We’ve added a small protest banner to Phylo for the next week to speak out against the SOPA and PIPA bills currently before the U.S. Congress. We considered blacking out the whole site in solidarity with Wikipedia, Reddit, Boing Boing, WordPress and others, but decided that it might be too detrimental to job seekers using the wiki during this prime time. You can learn more about the legislation and how to take action at http://americancensorship.org.
Revised job ads?
14Jan12A department that had advertised a position on Phylo Jobs in November recently submitted a significantly revised version of that ad, with a new “Apply By” date and significant expansion of the text of the ad. This was the first “resubmission” that we’ve received.
We’ve updated the original ad, keeping the same Job ID. As a result, the ad won’t show up twice when you’re browsing the list or counting job openings. However, because we changed the publication date to the date of the revision, the ad jumps to the top of the list on the web site.
We recognize that such resubmissions could potentially get out of hand. Since there’s no financial cost to submitting a new ad, departments could “revise” their ads frequently to bump them to the top of the list. It’s unclear, of course, that revising an ad just to bump it to the top has any real benefit. Job seekers presumably look at every job in their areas, so the order doesn’t seem to matter much. For this and other reasons, the problem might never materialize. But then again, some schools did consistently readvertise jobs in successive editions of Jobs for Philosophers, despite the fact that anyone reading the November JFP in a given year almost certainly read the October issue, too.
For now, we’ll play it by ear if and when we get other resubmissions. But we are aware of a possible problem with strategic revisions. If it looks like it’s becoming an actual problem, then we will develop a policy to address it.
In addition to some improvements under the hood that reduce the load time for Phylo’s community job wiki, we’ve set the wiki to check for new updates every ten minutes and automatically refresh the data if needed. You can now leave the wiki open in the background and keep up to date without having to reload the page.
To see the time of the most recent (check for an) update, look at the last introductory paragraph on the wiki (just above the “full text search” box). For serious wiki addicts who can’t stand to wait ten minutes, we highly recommend finding something healthier to do with your time. But if you must know now, you can force the wiki to check for new data by clicking on the time of the last update.
Though we like seeing everyone visit our website
we also realize that people might prefer receiving job announcements in other ways. Here’s a breakdown of our current delivery options:
- Text-only display, a simplified listing of all jobs, suitable for screen readers and other forms of assistive technology.
- RSS feed, which provides live updates to your favorite reader. If you’re new to RSS, check out David’s earlier post here. You can also receive RSS feeds in email via several services, including RMail, RSSFwd, and Feed My Inbox.
- Twitter account posts @PhyloProject. If you’re new to Twitter (or want to give it a try), check out Twitter 101. We tag all of these with #philosophyjobs if you want to track them that way, too.
- Facebook page for Phylo Jobs, which will provides a short header and link to each job. If you Like the page, the updates will appear in your recent news feed every time you log in to Facebook (you can also hide these later if you don’t want to receive them). This page is separate from our main Phylo Facebook page. We gave some thought to what people might like to see and decided that job seekers who want real-time updates on openings are a different audience than all people who might want occasional updates from Phylo (and might get annoyed with several daily posts). You can get updates from both pages or just one, whatever you Like.
A mobile version of Phylo is also in the works, since we noticed a lot of users are browsing on smartphones. That version will have all the features of the main page, but in an optimized format.
UPDATE: David now tells me the mobile version is live at http://phylo.info/jobs/mobile and that it has only the text search, since clicking through check boxes on a smartphone would be grueling.
If there are other delivery options you’d like to see, please suggest them to jobs@phylo.info.
In my next post, I’ll give a rundown of the new, streamlined Jobs Wiki (http://phylo.info/jobs/wiki), which allows job seekers to provide and view unofficial updates on the status of positions. As with last year, you’ll still be able to subscribe to a personalized RSS feed of specific jobs that you’re interested in. Look for information on that function in the coming weeks.
We’ve combined our database of institutions with a script that calls geolocations from Tiny Geo-coder (http://tinygeocoder.com/) to create two new maps of jobs worldwide. The small map on the main jobs page (http://phylo.info/jobs) feeds recent job locations directly into Google Maps API for a quick overview of locations. The full-featured map (http://phylo.info/jobs/map) uses a SIMILE Exhibit with a Google Maps display. This page comes with all the features of Exhibit, including full text search over all the job ads, as well as faceted search based on job attributes (e.g., rank, AOS, AOC), as well as institution properties (e.g., type, location, setting) for U.S. institutions based on select Carnegie Classifications.
