Where We Are

Summary:

a comparison of last year to this year

Where We Are

DMC (guest) 26 Dec 2014 15:34

Not to ruin your holiday, but I thought I would briefly compare the number of schools with openings from last year to this year:

2013-14:
Clinical: 121
Cognitive: 83
Developmental: 98

2014-2015:
Clinical: 142
Cognitive: 70
Developmental: 78

The returns are not all in for this year, of course. Yet (more or less) by January the season is largely spent. The result? Clinical people should be happy, and cognitive and developmental should be sad. I haven't checked the other fields but maybe others can.

Re: Where We Are

social_psych_7 27 Dec 2014 05:17

I remember running the numbers for TT jobs in the last four years in social psych, and was surprised to find it was very consistent: about 80 per year.

Re: Where We Are

DocJ 27 Dec 2014 13:56

While I've posted this previously on these forums, the current cycle isn't over yet. I'd expect several more openings in each subfield to be posted on or before January 15th. While it'll be slower after that, additional openings should trickle in through at least April. During my search year, I had relatively little success early on but ended up with multiple great offers from February onwards.

DMC (guest) 27 Dec 2014 15:03

I think that's true, DocJ - or at least I hope it is!

I'm sure that every year there are fluctuations to the numbers based on subfield. But several on this board have commented that clinical positions appear plentiful in comparison to other fields, and there is some validity to that. Developmental positions (my group) may eventually reach last year's levels, but for whatever reason clinical positions are in abundance this year.

NerveWracked (guest) 27 Dec 2014 16:13

The number of clinical positions may be b/c of upcoming or past APA accreditation visits (wanting or needing more clinical faculty). Developmental positions at larger R-1 universities are not in abundance at all—-for the last couple of years. I see more positions for Dev positions at smaller universities.

Ditto (guest) 29 Dec 2014 20:06

Nerve wracked….the opposite seems to be happening in social. I'm interested mainly in LAC positions but this year it seems like the majority of social jobs are R1 even accounting for the sheer greater number of R1/R2 faculty relative to LAC faculty

It's not really any use quibbling about yearly postings per area. Things go in waves so I'm sure there will be plenty of dev positions in the future. Also, keep in mind that dev is the smallest of all the areas on the wiki so it should have fewer jobs.

Positive big picture comment: At least this isn't 2009-2012 when positrons were canceled/scrapped because of the recession. Things are getting better (esp. for you R1ers out there). We just gotta keep plugging away.

Re: Where We Are

DocJ 30 Dec 2014 03:41

Re: Ditto's post (above).

Slightly off-topic, but a serious tip to anyone on the market seeking a SLAC or LAC position. Make sure you keep racking up good teaching experience and keep it current. I know the market is rough, it always is. But, if such a position is your goal, do not let yourself lapse with research post-docs or even professional experience alone. I can say as a SLAC search committee member that with these institutions, lack of current (i.e., last year, maybe last 2 years for someone extraordinary) teaching experience is almost certainly doom. Now, research focused LACs might be a different story. My comment here applies to institutions valuing a balanced research/teaching or more teaching oriented faculty.

Good luck with the new year, everyone! It's not over yet!