Department support

[squid]

Do you feel like you got adequate/inadequate/exemplary support from your department in the job search? Is your department ranked?

Mine sucked rotten eggs. The job search prof this semester is just incompetent and doesn't do anything. Gives weird advice that everyone else contradicts. Doesn't get back to me when I email.

I had to chase my committee for weeks to get my letters of reference filed. Meanwhile, application deadlines were expiring. I finally ended up getting a bunch of my letters sent missing one. I HAVE to wonder if that hurt some of my applications. But you know, it's not like my career/financial future depends on this or anything.

[humeismyhomeboy]

My department was horrible. Couldn't get my adviser to read my dissertation and pass it along to the other members of the committee because he had found a new hobby and couldn't be bothered. I've been gone for years, but they still f things up for me when I need them to send out letters and the like. They then charge me a premium even when they f things up.

My employer sucks even worse. No support for conference travel. No computers for contingent faculty. If you want that stuff, you pay for it yourself out of the $33K they give you to teach 4/4. (One TT member did note that I could use the computers in the library to do my work so he couldn't see what the big deal was that we didn't get them in our offices.) Pay raises every year that really amount to tiny pay cuts when you take account of inflation.