Are dh's job chances less now that..

[admylin]

What do you think. Dh is applying for jobs (area assistant professor, lecturer etc in neureoscience) but last week his PhD supervisor (here they say Doktorvater - and they were very close) suddenly died at quite a young age, well mid 50's.
He was his first choice for letters of recommendation and he always gave a great one. The other 2 on his list are OK but not very quick so often they've been unreliable whne he's asked them to forward letters to jobs.
Now, I'm desperate to get out of germany and back to the UK or to the US or any english speaking country really. I'm not getting depressed thinking this is the end and he'll never get a good job because of this.
Do you think, when he applies he should sort of explain that his supervisor died and that's why he has no reference from him? If he doesn't explain surely some commitee or group sifting through applications will throw his straight in the "no interest" tray because it looks bad if even the supervisor isn't stated as a reference.

Oops! Didn't mean not getting depressed, meant am NOW getting depressed.

Goodness me, how sad. Losing a very good referee is a real shame. I think explaining the dituation, ie death could be advantrageous. It will prob end up that they will go to dh's 2nd choice refereeanyway, right ?

Well alot of places have phoned if they like his application but some ask all 3 to send letters/emails. It's really bad luck, we were nearly out of here I'm sure. The running application is in USA and they told him to arrange for the letters to be sent so he sent them an email to ask for more time because of the death of his professor. They haven't answered and he's asked all his other referees to send their emails off but they aren't as reliable as the professor was (he did have a secretary of course and theothers don't)

Any suggestion as to how he should put it? As a P.S. at the bottom of his cover letter or on his CV below the reference bit and how would he word it?

Goodness admylin, where is everyone else, to offer advice ?
Either on the Covering letter, or what about contacting them direct / e-mail / phone and explaining the situation.
Surely only a dead rat, could be anything other than sympathetic ?

Maybe I should put this on a different thread? I was thinkingof any new jobapplications in future - how to word it if at all. Just heard that his application to Chicago didn't get trough to the next round. Still, he keeps trying and we're OK here upto October 2008.

Anyone on this morning with any advice?
Dh reckons the recommendation letters are a load of rubbish and formalities only. Had a row about it this morning,I'm sure at this level (assistant professor) they'll need good references, or is it just how many grants and how many publications you have?

I'm an academic, though admittedly in a very different field. IME (and I've been on many job search committees) it is very rare for a full set of three references to be submitted for any candidate. So it is nowhere near as bleak a situation as you think. Your dh is basically right that it is his record that will be decisive in whether he gets a job, though of course good references can help.

However, your dh does need to impress upon the other referees that they are now playing a more important role for him. Whether he should explain the absence of a supervisor's reference depends a bit on how recently he got his PhD - if in the last 3 years, yes he should explain; if it was longer ago, it probably doesn't matter so much. I'd also suggest that he identifies a 3rd referee as soon as possible. When I'm reviewing applications, a candidate for a permanent lectureship/asst. prof'ship who hadn't made enough of a professional impact to be able to muster 3 referees would ring warning bells for me.

hth

Thanks for that advice, so dh was right (again!) he got his PhD in 2004 (September) so I suppose now his applications are going to be OK if he has published enough. He is hoping for 2 to be published some time this summer and he has 9 since his PhD.
In Chicago they said they'd had 360 applications for a lecturing job at a ne wdepartment of the University, that scared us both because that's alot of competition.