Hi Karen, thanks for stopping by and lending your expertise. My question relates to the spousal/partner hire.
I'm a Ph.D. candidate at a top US university, in history. The department is, I think, generally considered one of the best in the country and for my field is probably the best. I have two journal publications (one in the top journal in the field) and a book chapter, plus reviews, etc. All of that is to say that I don't think I'm being hubristic when I look at the job market with trepidation, but not terror.
My partner is at a similarly strong university and (I think, but then I'm biased) also a very competitive candidate. Our research interests overlap, but they're not identical. She is also one year behind me in terms of expected graduation.
Do you have any advice for someone in this type of situation about how to negotiate a spousal/partner hire? Is this something doable at the first job, or should I/we be prepared to go back on the market when we're both (hopefully) Assistant Professors at different schools to try to land two jobs in one place? Is there anything we can do, other than generally work to be as competitive as possible, to make this more likely? Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks!
battleship_potemkin3 karma
Hi Karen, thanks for stopping by and lending your expertise. My question relates to the spousal/partner hire.
I'm a Ph.D. candidate at a top US university, in history. The department is, I think, generally considered one of the best in the country and for my field is probably the best. I have two journal publications (one in the top journal in the field) and a book chapter, plus reviews, etc. All of that is to say that I don't think I'm being hubristic when I look at the job market with trepidation, but not terror.
My partner is at a similarly strong university and (I think, but then I'm biased) also a very competitive candidate. Our research interests overlap, but they're not identical. She is also one year behind me in terms of expected graduation.
Do you have any advice for someone in this type of situation about how to negotiate a spousal/partner hire? Is this something doable at the first job, or should I/we be prepared to go back on the market when we're both (hopefully) Assistant Professors at different schools to try to land two jobs in one place? Is there anything we can do, other than generally work to be as competitive as possible, to make this more likely? Any advice would be much appreciated, thanks!
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