SCS Newsletter - July 2017 (Placement Service Changes)

SCS Placement Site Changes

This year’s annual maintenance of the Placement Service saw a number of changes and additions to the Service. Most all of the fixes were the result of feedback from Placement Service members, either through direct contact with the Placement Service Coordinator (Erik Shell) or through the survey that followed the 2017 Annual Meeting in Toronto.

Below is the full list of site changes, along with brief descriptions of how to access the new features and our hopes for future changes.

As always, if you have any questions or would like to submit further changes to the Placement Service you can always email the Society at info@classicalstudies.org or the Placement Service Coordinator directly at erik.shell@nyu.edu.

Eliminated the monthly delay of advertisements to the public view

It is an older benefit of the Placement Service that members could see ads before the public. The changing job market and increased desire for openness and immediacy has led us to rescind this feature and create new benefits to Placement Service membership that are more helpful to candidates, such as the CV Upload Page.

Direct links to Ad List and Candidate Calendar pages from the Profile Page

A simple change that makes finding important parts of the Service easier.

Email notifications when Annual Meeting Interviews are scheduled

A benefit for both candidate and institution that should eliminate the long silence and waiting period that follows filling out availability for Annual Meeting interviews.

Ability to sort job ads by application due date

Yet another simple change with big impact. Current ads sort by posting date, but users can now click the category they wish to sort by in the ad list, including the application due date. Note that some jobs have an open application period, and will either not list a firm date or will list the beginning of the review process rather than the final deadline.

Expanded the course load dropdown

More a benefit to institutions than candidates, but since course load is now a required field this makes it easier for institutions on the quarter system to find a representative course load in line with their department expectations.

CV Upload Page

Another former benefit of the Placement Service where candidate CVs would be gathered into one book for institutions to browse and reach out to candidates who may have missed their ad or thought they were not qualified for the position. Now candidates in the Placement Service can contribute to the 21st century equivalent of the older CV book, that is upload their CV in PDF form to be available for only institutions to browse for much the same reason as before.

Upcoming Features and a Note on the Availability Calendar for the Annual Meeting

There has been an increasing need to allow for and facilitate Skype interviews at the annual meeting. This is usually because of the conflict between the SCS meeting and the AHA one, or some other issue of distance or funds. The SCS Career Planning and Development Committee are currently working on best-practice guidelines for video interviews that will become a part of the Placement Service Guidelines.

Finally, many notes have come in to the Placement Office about the “clunky” or “antiquated” appearance of the availability calendar for the Placement Service when it comes time to give availability for the Annual Meeting. While the old-web appearance of the calendar can be discouraging to some, it’s overall functionality is still extremely practical and useful for the complicated dance of scheduling Annual Meeting interviews. We’ve made some minor changes, such as eliminating the six-hour availability limit for candidates, and hope that makes indicating availability much easier. As for the design, we’re hoping to make the process of creating timeslots easier both for candidates and institutions, but the overall look of the calendar will remain unchanged.

All of this is to say that concerns have been heard and there is will and staff capacity to address as many complicated aspects of the system as we can. If users find other difficulties that would be fixable without requesting a redesign of the entire calendar appearance we would be grateful to hear such feedback, and swift to address it.

These are the changes we’ve made for this year’s Placement Service, and what we hope to tackle in the immediate future. As always, your feedback is heard and internalized, whether the request can be acted upon or not. Please continue to send feedback in the various channels we try to keep open for users and members, and, in the meantime, best of luck in the upcoming academic year!

More July 2017 Newsletter Content