I’m a PhD student planning to graduate in 2026. Although I plan to cast a very wide net with my applications, I have my eye on a particular R2 school that has hired (or has tried to hire?) 2 years in a row now for my field. They posted a TT AP opening at the beginning of September last year, and in the listing, it says application review will begin October 25, 2024.
So now it’s almost April, and the job posting is still there (on the university’s official career page). If they failed to fill the position, would they most likely take the listing down and repost in September? Or do some institutions just leave listings up year-round until they can fill the spot, regardless of the traditional cycle timing? Or, is it more likely that they filled the position and forgot to remove it?
Basically I’m trying to gauge my odds of that listing still being there come Fall 2025, when I start applying to jobs. If it helps, I’m in a computational STEM field in the US, and failed searches (from what I’ve heard) are not uncommon in my field because most PhD graduates go into industry and make way more money there.
Comments
Not every HR department updates these pages quickly.
It may be that they haven’t finished the search and are mid negotiations. It may be that it failed and they never got around to closing it. It may be that it is over and they never closed it.
This happened at my school, which is an R2. We had an open position 18 months ago and I was on the hiring committee. We interviewed a few candidates and two came on site for in person interviews. Both were good but we slightly preferred one. The chair offered that one the position and they didn’t like the startup package, so the chair offered it to the other, they also didn’t like the startup package. Funny thing is, one of the guys REALLY wanted to join due to location and had been trying for a few years but never got an offer. He finally got an offer and turned it down.
Anyway, we kept the position open on the website and interviewed fresh candidates this week. Hopefully one of them gets through!I think sometimes R2 universities struggle because the good professors end up going R1 or just better R2 schools with more competitive packages. For my school we had 20 applicants each year and only about 8 were even qualified and 2 or 3 of those were pretty weak. We phone interview 5 and pick 2-3 finalists for on site interviews.
It’s ok to email the search chair/admin/whomever and ask. HR is often clueless in faculty hiring. Those of us faculty actually making the decisions have all been on the job market ourselves and don’t like to see candidates jerked around. I don’t mean you should ask them what happened, only if they are still accepting applications, but you’re smart enough to understand that already.
Yeah, the listings usually stay up until the final negotiations are complete and a contract is signed. it’s not a situation where the application is closed on the begin review date, and then someone gets the job. You gotta keep the pool open in the event that the top couple either suck or don’t want the job.
Does the AP mean anatomy & physiology? I am not an R2, but they may be expecting some postdoc experience. Look through what the credentials were for some of the recent hires and see if they have postdoc experience prior to joining. Regardless still apply if it’s posted again, and certainly cast that net far and wide. I am at an undergrad only institution and just about every TT position we have hired has some experience after grad school.