I'm in the same boat as "Thanks for Nothing" a few days ago.
I was recently passed over at my college for a full time gig, even though I've been a part-timer here with an impeccable record and have a history of full time tenure track work exactly like what is needed at my college.
I wish there was some way to find out why I got passed over, but even in a casual conversation with the provost, who goes to the same church as I do, all I got was the typical "better match of skill set" bullshit that comes in rejection letters.At first I took the news that I'd been passed over for a MUCH younger and less credentialed scholar pretty well. I thought, "Oh, maybe the other candidate was better trained, better suited. But after a week of being around some from the search committee, and some embarrassing Google time, I've discovered that who my college hired is pretty much a ninny. It got me thinking about my own job search, how I presented myself, my credentials. Was I confident enough? Too confident? Was I too familiar as a part-timer? Was my being an extrovert a turn off? Should I have been a wallflower instead?
And my annoyance at this has gone from personal to a larger sense. What has the college chosen to do? Put an unqualified person in the classroom? Bypass folks with more experience, even people who have experience at this college, teaching awards.
My college bypassed (not just me) a number of first rate folks for someone who's never built a syllabus for a class, never taught a class on his/her own until 9 months ago, and who will surely need seasoning before being ready to really help this college move forward.
I don't even want to begin to imagine why the college did it. Money? Malleability? Quota? Whatever?
It's enough that it's been done, and my anger just grows.
