Autism and Academic Interviews
17 Aug 2014, 7:17 pm
About me: mid-40s, dx'ed Asperger in college during my 30s, have a doctorate in a social science. I'm trying desperately to get a full-time tenure-track job. I've had several on-campus interviews but I never get an offer, and I can only think that being autistic is the reason why.
Can anyone share strategies on how to cope with new places and new people and impress them during an all-day interview where you get no time away from people without melting down?
katiesBoyfriend
Blue Jay
Joined: 15 Aug 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 90
Location: Western spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy, out near the outskirts of the Laniakea supercluster
17 Aug 2014, 7:59 pm
I used to teach at a post-secondary institution and quit that job over a dozen years ago. I've never been able to find another one since then.
There are many reasons why. One is that I'm considered too old (I'm now in my late 50s) because academic departments feel that it takes years to establish one's research reputation. (Really? I worked in industrial R & D for years long before I got my Ph. D., so I don't buy that argument.) Another is that my area of research isn't well-funded. That part is true because I'm working in an obscure area of renewable energy and, unless one can bring in large grants, the chances of getting a faculty position are quite slim.
I applied for teaching positions and I'm sure I scuttled my chances by mentioning that I'm still interested in research. Never mind that I'd be working on it on my own time at my own expense. The interview committees took that as a less than complete commitment to teaching. (To be honest, my research kept me sane while I was teaching--that job was that stressful).
Having connections help. My Ph. D. supervisor took a disliking to me towards the end and I'm sure he would have been only too pleased if I had quit. (I know now that he didn't like the fact that I was working in an area he wasn't interested in and he tried all sorts of ways to get me to abandon my project.) On the other hand, he supported one of his grad students and I'm sure it was with his assistance that she's now got tenure at a certain university in the other end of the country. Mind you, there are indications that they had a less than arm's length relationship, if you get my meaning.
Considering how many applications each job posting receives, hiring committees will use any criteria to narrow down the list of possible candidates. Having a certain condition, such as Asperger's Syndrome, might just be one of them.
I read a number of websites where the issue of academic hiring practices is often discussed. We're not alone in rolling snake eyes in the job hunt.
Meistersinger
Veteran
Joined: 10 May 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,700
Location: Beautiful(?) West Manchester Township PA
17 Aug 2014, 9:49 pm
There are many reasons why. One is that I'm considered too old (I'm now in my late 50s) because academic departments feel that it takes years to establish one's research reputation. (Really? I worked in industrial R & D for years long before I got my Ph. D., so I don't buy that argument.) Another is that my area of research isn't well-funded. That part is true because I'm working in an obscure area of renewable energy and, unless one can bring in large grants, the chances of getting a faculty position are quite slim.
I applied for teaching positions and I'm sure I scuttled my chances by mentioning that I'm still interested in research. Never mind that I'd be working on it on my own time at my own expense. The interview committees took that as a less than complete commitment to teaching. (To be honest, my research kept me sane while I was teaching--that job was that stressful).
Having connections help. My Ph. D. supervisor took a disliking to me towards the end and I'm sure he would have been only too pleased if I had quit. (I know now that he didn't like the fact that I was working in an area he wasn't interested in and he tried all sorts of ways to get me to abandon my project.) On the other hand, he supported one of his grad students and I'm sure it was with his assistance that she's now got tenure at a certain university in the other end of the country. Mind you, there are indications that they had a less than arm's length relationship, if you get my meaning.
Considering how many applications each job posting receives, hiring committees will use any criteria to narrow down the list of possible candidates. Having a certain condition, such as Asperger's Syndrome, might just be one of them.
I read a number of websites where the issue of academic hiring practices is often discussed. We're not alone in rolling snake eyes in the job hunt.
<sarcasm>Don't you just LOVE being caught in the middle of academic turf wars?</sarcasm>
Unless you're teaching at a very small liberal arts college, most professors don't even bother with teaching. They leave that task to their graduate students, who, in a general sense, are nothing more than peons.
I've been accused more than once of "faking it" academically. More than once I was ready to punch out that particular professor's lights for making that accusation. It got to the point that I had to get the department head terminate the independent study just to keep what little sanity I had left by the time I reached my senior year in college.
I don't know about the sciences and math, but the humanities and arts aren't exactly bastions of harmonious thinking. Where I did my undergraduate work, as well as where I did my graduate work, original thought was looked down upon. Heaven forbid, as an undergraduate, you had a different idea on how you thought a composition was supposed to be performed, or how a particular role in a stage work was to be presented.
Maybe the academics should get out of their ivory towers for a few years and experience how the world actually works.
17 Aug 2014, 10:20 pm
I love teaching. I want to teach and I'm actually really good at it. Research is going to be the hard part. But when I'm first in a new place, it takes me forever to switch gears. I do not do well with tight schedules and the on-campus interview always has one of the tightest schedules possible. And let's not go into the whole body-language/tone of voice expectation problem.
katiesBoyfriend
Blue Jay
Joined: 15 Aug 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 90
Location: Western spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy, out near the outskirts of the Laniakea supercluster
17 Aug 2014, 10:46 pm
<snip>
<sarcasm>Don't you just LOVE being caught in the middle of academic turf wars?</sarcasm>
Unless you're teaching at a very small liberal arts college, most professors don't even bother with teaching. They leave that task to their graduate students, who, in a general sense, are nothing more than peons.
