Depressing start to a day...or a job search

Nothing like a little bad news to mess up a perfectly good Monday, if there is such a thing. I started my day by checking in on Inside Higher Ed. Lo and behold, I found a column by Jean Dowdall, Senior VP at the headhunting firm, Witt/Kieffer, about administrative searches in a time of recession. The highlights for job hunters?

• Fewer vacancies, due to hiring freezes, fewer retirements, and people unwilling or unable to risk all the issues attendant in a move--selling the house, relocating the spouse, and other such rhyming issues.
• More reliance on internal candidates to save money on searches and relocations, as well as saving the school from taking a risk on an unknown quantity.

As an applicant for administrative jobs, Dowdall's column made me feel a little like the tenured job seeker from the Chronicle's First Person column, whose title was "Could I have picked a worse time?"

I sent out a couple job applications this season, and I haven't heard anything back. I am fighting the urge to make a call and ask what is happening... You know, the "Where are you in the process?" call that all search chairs hate. The gf is really hopeful about these positions and their location, too, which makes the situation even harder, though it is nice to share the "not knowing."

I know the economic picture is grim, putting the hurt on schools who want to hire. I have doctoral students who are having trouble finding positions, and that is almost unheard of in my field. So, I am not surprised that administrative jobs are also dwindling. But somehow I thought that the jobs I was applying for were good fits and sound prospects. Maybe I should give Dowdall a call?!

Ah, well. Not the way to start a Monday...