Academics - how are applicants for lectureships normally informed when they haven't got the job (ie phone/email/letter etc)?

[fruitpeeler]

Only asking because I had a fairly (well, if I'm honest, completely and utterly) disastrous interview before Christmas for a lectureship I thought I really wanted. Now the head of department has arranged a phone call with me.

I am 99.5% sure this is to tell me that I haven't got the job, but am surprised that they are going to the trouble of telling me over the phone - thought they would just send me an email. I do see that it is very civil of them to break the news in person, but I would prefer for them just to confirm that I haven't got it, sooner rather than later. Email would be fine to convey this information as far as I am concerned!

As it is, I am now letting that 0.5% chance niggle at me. I shouldn't, should I?

Hello Magrat. I thought it was a HEFCE funded position but perhaps not. It's all very confusing. This is a (very prestigious) RG university but one with a reputation for being very very competitive and not necessarily a very comfortable or nice place to work as a result. I did present a paper. It has already been published in a 4* journal so hopefully can't be that bad, but they were pretty horrible about it, and that's putting it mildly. Then I had a formal interview where, after my mauling during the presentation, I couldn't quite summon up the energy to bullshit about my interest in academic leadership, or discuss why this particular job was so right for me (I wasn't sure that it was at that point). The interview only lasted about fifteen minutes! Which is why I am so baffled that they haven't just put a line through my name. Actually, I think they have, but something funny is going on. Academics/academic institutions can be a funny old lot in my experience! Thanks for responding anyway.

Poor you fruitpeeler. There can be such negativity in the way academics approach each other, and it's a real blight on what can otherwise be a really uplifting career.

Hello again Veronica. It IS an uplifting career, you're right. And I'm lucky enough to already have a job in it, so going on about this other one is silly really. It was quite a bruising experience though and I think I just want 'closure'! I often wonder myself how to provide the kind of criticism we're meant to in an academic context without quite so much of the negativity. Difficult balance. But I don't think this lot quite managed it.

Hi fruitpeeler, sorry, my question came across probably more blunt that I intended, I didn't mean to offend!

(The prestigious, very competitive and not very comfortable place to work sounds like my old place, which coincidently still hasn't filled the lectureship I left even though they advertised it a while back).

Hi Margrat, you didn't offend at all! Sorry if I gave the impression you had in my reply. Interesting about your competitive/not comfortable place to work. I believe that quite a few people are trying to leave the place to which I am applying because it is so tough. I guess it's just possible that they are having trouble recruiting, although it is one of the UK's top ranked faculties in this subject. So again, not sure why I'm bothered, except that I've recently been turned down in quite brutal terms by another fairly prestigious place where I had actually worked for a period and my ego has been badly bruised. Think I feel like I've got something to prove, although I'm actually quite happy at my less prestigious place.

Any news fruitpeeler?

Hello Campergirls. No, nothing - thanks for asking. They said that they 'hoped' to know this week. I'm not holding my breath.