I've been accused more than once of "faking it" academically. More than once I was ready to punch out that particular professor's lights for making that accusation. It got to the point that I had to get the department head terminate the independent study just to keep what little sanity I had left by the time I reached my senior year in college.
I don't know about the sciences and math, but the humanities and arts aren't exactly bastions of harmonious thinking. Where I did my undergraduate work, as well as where I did my graduate work, original thought was looked down upon. Heaven forbid, as an undergraduate, you had a different idea on how you thought a composition was supposed to be performed, or how a particular role in a stage work was to be presented.
Maybe the academics should get out of their ivory towers for a few years and experience how the world actually works.
Engineering harmonious? Yeah right. I started grad studies in mechanical almost 35 years to the day. I soon ended up as grad student rep for the department meetings, partly because nobody else wanted the job. It didn't take me long to understand why. My illusion of the nobility of professors was soon shattered. Some of the disputes that broke out were so bad, there were schoolyard brawls that I remembered from my childhood that were more civilized.
I noticed while I did grad studies in electrical, I found that originality was frowned upon. During my Ph. D. defence, I could tell who had read my thesis based on the questions I was asked (except for my supervisor and his buddy, who deliberately asked about stuff that I'd long forgotten before the former wanted to humiliate me in front of the committee).
Originality means that someone might not understand what one has investigated. Worse yet is when they refuse to be briefed on it, even if it's to get a different perspective, like my supervisor did a few times. Originality also means one might not get funded and whatever brings in the money is the only thing worth investigating, particularly if everyone else is doing it.
One reason I ended up butting heads was that I'd been in industry before I returned for grad studies. One quickly develops a different way of thinking out there.
Meistersinger
Veteran
Joined: 10 May 2012
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,700
Location: Beautiful(?) West Manchester Township PA
17 Aug 2014, 10:51 pm
<snip>
<sarcasm>Don't you just LOVE being caught in the middle of academic turf wars?</sarcasm>
Unless you're teaching at a very small liberal arts college, most professors don't even bother with teaching. They leave that task to their graduate students, who, in a general sense, are nothing more than peons.
I've been accused more than once of "faking it" academically. More than once I was ready to punch out that particular professor's lights for making that accusation. It got to the point that I had to get the department head terminate the independent study just to keep what little sanity I had left by the time I reached my senior year in college.
I don't know about the sciences and math, but the humanities and arts aren't exactly bastions of harmonious thinking. Where I did my undergraduate work, as well as where I did my graduate work, original thought was looked down upon. Heaven forbid, as an undergraduate, you had a different idea on how you thought a composition was supposed to be performed, or how a particular role in a stage work was to be presented.
Maybe the academics should get out of their ivory towers for a few years and experience how the world actually works.
Engineering harmonious? Yeah right. I started grad studies in mechanical almost 35 years to the day. I soon ended up as grad student rep for the department meetings, partly because nobody else wanted the job. It didn't take me long to understand why. My illusion of the nobility of professors was soon shattered. Some of the disputes that broke out were so bad, there were schoolyard brawls that I remembered from my childhood that were more civilized.
I noticed while I did grad studies in electrical, I found that originality was frowned upon. During my Ph. D. defence, I could tell who had read my thesis based on the questions I was asked (except for my supervisor and his buddy, who deliberately asked about stuff that I'd long forgotten before the former wanted to humiliate me in front of the committee).
Originality means that someone might not understand what one has investigated. Worse yet is when they refuse to be briefed on it, even if it's to get a different perspective, like my supervisor did a few times. Originality also means one might not get funded and whatever brings in the money is the only thing worth investigating, particularly if everyone else is doing it.
One reason I ended up butting heads was that I'd been in industry before I returned for grad studies. One quickly develops a different way of thinking out there.
Hence my comment about the academics getting out of their towers and live in the real world. I know of quite a few situations where theory does not follow actual practice.
katiesBoyfriend
Blue Jay
Joined: 15 Aug 2014
Gender: Male
Posts: 90
Location: Western spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy, out near the outskirts of the Laniakea supercluster
17 Aug 2014, 10:53 pm
For most of my time I was teaching, certain administrators were determined to make my life miserable.
I was told that I needed to create a "safe learning environment", but nobody ever defined what that was. Some people openly took umbrage at my being single and living alone and, yes, there were certain rumours circulating about me, if you know what I mean.
The most absurd allegation was that my having a Ph. D. "intimidated" my students. Apparently, it made them afraid to approach me and ask questions and, therefore, they didn't learn anything from me. Never mind that they didn't do diddly before I became Dr. KBF and that I had a right to be addressed by my title--I earned it, after all. Oh, and belong to Mensa was also a bad thing.
So, in order to make myself acceptable to them, I had to toss my degree away and dumb myself down intellectually. I had to become palsy-walsy with them and let them like they did with their other buddies.
It didn't take long before I quit. The place had become too weird for me.
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