Blowing & Drifting

Cleaning up my computer's hard drive the other night, I came across a bad old friend, my "Job Applications" folder. Looking through this archive of career-related unhappiness, i found that I sent out at least 62 applications between July 2001 and August 2005 - more or less one per month, with many bunched around the (late summer, early fall) academic-hiring push and with many requiring tons of work (CV, customized letter, writing sample, letters of reference, teaching statement, et cetera). Just like the job guides say, getting a better job is like having a part-time job. Tellingly, the next-to-last item in the folder was my application for my current job.