This week’s WIP: Applying for jobs. This requires a lot of tea.

If I ever get in a position in which I can influence the content on a university department’s web page, I would include a “fast facts” page that includes which of the many faculty in the department is Head of School or Chair of the Department. Then maybe it will catch on and other universities will do it, too, and thus save poor job searchers from having to visit every single faculty profile page in search of to whom to address their cover letter.

Applying for jobs as a just-completed-PhD also feels like being stranded on a deserted island, tossing out messages in the bottles you’ve taught yourself how to make into the sea and hoping someday one will be picked up. And in the meantime, you keep at your forge, glass-blowing bottles because you’ve got sand and time to spare, and maybe, just maybe, someone will appreciate your glass-blowing abilities.