David has produced a screencast showing different ways to use these features on the main jobs page. (His explanation of disjunctive and conjunctive faceting is especially helpful.) Check out http://phylo.info/jobs/help for this and future screencasts, or watch the first installation below.
This screencast was produced very easily in QuickTime X. There’s a nice how-to guide at http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/quick-screencasting-using-quicktime-x-in-mac-snow-leopard/.
Over the next few days, we’ll be updating you on the latest developments to our job advertisement services, including:
- live Google map of open positions (phylo.info/jobs/map)
- additional delivery options (RSS, text-only, mobile, Twitter, Facebook)
- screencasts on using Phylo Jobs services
- launch of our registered e-newspaper, Job Openings in Philosophy, to aid institutions with federal compliance
- streamlined Jobs Wiki design for unofficial status updates (which still includes customized RSS feeds) (phylo.info/jobs/wiki)
As of October 1, 2011, we also require that each job poster certifies that his/her institution complies with American Philosophical Association’s Non-Discrimination Statement.
Following some suggestions from around the philosophy blogosphere (e.g., here, here, and here), we have built a new jobs board where departments can post jobs in philosophy. You can access the jobs board, which we are calling Phylo Jobs, at http://phylo.info/jobs. The jobs board is publicly accessible, and departments do not have to pay to post jobs.
Phylo Jobs differs from our job wiki as follows: Only authorized representatives of hiring departments are permitted to post job announcements. The announcements should contain all details necessary for someone to apply for the job. All posts will be moderated, and anonymous users will not be able to edit content. (To ensure that job seekers can still share information, we’re going to get the wiki working again at http://phylo.info/jobs/wiki as soon as we update it to play nicely with the jobs board software.)
To ensure that all posts are accurate and authentic, we are requiring submitters to link to an external web page announcing the position. This could be on the hiring department’s own web site, on their institution’s HR web site, or on a site like the Chronicle or HigherEdJobs.com.
Season 2 of the Phylo Job Wiki
08Oct10Gird your loins. The 2010/11 philosophy-job hunting season begins in earnest today with the publication of the October issue of Jobs for Philosophers.
We’ve made a few changes to our philosophy job wiki to try to improve users’ experience this year. (If you’re unfamiliar with the job wiki, you may wish to read this and this.) There are three things to note:
First, we’ve moved the form for adding new jobs to its own page. You can add a new job to the job wiki by clicking on the cleverly named “Add a new job to the wiki” button near the top right corner of the wiki. (It’s in the gray sidebar of the main wiki interface, not all the way in the top right corner of the web page.)
Second, we’ve tried to make the wiki’s search, filter, and sort functions more salient. You can sort and group the listings by clicking on the controls in the gray section at the top of the listings. To access the search and filter controls, click on the “Search the job wiki” button near the top right corner of the wiki. (It’s just below the “Add a new job…” button.) If type keywords in the Keyword Filter field, you’ll see only job listings that contain that keyword. For instance, typing “George” would show jobs from Georgetown and George Mason. The boxes below the Keyword Filter allow you to filter by other fields, such as current job status (e.g., advertised, filled, canceled, etc.), AOS, state, and so forth.
Third, we’ve decided to include areas of concentration this year. You’ll now see AOCs listed for each job. Remember that like AOS listings, this is a simple listing of every AOC that’s mentioned in the job ad. The job may require one, some, or all of the AOCs listed. As always, you’ll need to see the original job ad for details.
Once again, best of luck to everyone!
We’re preparing Phylo’s philosophy job wiki for a second year.
Most immediately, this means that we’ve archived old listings.
We’re also planning some changes to the layout and the function of the job wiki. These changes should make the wiki a little easier to use. One big change is that we’re going to try including AOCs this year. We’ll write a separate post about those changes a little later on.
For those who are new to the job wiki, the idea of an academic job wiki is to share information about the status of particular jobs. In particular, the wiki allows job seekers to share information about when (whether) a particular school has acknowledged applications; when it has scheduled first-round interviews, which usually happen at the APA; when it has scheduled final interviews, which usually happen on campus; when it has made an offer; and when the position has been filled. It also allows job seekers to share information about when job searches have been suspended or canceled. The primary goal of the wiki is not to help you decide which jobs to apply for or tell you how to apply. For that, you’ll need to go to the original job ad.
