>We've been bandying about "top x%" numbers, and I wanted to re-
>iterate Linden's statement that serendipity (i.e. luck), and "who
>you know" play very large factors in getting a tenure track position
>as well. Serendipity includes just being in the right place when
>they're looking for someone like you, being in the right field,
>subfield, being at the right line when the experiments were
>"handed out", doing the experiment that just happened to work.
>Who you know includes the schools you've attended, the labs
>you've worked in, the person who was impressed by you at the meeting
Lots of things in my career have happened by being at the right place at the
right time and had little to do with anything more than that. When I
interviewed for the job I now hold I was one of two people interviewed. I
was number two but the number one person turned it down. The chairman was
told that if the position had not already been offered to the second place
candidate the job would be "swept" so he informed the provost that I had
already accepted the job even though it had not been offered to me. He had
to hurry up and call me and gave me less than 24 hours to accept or write a
letter to the provost why I had decided not to take the job after I said I
would.
Life is strange.
Cyndy
>Dr. Cynthia M. Galloway
Assoc. Professor of Biology
Dept. of Biology
Campus Box 158
Texas A&M University
Kingsville, TX 78363
(512)593-3790
