It is sort of amazing to me how depressing it can be to find out who got a job you (okay, I) applied for and didn't get (for which you weren't even interviewed), even when 1) the person who got it is a friend, 2) the person who got it is eminently qualified (probably more than you are), and 3) you already have been offered, and accepted, what is, by many objective metrics, a "better" job.
Silly psyche.
(It's also sort of amazing that my iPhone knows how to autocomplete Schadenfreude...)
I don't think it's possible to make it through grad school/ law school and not feel that sort of competitiveness. It's sad and screwed up, isn't it?
Posted by: Attorney At Large | Sunday, July 31, 2011 at 11:58 PM
I was rejected for a tenure-track position I really wanted in favor of somebody who thought New York was the capital of the US and kept loudly insisting on this. Also, this individual had no knowledge of Napoleonic wars (which is kind of crucial for our discipline.)
That person had connections, which I didn't, though. :-( I was so upset, I was bedridden for two days.
Posted by: Clarissa | Monday, August 01, 2011 at 12:04 AM
It's ridiculous! Because I really like this person. And if I faced a choice between this job and the job I took, I think in the end I would have still chosen the job I have. And yet.
(Just realized I think the term I'm looking for is dog-in-the-manger. That's me!)
Posted by: New Kid on the Hallway | Monday, August 01, 2011 at 12:05 AM
Clarissa, I'd have taken to my bed over that, too! But that's a far more legitimate gripe than my own. That's righteous depression.
(It also kind of reminds me, in an opposite sort of way, of TAing for a very lovely but very old school prof who, in modern Western Civ, announced that there was not enough time to cover everything in lecture, and that therefore he would not be addressing the Industrial Revolution (as the TAs could cover it in discussion section). He then proceeded to tell more stories about Bismarck and his dogs.)
Posted by: New Kid on the Hallway | Monday, August 01, 2011 at 12:11 AM
The folks who got the jobs I didn't get either left the job after a year or two or are now trying to leave. So no regrets here.
Posted by: Nicole | Monday, August 01, 2011 at 06:23 AM
NK, I am now trying to figure out who you must have been TAing for... *g*
Your iPhone is definitely impressive to be able to autocomplete Schadenfreude.
Posted by: Dr. Moonbeam | Monday, August 01, 2011 at 10:34 AM
Dr. Moonbeam - it was DK. Prof. Anglophilia knows - she was one of my co-TAs. (Maybe your first year in the department?)
Nicole - yes, that's definitely something to keep in mind; what looks shiny from the outside is not always so wonderful on the inside!
Posted by: New Kid on the Hallway | Monday, August 01, 2011 at 11:18 AM