A grad student that I work with is on the job market. She is doing great as an ABD, especially in this market. She has 3 on-campus interviews thus far.
Get this: a university contacted her via email and told her they had narrowed the candidates down considerably. Due to budget cut backs, they needed to ensure that the salary range that they were authorized to offer for this job was acceptable to the candidates before they flew anyone out for an interview. She was told her salary range was $48,000-$50,000. She agree to that.
Problem: the same school contacted another ABD in the department who had also applied. He is set to defend same month she is. So same degree, same stage in career, same job. BUT he is told his salary range was $50,000-$59,000! Yes--you read that correctly!
She is naturally curious as to how the calculated such different salary ranges. Interestingly, she got an interview; he did not.
Amazing how stupid people with Ph.D.s can be--what could they be thinking? For now, she is waiting to see how the job interview plays out.
Have you heard of similar stories in academia? What do you think she should do?
WOW. That is shocking!
ReplyDeleteI think she should say something about it. Just not sure when or how...
I would certainly like to know how one handles this kind of crazy. I "heard" of "someone" who is pretty sure she lost a position (at least in part) because she was pregnant. No clue how a woman is supposed to handle the "Gee whiz" look on folks' faces in that instance, either--don't they have laws against that, too?
ReplyDeleteIf nothing else, I might call and ask them about it--only if she doesn't get the job. If she does, balls in her court.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm going to have to post one of these days about pregnancy and job interviews, promotions, etc. That's a biggie.
I would definitely be interested in hearing about pregnancy and job interviews, promotions, etc. :)
ReplyDeleteJust found your blog - love it!