On merit and the academic job market: a thread, in light of that silly article.

First, of course there's merit involved. You have to be vaguely competent to get a job. But if you're in a grad program you're competent, so ditch the merit stuff there. Here's why. 1/x

Of course it may be different at a research based institution. But for most of us, most of our work will involve teaching. And that's where the merit stuff stumbles. 2/x

For one thing we're not trained as teachers. But also, I think, nobody is really trained as a teacher. That old saying about "You learn from your students" is cloying and all, but it's definitely true. 3/x

We learn a thousand things from students, including how to teach them. I thought I was a good teacher when I walked in the door of my college, fifteen years ago. I was wrong. I underestimated severely how much you learn about teaching as you get older. 4/x

There's so much to learn, in fact, that there's no way to tell who's going to become a good teacher and who isn't, who's going to find their way and who isn't. Which means the job market can't be about who can do the job well. 5/x

It becomes instead about who INTERVIEWS well, who matches what the department or the school think they're looking for. And that's more about preconceptions--and race, class, gender, sexuality, and sheer dumb luck--than it can ever be about merit. 6/x

I know some brilliant scholars who were on the job market for years. I know others who got jobs almost immediately out of school. 7/x

But with all the advantages in the world--two parents with PhD's who let me stay in their attic while job searching, a well respected grad program, and plenty of adjunct experience under my belt--it took me three grueling years to get a full time position. 8/x

I had one interview the year I got my job. And that was because I happened to be working a desk job in an archive when the archivist's friend called looking for an adjunct, and three years later that caller knew someone who knew someone who was on the hiring committee. 9/x

Fifteen years later, it worked out. I have a job I love and a life I love. But that offer came about not through merit, but through sheer insane luck and a lot of privilege. 10/x

So if you're on the market, hang in there, tweet at us #AcademicTwitter types when you need encouragement, and please don't think for one second that the folks with tenure track jobs are better than you. Not for one second. End of thread. 11/11