On the Market: Surviving the Academic Job Search (Serial)

Rating:
Summary: Worse than useless
Review: Do not read this book. It's the worst sort of academic writing. I have a PhD and I know that the market is tough, but this book contains no helpful advice, no useful ideas. It's simply a collection of laments by self-absorbed academics.

Rating:
Summary: Should be required reading
Review: For those who are weary and sick at heart over the long, impoverishing, and brutal academic job hunt--for friends and family who are having a hard time understanding just what you are going through--for tenured faculty who need to know what is happening within their profession--this book is an important find. It reminds the frustrated academic job seeker that he or she is not alone, not a loser, and not doomed to failure. It also conveys a real sense of what the academic job search means on a personal, professional and political level; thus, even if you are not searching for a job as a professor, if you care about someone who is,or if you are already a professor who cares about what your students are experiencing on the market, you may want to read this book in order to better understand what they are going through. Oh yes, and it does INDEED contain hopeful, reflective and intelligent essays on job opportunities outside of academia.

Rating:
Summary: Unemployed Ph.D.s gripefest
Review: This book is collection of essays by recent Ph.D.s who encountered difficulty finding a job. The writers are variously whiny, bitter, thankful, critical, realistic, depressed, resigned. This is not a book for someone seeking an optimistic portrait of the job search. Most of the writers either didn't find a job in academia, or are unhappy in the job they did find. The book underscores just how difficult it is to find a job in academia and the tremendous odds faced by the average Ph.D.