Online Resources
1. Resources for the Tenure-Track Job Applicants
2. Resources for Post-Doc Applicants
3. Resources for Community College Job Applicants
4. Resources for Jobs Beyond the Academy
5. Conference Call and Research Websites
Resources for the Tenure-Track Job Search
University Career Services
For help with creating and submitting a resume or setting up a reference file for faculty recommendations, visit the University Career Services Office website.
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education comes out weekly and has fairly extensive ads for jobs; any given issue will have six to seven jobs in English, and sometimes many more than that. Davis has copies, and you can also borrow a copy from Jodie or view it online. In the fall, the Chronicle will only occasionally have ads not also listed in the MLA job list, but at all other times of the year (i.e. from January to September), it is the most useful job list.
MLA Job Information List
The Modern Language Association provides an online job information list published in October, December, April, and June. You may access this list through the ADE webpage. Please check with Jodie in the Graduate Studies Office for our departmental user name and password, or e-mail Ilouise at isbradford@gmail.com. Jodie also has a hardcopy version of the MLA Job List in her office. The MLA job list is the "official" way to advertise an opening. It is the major source for finding out about tenure‑track jobs that will go through the normal MLA convention interview process. It is less helpful for non‑normal hires -- which means that it is less useful in the spring, although still important. You can also subscribe (through MLA) and get your own personal copy.
Other Job Resources
Check notices posted on the bulletin board next to the mailboxes. Internet and other word-of-mouth sources can also provide information about available jobs, especially last-minute replacement jobs, which are seldom advertised formally. Tenure‑track jobs are never solely advertised this way, but internet postings (especially to specialized discussion groups) are becoming more common. If you find yourself in a particular geographic area and looking for work, a blanket mailing to all the area's colleges will very often land you some adjunct work. Almost all colleges now hire some lecturers and they rarely bother to advertise these positions, depending instead on blind applications that come in the mail. Early April is the optimal time to send out such letters since many schools hire for lecturer positions right at the end of the spring semester. April to June is the season for such openings.
Duke's English department has an excellent job placement website that contains tips, timelines, and links to job lists. The University of Texas at Austin also has a good job placement website which contains interesting resources on job possibilities outside of academia.
To search for jobs in the United Kingdom, see http://jobs.ac.uk/.
Resources for Post-Doc Applicants
Post-Doctoral Fellowships
Current and prospective UNC postdocs will find information about postdoctoral fellowships on the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs website ( http://postdocs.unc.edu/ops.htm). You will also find some post-docs listed on the ADE joblist.
To search for postdocs at UNC, see http://postdocs.unc.edu/postdoc_jobs.htm.
National Postdoctoral Association (includes job board): http://www.nationalpostdoc.org/site/c.eoJMIWOBIrH/b.1388059/k.DBBE/NPA_Home.htm.
See also: http://www.scholarshipnet.info/category/postdoc/ .
Post your resume, search for jobs, and read tips on the post-doc search at http://www.postdocjobs.com/.
See postings of current post-docs in the humanities on the website of Duke’s Office of Research Support: http://www.ors.duke.edu/find/student/pdoc/pdochumsoc.html.
Ford Diversity Postdoctoral Fellowships for minority Ph.D.s: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/FORDfellowships/fordpost.html
Carolina Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity: http://research.unc.edu/red/postdoc.php.
Chronicle of Higher Education article: “Postdocs for Humanists” by Peter S. Cahn: http://chronicle.com/jobs/2002/07/2002072401c.htm.
Resources for Community College Job Applicants
Although there is no separate search category on the ADE webpage for community college jobs, typing “community college” in the search line yields several listings.
American Association of Community Colleges Job Bank:
http://www.aacc.nche.edu/Content/NavigationMenu/CareerCenter/JobBank/Job_Bank.htm.
See also http://www.higheredjobs.com/.
See the http://chronicle.com/jobs/2002/04/2002041901c.htm An English professor at a community college offers advice for applicants targeting community colleges, including advice (in a later column) about "The Importance of Cover Letters in a Community College Job Search."
Resources for Jobs Beyond the Academy
Visit the University Career Services website (http://careers.unc.edu/) and sign up for the UCS Registration System. This system will give you access to job and internship postings, and to the career services listserv.
Network with UNC Alumni working in regions and fields which interest you by using Carolina Connection (http://careerweb.unc.edu/).
Inquire about networking nights and career fairs.
Contact Laura Lane, who is the Career Center’s liaison to the departments of English, Communication Studies, and Journalism:
Email: lrlane@email.unc.edu
Phone: 919-962-6984
Sign up for the “premiere email discussion list on nonacademic careers for people with graduate degrees in Humanities, Education and Social science disciplines”: https://lists.duke.edu/sympa/info/wrk4us.
Links to Information:
“Sellout: A Resource for PhDs Considering Careers Beyond the Humanities” is likely the most useful source of links to articles and testimonials about scholars leaving the academy: http://www.ironstring.com/sellout.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has an excellent page the search for non-academic jobs which includes information on resumes, cover letters, and interviewing, as well as a good links page: http://www.grad.uiuc.edu/careerservices/nonacademic/.
See articles on the Chronicle of Higher Education website:
http://chronicle.com/jobs/topical/non_academic.htm
http://chronicle.com/jobs/news/archives/columns/beyond_the_ivory_tower/
On the ADE webpage, see “Developing a Nonacademic Career”:
http://www.ade.org/jil/index.htm
See UC-Berkeley’s guide to jobs beyond the academy: http://career.berkeley.edu/Phds/PhDCareerJob.stm.
PhDs Work: http://www.geocities.com/athens/troy/7167/phdswork.html.
Links to Job Search Websites:
Http://www.academic360.com/ provides links to other job-hunting websites in academic and administrative positions.
Academic Careers Online is a “global academic job site for teaching jobs, education jobs, and professional jobs in education and academia”:
http://www.academiccareers.com/.
Private School Teaching and Administration:
http://www.nais.org/.
Technical Writing Jobs:
http://www.stc.org/.
Business Communication:
http://www.iabc.com/.
National Council of Teachers of English (information about university, community college, ESL, and high school teaching jobs):
http://www.ncte.org/about/over/careers/.
Federal Government Jobs (the federal pay scale is based on education level, so the PhD makes applicants eligible for high-paying jobs):
http://www.usajobs.gov.
See Sharon Jones at the UNC Career Service for further information on the search for a federal government job (sljones@email.unc.edu).
Non-profit jobs:
http://www.idealist.org/
Nonprofit Times: http://www.nptimes.com.
General job search engine: http://www.wetfeet.com
National Coalition of Independent Scholars: www.ncis.org
Books and articles:
See the Career Center resource room for numerous books on both academic and non-academic job searching.
Maggie Debelius and Susan Elizabeth Basalla, So What Are You Going to Do With That?: A Guide for M.A.’s and Ph.D’s Seeking Careers Outside the Academy (Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2001).
Outside the Ivory Tower, by Margaret Newhouse (Harvard University Press, 1993).
MLA Report on PhD Placement: http://www.ade.org/reports/Rpt_PhDPlacement_ADE_138-39.pdf .
Conference Call and Research Websites
For calls for papers on English and American Literature and Culture, see the University of Pennsylvania's electronic mailing list: http://www.english.upenn.edu/CFP/index.html. See also the listings in PMLA.
Online research tools:
“Literary Resources on the Net”: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Lit/,
“Voice of the Shuttle”:http://vos.ucsb.edu/.