by Val » Sun Dec 12, 2004 7:29 pm
Rohini,
The one who has not been in the job application game before, will be behaving like you are doing now. You might think it will be an unthinkable disaster if you do not get a job, and you are stressed now. Hmm. Some people indeed do not get jobs after finishing their PhD. They start working in the hospitality jobs or get an unemployment benefit, all the time applying for jobs. They finally get the job. In Australia, it takes a year for a scientist to find another job. In the US, it could be 3-4 months. If you go through such a job searching process a few times over several years, you will not be as stressed about such minute details as if you are invited for an interview for that particular job etc. In order to relief your stress now, I would recommend you to think through the scenario which you dread. Imagine what would happen to you, step by step. After that you realise that the experience was not as horrible as you thought. This will help to reduce your stress, or may even take it out alltogether.
You can contact the interviewer before they have sent you a notification about the outcome of your interview. This will not generally affect their descision-making process. However, if you feel stressed, and as a result you piss them off, this may make them lower their opinion about you (this will make them prefer the other candidate over you if all other qualities are equal, or completely chuck you out). Though, in reality, they have already arrived at the decision as to whom to hire, so your (polite) talking to them will make no effect on the outcome of their decision-making process.
You think your PhD defence was stressful... and guess what ? -- getting the right job-searching experience is an order of magnitude more as stressful !
Also, my observation shows that if someone does not have an asst prof or solid postdoc offer by the end of their PhD, they probably do not have what it takes to be successful in the academia "career".
Regards,
Val