Academic job market

[dr_whom]

I've been on the academic job market for a really long time now. I've been relatively lucky in that the short-term, part-time, and adjunct positions I've had have all been fairly well-paid ones, with good benefits, in cities I wanted to live in—I haven't been anywhere near the poverty-level adjunct horror stories one reads about. I'm fairly comfortable. But the precariousness of it all, and the repetitiveness of sending out job applications every year, is starting to wear on me a bit; the whole process has been a whole lot of work for very little benefit.

Here's a catalogue of my results on the academic job market for the past 7 academic years, to the best of my recollection:

2008–9 (before I defended my dissertation): 8 applications.
No bites.

2009–10 (during which I defended my dissertation): 11 applications.
Two telephone interviews.
One conference interview.

2010–11: 16 applications.
One telephone interview.
One Skype interview.
One on-campus interview.

2011–12: 7 applications.
Two Skype interviews.
Two on-campus job talks.

2012–13: 9 applications.
One Skype interview.
Two on-campus job talks.
Two non–tenure-track job offers (one accepted).

2013–14: 2 applications.
One Skype interview.

2014–15: 11 applications (one search canceled after I applied).
One Skype interview.
One on-campus interview invitation (declined because I decided to accept a different job first).
One on-campus job talk.

…I feel exhausted just writing that out. And it continues this fall!