I had a campus interview with School A last week and a phone interview with School B the week before that. School A is conducting campus interviews this week with other candidates and they said they will make a decision shortly after the last candidate's interview (tomorrow). So if I am their first choice I should be hearing back some time next week. But my phone interview with School B went well and I would really like to have a campus interview there. I told them about my campus interview with School A (without revealing the name) and the chair said "please make sure to let us know if there are any developments." I am not exactly sure about School B's phone interview timeline; it sounded like they should be done last week. My first question is, should I contact School B and ask whether they are going to invite me to campus, even though I don't have an offer or anything from the other school? It's been 12 days since my phone interview with School B, but I've also heard that getting an approval for campus interviews takes time sometimes. My second question is, if I get an offer from School A, how much time will I have to make a decision? I'm sure it varies from school to school but I was just wondering what others have experienced.
Thank you very much in advance. I'm glad this forum exists.
This is a tough one, but my sense is that you have little to use as leverage with choice "B". Depending on the institution and position, the committee may conduct 3 to 12 phone interviews and not all candidates will ever be invited. So, even a good feeling about a phone interview isn't much of a sign with what might transpire. Your best bet is you get an offer from School A perhaps Friday of this week or very early next week and can nudge School B to do an on-campus interview with you by the end of next week. That would fit what's a usual decision time frame, 2 weeks. However, the academic market is saturated and hiring institutions know this. During my job search experiences I've had "hard sell" offers where the person who called wanted a fast decision, usually within a week. I probably could've negotiated for a longer delay, but my attitude was why lose a good bird in the hand? So, to me this is a tough situation.
If School A extends an offer and is a reasonably good fit, it could well be best to take what they offer, especially if this will be your first faculty position.
Thank you DocJ for your helpful comments. Yes, this will be my first faculty position if I get it. School A has a reasonable teaching load, small classes, and faculty seem to be supportive. So it could be a good place for me to start. Salary will be low, however, and the area is on the expensive side. School B has an even lower teaching load, is a better school in a cheaper location, and to make things more complicated, there may be more job options for partner.
I just hope to hear something soon one way or another.
I wish you utmost success with your first faculty search / position! Dual career options are another, difficult, situation. Think about this initial search being about just getting into a tenure-track position. So long you get something where you can reasonably advance your research and work with good colleagues/students, it's a win. Should you or your partner desire something better after 2 or 3 years, you can always go back on the market and likely have a much stronger application.
From my experiences, and from talking with colleagues, it's easy to think that the first job search leads to something permanent. Reality is, you can move to a different position once you're in the tenure stream and many people do. I'm surprised by how many academics I've met over the years who've done just that to include those in elite research institutions and others who decided to leave behind research for strictly teaching positions.
