The Best Laid Plans

So this is job market year for Matty. I thought some of you might like to know what the schedule looks like for us, so here it is:

Oct 1 (tomorrow!!): The big list of job openings is posted for all major economics departments in the US (and some abroad too). Matty will spend some time carefully looking through tons of listings to see where he might be a good fit. This is the fun part! We get to look at the university websites, departmental sites, housing markets, etc. We talk about lifestyles in different cities, with different climates and opportunities. Who lives close by? What would our life be like? That kind of stuff. It's a dreamy stage of the process, filled with lots of potential. Other than that, Matthew works to polish his paper and his presentation and interview stuff.

Nov.1-15: Job applications are due! We will send out 100-120 applications. This narrows the field a great deal, especially if Matthew "signals" to any schools--a process by which a candidate sends a STRONG signal (each candidate gets ONLY 2 signaling opportunities) to a school that if given the offer, he would almost certainly take the job!

November-December: Matthew will get calls from the schools that are interested in interviewing him at the annual "ASSA" meetings in Jan. This will narrow the field even more. Matty may get 12 interviews or so (we're guessing based on the experiences of similarly-qualified friends who have gone through this process).

Jan 3-5 (in San Francisco): ASSA meetings/ face to face interviews with the schools interested in Matthew. Talk about pressure! I think this is the stage at which Matthew will distinguish himself as an outstanding candidate. He is affable, interesting, attractive, quick on his feet, a good teacher, and he knows his stuff. After these interviews comes the waiting for phone calls for fly-outs...

Jan-Feb (maybe even March):"Fly-outs" The second major round of interviews happens at the hiring school's campus. They will fly Matthew out for 2-3 days so that they can see him present to professors and students, hold more interviews, do meet and greets with the department, etc. This is the major decision moment for most schools. It is possible that Matthew will leave a fly out with a strong sense of the department's intentions of hiring him or not. These will be important trips, especially because Matthew will likely be feeling out cities for all of us! We may move to a place that the rest of us have never seen, so Matty will have his feelers out for lots of elements: is it a good fit for all 4 of us? But really, we may not have a huge say in the matter. We will be happy to GET a job in such a competitive market. My friend, Paige, said that the job market begins with this wide open range of possibilities. You start out being picky, but then you end up just hoping that ANYBODY will hire you! She said it is a real "beggars can't be choosers" kind of experience. We're trying to keep that in mind!

March-April:Decision time. Matthew will hopefully have 1-3 offers on the table and can negotiate the best deal possible with the best fitting department for him and situation for us. We should know where we're going by April 15th, or so.

May-June 30th:Finishing the dissertation, Graduation (for Matty), Packing up, and Moving. We have to move out of our apartment by June 30th, 2009. I plan to keep working on my dissertation this year and next year (or until it is done), and can work from abroad at this point. Matthew will be done with his work here and will graduate :) It is possible that these months will include buying a home. That depends on lots of factors and isn't a top priority, necessarily. But it is something we hope to do when, or soon after, we move.

So, that is the plan. We're excited, a little intimidated, but mostly just taking it day by day and being glad that we are so well provided for. Who knows what kinds of monkey wrenches (good or bad) could get thrown in to these plans? All we know for sure is that "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). Planning is good. It is a prudent and exciting thing to do, and it is an adventure. But we're trying to do it with open minds to the unexpected.

I'll keep you posted!