More on Mark

We were in Chicago last week, for the MLA conference where Mark and all the other potential professors (thousands and thousands of hopefuls) meet up with all the hiring institutions. It was quite a site...huge convention-sized hotels packed to the brim with academic hopefuls and presenters and interviewers.

Mark had two interviews: one with Mississippi State and the other with Yale. The Yale interview came at the last minute and was a wonderful surprise. It sounds like Mark did very well in both interviews--he was pleased with the way he presented himself. He's pretty "green," I guess you could say, as far as applicants go, so we were not necessarily expecting a job from either of these interviews...just a great opportunity to be a part of the job market, see how things work, and exercise his interviewing skills. The interview with Yale was a great experience.

So far, we've heard back from Yale, and have not heard back from Mississippi yet.
Out of the hundreds of people who applied for the Yale job, Mark was picked to be interviewed with what was probably about 8 or 9 other applicants. Schools generally pick the top 3 finalists from the interviews and invite to visit the campus and give a talk to the department. Mark was informed that he was #4. I consider this a HUGE win. #4 out of the all those folks out there?

Anyway, it looks like no Yale for us next year, but Mark and I have been having a great time making plans for all the things he'll need to accomplish before next year's job market to be an undeniably kick-ass applicant. I'm so proud of him, and really excited about what he's going to accomplish this year.