It is courteous to reply to unsuccessful candidates in both academia and the "real world", but in my experience this quite often doesn't happen, so I would get used to it. I've had a case in a job where I already worked and I applied for promotion, I didn't know I hadn't got an interview until I was asked if my office could be used for the candidates. I made a complaint and a few hours later a letter appeared on my desk informing me that unfortunately I hadn't been selected for interview. A similar thing happened in another job when a new appointee was announced by a memo on a noticeboard and I was still waiting to hear how I had got on at the interview. If companies don't even have the courtesy to contact their own employees then don't expect anything from other organisations.
I think you have the right to be annoyed though, but I take the attitude that I would not want to work with such rude people anyway!
Actually though I have a positive story from my own uni in that they took a while to decide between candidates for my PhD but the chief investigator kept e-mailing me to update me on why there was a delay, so there are still some thoughtful people around.

Thanks Sneaks, that gives me some idea.

There is a fantastic opportunity to do some short-term historical research for a local authority for which the job spec and my CV are almost identical!! I'm going to put in a tender but I have to say what my freelance rates would be and I wondered if anyone else had done anything similar and had any ideas what the going rate would be for archive research, translating documents and writing up findings in a non-academic way to inform heritage staff. I have to give hourly/daily rates. Any help would be appreciated. I really want to get this contract and don't want to price myself out of it or indeed not charge enough for my skills.

"The homework answers written by our experts are customized assignments for each student and are completely free from plagiarism."


plagiarize (verb)
(UK usually plagiarise) /'ple?.d??r.a?z//-d??.ra?z/ v [I or T]
to use another person's idea or a part of their work and pretend that it is your own

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=60393&dict=CALD&topic=forgery

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What sort of jobs are you going for? PhD aside do you have all the skills and experience they are asking for? If you are going for admin office jobs you could be competing with highly skilled and experienced administrators who have lots of experience of doing that job and they are going to get the interviews. I'm not doubting that you could do the jobs but on paper you might not be as qualified for that particular job. I think there is a tendency to think because of the academic level of a PhD we would easily be able to do certain jobs. But think how you would feel if it was the other way around. I have seen very low paid admin jobs which I knew I could do but there were lots of things on the job spec which I didn't satisfy.
I agree that you should be totally honest about the PhD but maybe you need to look round for jobs where the PhD skills and experience are more relevant. I don't know what your subject is so this will probably make a difference so I won't give advice which is related to my area unless it turns out we are in similar fields.

I had very long dark hair and decided to go for the chop recently. My boyfriend loved my long hair but he loves my new bob and everyone has commented on how nice it looks and makes me look younger. Even people I don't know that well and all my students have commented positively. I also had it coloured professionally but while I love the cut, the colour is now barely noticeable so I will definitely go back to doing at home and save myself a lot of money.

As part of the course I GTA on there is an online element where students have to post comments on a forum in relation to questions I have set each week on the themes covered in seminars. None of them have been very forthcoming but I still have to mark the posts that have been put on there. I just wondered whether anyone had any experience of this and any tips on marking this sort of asessment. Thanks.

My plan was to finish marking by Christmas Day, have a few days to relax and then focus on the PhD from Jan 1 (hangover permitting). So why do I still have half of the essays still unmarked?!

I recently went part-time because various family stuff and threat of redundancy for my partner meant I had to get a part-time job. So I work part-time in a museum, but I have also got freelance work, I have just finished a 10-week teaching course at evening class. I do a volunteer job (when I have time), I teach at my uni, and I have step-children (teenage) to deal with. I also live 150 miles away from my uni so spend a lot of time travelling (not every day!). I'm trying to build up my CV so I can get a job when I have finished so I go on courses every now and then to improve my skills in the sector I want to work in. I moan all the time that I am too busy but if I have some spare(!) time I always find something to fill it with. If I take a step back I realise that even though I am doing so much it is all interesting, fulfilling and challenging stuff that I enjoy and I have chosen to do so I don't have any reason to complain really.

This is a really interesting discussion as only recently I have decided that my Plan B is now my Plan A as I don't expect to get a job in academia. I was trying to build up my CV with conferences, teaching, publications etc etc but I have realised that it is very unlikely I'm going to get an academic post when I have finished (My Phd is interdisciplinary and in humanities). I recently went part-time and finish officially in April next year but have until 2012 to submit. I've now started doing other things to get my CV in a better state for other jobs - I'd like to go into the heritage sector and have some experience in that but I'm looking at how I can get in at a higher level when I have finished the PhD. I'm doing a short course on teaching in the lifelong learning sector, some volunteer work as a consultant setting up a small exhibition (using various transferable skills - but also getting experience I could not get in a paid job as I wouldn't get it in the first place). And I am going on one-day training courses run by heritage organisations. This is all costing money and time but I'm doing it alongside the PhD which I am struggling on with and will finish but it is not my main priority as I know it may help with a job but it isn't going to be vital to get a job, as it would be in academia. I think Wj_Gibson's advice is very good and timely.

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I also applied once I had started my PhD and had teaching experience. But also got nowhere. I thought I had all the qualifications and experience they wanted but obviously they were looking for more. I would think that if you have no teaching experience it would be very difficult to get a position with the OU. I think it depends on how expert you are in the field and I'm trying to think of a better way of phrasing this but really how desperate they are to recruit for those modules. I noticed a while ago they were recruiting for a lot of arts and humanities courses but recently there have been hardly any vacancies apart from certain courses and certain areas and some where they have extended the closing date. So if they have a real shortage of tutors, you may have a better chance. I'd say go for it anyway but be prepared for a knock back. None of this is intended as any reflection on your ability, which obviously I have no knowledge of.

Thanks for your quick replies. It looks like I have lost it permanently though. It was recovered initially but I didn't have chance to save it as word stopped working again, and it looks like if you don't save a recovered file it gets deleted. I'm so annoyed. But shit happens!

Please, please please let there be a way of sorting this out and please, please, please let there be someone on line who can help. I've just spent two hours re-writing a draft chapter and then Word stopped working. I closed it down and when it restarted all the work I had done was saved with autorecovery. Hurrah. Then it stopped working again and when it restarted this time nothing came up as autosaved. When I opened the document I had been working on it had gone back to how it was two hours ago. I can't believe it. Is there any way of getting my work back?

This is a very helpful game! I've done one draft of a chapter and was supposed to send my second draft to my supervisor this evening but haven't changed anything much. However I have post its and books with stickers in and articles with highlighted sections and paper with ideas on all waiting to go in the second draft. I have a panel coming up and I know that I won't have a perfect chapter by then. I was worrying about how I write but it seems that I do the same as the other posters which has reassured me that I am making progress and it will all come together properly eventually. Thanks.

I posted recently with a genuine issue but after some valid discussion posters went off on a tangent and posts started to become 'inappropriate', or at least that's what appeared to happen. I had e-mails saying there had been more replies to my original post but when I came on to the forum the whole post had been deleted. I can understand that some of the discussion had perhaps started to become offensive but there had been some genuine replies to my original question. However, I can't read those now, and there was no explanation of why the whole post had gone.