Oh, man, aren't you glad you don't work for Bernie permanently any more? And I love that She can predict that her "tickle" will become a Real Disease Worthy Of Staying Home From Work. Me, I'd have dumped some Airborne in a glass and hoped for the best.

I keep my fingers crossed for your various interviews as much as I can (sometimes I just need them for other things)...

Serious disconnect between recruitment and hiring: unprofessional, but it sure seems to happen a lot.

I'm up to seven conference interviews, including schools in Mississippi ("It's not what it used to be" said the contact person, which is supposed to be a good thing) and near Philly.

As it turns out, Dail, She was there today, and although Her professionalism in front of clients was precisely what I anticipated (i.e., seriously lacking), most of the meeting went really well.

More interviews coming up next week, whenever you can spare a couple of fingers. :)

You wouldn't even believe it, Jonathan, if I gave all of the ways in which that woman, in a five-minute time-span, managed to be offensive and unprofessional. It was much worse than I put in the blog.

Philly is supposed to be a cool place. I don't know about Mississippi. I've never been there but of course I know the state's rep for poverty and a steamingly humid climate.

More importantly, are there any schools in the list you think you would like to work at?

I think so. Which is to say: the structural aspects of the job aren't, ultimately, as important as the culture of the place and the character of my colleagues. I'd do OK, I think, in a research-oriented environment, as long as the teaching load were appropriate to the expectations; I'd be fine in a teaching-oriented environment, as long as the research expectations were appropriate and the teaching evaluation process more comprehensive than numeric. I'm OK with a balanced place, like this one, if there's real support for rigor, real feedback that goes beyond "publish or perish/leave 'em laughing."

Geographically, I'm much more concerned with my family than with myself: some Jewish life would be nice; accessibility to our extended family is a real plus. I can live in any weather there is, as long as I can dress appropriately; it's the people and culture which make a difference. Some of the less obvious schools are located in nationally-ranked "best places to live" towns: some of the more obvious ones are near, but not in, major metropolitan areas, with all the amenities that entails.

That's why my search is so broad, really. It's nearly impossible to gauge the character of a place without talking to people, seeing it. And even then.... well, I've been fooled before.

There are definitely a few schools on the list which I really would consider myself lucky to get offers from, and a few about which I have serious doubts, but the rest are "let's see what they have to say."

I completely agree--the people you work with and the atmosphere make all the difference in the world.