Hi everyone,
I am currently getting by with two part-time temporary academic jobs in an area of science. For whatever reason (not going to get into that now!), some people have tremendous difficulty securing employment in academia. What has been hard to figure out is just HOW HARD is it, as people tend to be a bit hush hush about their job search (fair enough, it's private business) or seem to mysteriously get jobs really quickly.

So here are some figures on my job search to enlighten those who are finishing their PhDs / looking for jobs to see what the chances are for one particular job seeker who has been looking for at least a year and a half. I've split it into full-time and part-time jobs. Obviously this is going to be different for different people.

- Chance of full-time job interview: 21%
- Chance of full-time job offer: 0%
- Chance of full-time job offer out of applications that resulted in interview: 0%

- Chance of part-time job interview: 80%
- Chance of part-time job offer: 30%
- Chance of part-time job offer out of applications that resulted in interview: 38%

So what my experience shows is that full-time jobs are impossible to get and the chances of getting an interview are slim. Nothing shocking there, I guess. I applied to 40% more full-time jobs than part-time jobs as full-time jobs are more numerous.

When starting out looking for jobs, my advice is to seize the part-time jobs - the chances of getting an interview are vastly greater - and if you can get two jobs at the same time you can survive financially. Maybe the experience from part-time jobs is eventually paying off. Since January, my chances of getting interviews have jumped to a whopping 40% for full-time jobs and 100% for part-time jobs! Still no job offer though ...

How about other people?

hi journey
nice to meet here again :-) thank you for sharing your experience, you have given 21% for chance of full-time job interview and 80% for chances of part time job interview, but not the sample number :-)

I also haven't been successful in any academic job applications.
I'm looking at research work instead :-)

I have made 11 applications (all full time), 7 rejections, 2 interviews, 2 pending.

love satchi

Hi Satchi,
2 interviews seems to be pretty good going. So keep going! Don't forget part-time jobs too.

FYI, I've submitted in excess of three dozen applications. Also applied to many many more non-academic jobs.

The job market is really competitive, despite having good publications and over a year of work experience.