> Chris Pieper began looking for an academic job in sociology about six months ago, sending off about two dozen application packets. The results so far? Two telephone interviews, and no employment offers.<p>This doesn't sound like anything new to me. I did my first post-PhD search in 1996. Sent out 105 applications, got 5 interviews and 2 offers. (My degree is in math, BTW.)<p>> "Many of the universities I applied to received more than 300 applications," he added.<p>I heard "more than 1200" quoted back in '96.<p>All this is dispiriting, to be sure, and it does point to troubles in academia. However, it should not be <i>surprising</i>, to anyone who has done their homework. And there is no need to blame the recent economic decline.
well, the article talks about doctoral candidates in the humanities (I think, I may have missed any non humanities candidates, I am too tired to read the article again right now). Perhpas doctoral candidates in the hard sciences/ engineering have more options?
This isn't really new. Academia has been in this recession for almost 3 decades. Universities are just using the recession an an excuse to ramp up the same garbage one more notch.<p>One reason universities get away with this horseshit is that they're able to take advantage of very smart people who caught an idea very early in life-- that schooling opens doors and improves one's life-- and failed to disavow themselves of it when it was no longer true.