So, I see we are again punching down and piling on colleagues on the academic job market who have *dared* to point out the stupefying problems with it. JFC.

Welp, I'm gonna talk about how utterly bullshit the idea of academic meritocracy is, using my personal history. THREAD.

This summer I was promoted to the rank of full professor, 10.5 years after starting as a TT assistant professor. But you know what? I was *this* close to not even having an academic career.

Four years on the academic job market with not a single TT offer. I got my one and only TT offer during what I had already decided was going to be my final year on the academic job market.

That offer reflects luck and privilege, period. I was not a worse candidate before. I was not a better candidate when I got the offer. My experiences on the academic job market did not in any way reflect my strengths or weaknesses as an applicant.

And landing a TT position was NOT a sign that I was better than the rest of the field. The rest of the field – or, if you want to quibble, the vast majority of the rest of the field – was just as talented as I, if not more so.

So now I’ve been promoted twice, have a long list of publications and leadership roles. I won’t talk about compressed salaries – that’s a different thread – but I’ve contributed a lot to my institution and academia in general. And I nearly didn’t do any of it.

(I messed up this thread. Tweeting while angry is clearly a challenge for me! But the thread continues. Sorry about the discontinuity.)