Remember, of course, that this information is provided by anonymous fellow job seekers. The information may not always be accurate and it will certainly not be complete. If you know that something is inaccurate or incomplete, please update it.
For those who are new to the job market, we suggest keeping an eye on the APA’s Jobs for Philosophers, the Chronicle of Higher Education’s job listings, jobsinphilosophy.org for job listings. In addition, you might find The Philosophy Smoker an entertaining and useful place to exchange information, commiserate about the job market, and be anonymously snarky.
We wish everyone the best of luck on the job market!
We’ve added a number of new features to our philosophy job wiki.
1. Status histories
You can now see how the status of each job listing has changed over time. You can look back to see when users reported that applications had been acknowledged, when they reported that interviews had been scheduled, etc.
To see the status history for a job listing, find the job listing on the main wiki page. Hold your mouse over the “View status history” link in that listing and wait for the popup. You’ll see a table showing every time someone reported on the status of the job, including: the status that was reported (e.g., “first-round interviews scheduled”), the date and time that the report was made, and the IP address of the user who reported it. (Clicking on the IP address will take you to InfoSniper, a free web service that provides detailed information about IP addresses, including geographical location, the institution that owns the address, etc. We have no affiliation with InfoSniper.)
You can also see the status histories on the standalone page for each job listing. (You can reach the standalone pages through the RSS feed or by clicking comment links on each job listing.) Check out the page for the listing for Georgetown’s opening in applied ethics for an example.
The “ditto” effect
When the job wiki was hosted on wikihost.org, users would often “second” a report by adding ‘ditto’. For instance, you might have seen something like this under a job listing: “Called to arrange APA interview (12/4); ditto (12/5).” Among other things, this helps confirm the validity of reports.
The status history allows us to simulate this ditto effect. If you would like to “second” the current status of a job, mouse over the pencil icon and click the current status again. For instance, suppose you go to the wiki and find that your favorite school’s status has changed to ‘First-round interviews scheduled’. While you’re drowning your sorrows, the school calls you to schedule an interview! After celebrating, go to the wiki and do exactly what you would if you were the first person to report that the school had scheduled first-round interviews: mouse over the pencil icon, wait for the popup, and click on ‘First-Round Interviews Scheduled’. When other users look at the status history, they’ll see that two people (with different IP addresses) both reported that interviews have been scheduled. In other words: “Ditto.”
2. Comments
You can now post comments about job listings. If you report on a job listing, the rest of us would appreciate it if you post a comment specifying how you heard (e.g., email, phone, carrier pigeon) and any other information you received (e.g., “the department will make a decision by mid-December about APA interviews”). If you want to spread, confirm, or dispel rumors about a job, you can do that in comments, too. But please don’t spread rumors. It’s not nice.
To read and post comments on a job listing, find that listing in the wiki and hold your mouse over the ‘comments’ link for that listing. You’ll see a list of comment titles, along with links to read the comments or post one of your own. If there are no comments for a post yet, you’ll just see a link to ‘Post comments’.
Comment titles and dates are now also included in the RSS feeds.
3. Personalized RSS feeds
You’ve been able to get an RSS feed of updates to the job wiki since we first launched the wiki. Now, you can create a personalized feed containing just the schools that interest you. To do this, you’ll need to create an account with us. Accounts are free. It takes less than a minute to create one. We’re never going to sell your information or spam you or do anything like that. (You can read our privacy policy if you’re concerned about that sort of thing.)
Once you’ve created and logged into your account, you can subscribe or unsubscribe to individual job listings by clicking on the RSS icons in each listing. The icons are semitransparent for listings to which you’re already subscribed. If you hold your mouse over an RSS icon, you’ll get a popup telling you explicitly whether you’re subscribed, giving you the option to (un)subscribe, and providing links to relevant information, including the personalized feed itself.
You can read more about RSS and our personalized feeds here.
We hope users find these new features helpful. Please let us know what other features you’d like to see and what problems you encounter with these features (or with the rest of the wiki).
Good luck to everyone in a very difficult market!
