Prawfs and the Hiring Conference

Like Sergio, I too am a long-time Prawfs reader, first time guest blogger.  And, after all these years of reading, it's really exciting to be doing a bit of the blogging.  Now that I got a quick post on the Oklahoma referendum out of the way before today's vote, I wanted to thank the Prawfs for having me here for the month.  I'll hopefully incorporate some of my experience as a first semester professor at Pepperdine in my upcoming posts.

I actually starting reading Prawfsblawg when I was in law school - my wife introduced me to it - and it was an indispensable read while preparing for going on the job market.  Some of the Prawfs themselves have given me great advice on joint degrees, article placement, the job talk and working through the hiring process last year.    

Of course, right before, during and after the hiring conference, I found myself incessantly checking the Law School Hiring Thread.  A great post by Michael Risch on Prawfs last year helped keep me from hitting the refresh button.  Still, I suspect those of you on the job market right now are likely checking the thread with some pretty high frequency.  While you definitely can drive yourself crazy with checking, there was one way I was able to use the information being posted in order to strategize a bit while waiting for the phone to ring.

Whenever I saw information being posted about callback at a school I was particularly interested in (for example, Pepperdine), I'd reach out to my recommenders and let them know that the hiring committee was contacting candidates.  Now I don't recommend doing this frequently, but if you've got a couple of schools you're targeting, keeping your recommenders abreast of chatter on Prawfsblawg is a great way to keep your name in the mix when big decisions are being made by the hiring committee.