figuring out the AI algorithm to get your resume to HR. You’re missing so many good employees this way 2/

tderyugina.bsky.social•48 days ago

Yikes, that sounds bad. My post was about the academic econ job market, which functions very differently.

valearle.bsky.social•48 days ago

Your original post didn’t specify which job market.

However, a quick internet search reveals that academic job searchers are in the same boat. Many like this:

https://www.chronicle.com/article/5-easy-fixes-for-a-broken-faculty-job-market/

guiterasecon.bsky.social•48 days ago

I don't dispute that the job market in econ does have some inefficiencies and waste, but (a) given that it's often a very delicate two-sided matching problem with fairly thin markets it's going to be tough no matter what and (b) I don't think it's any less efficient now than, say, 15 years ago.

valearle.bsky.social•48 days ago

Three interviews followed by “work for us for free by completing this project as part of your ‘interview’—we won’t hire you but we will steal your work.” Five interviews over three months followed by ghosting the applicant. I could go on with examples of interview fraud because it is fraud.

guiterasecon.bsky.social•48 days ago

Yeah, that sounds pretty bad.

I am lucky enough to say that I have not experienced anything like that on either side of the academic job market. I have not heard of practice like that in our "industry" either.

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