Discusses the lack of security in the English teaching profession and encourages college English departments to be humane in their hiring practices. (DD)

Describes personal and departmental circumstances within the author's English department, in which he found it impossible to move forward on the issue of wider career counseling for English PhDs. Describes how a career management series organized by professionals outside the department offered help in rethinking the meaningful uses to which a…

Discusses research regarding two-career couples working within college English departments. Reports that institutions in large metropolitan areas are more hopeful about spousal placement. Observes that few colleges still have antinepotism laws forbidding spousal hiring. Notes that institutions are devising strategies for specific situations.…

Attempts to make effects of fiscal constraints better understood in the hope of finding optimal solutions to critical difficulties faced by academic institutions. Suggests a new emphasis in graduate training on teaching. Points toward ideal changes in the structure of higher education but attempts to keep recommendations practical. Discusses the…

Describes a one-unit job placement course that offers candidates for jobs in English departments realistic, intensive, and responsible preparation for academic or nonacademic careers. Appends the course description for the job placement seminar. (RS)

Examines how English department faculty might demystify the job placement process for graduate students by providing candidates with a way of imagining their professional identities. Asks whether faculty expectations and fantasies escalate student anxieties and induce elitist, overbearing prose. (TB)

Discusses the role of the English department head in a time of educational crisis. Examines the possibility that graduate study in English is losing its moral base. Considers the role of leadership and oppositional politics in the context of the crisis in graduate study. (HB)

To aid those advising English majors in college, this article compiles information on technical writing careers from surveys in professional journals, occupational literature, 1980 census data, and Bureau of Labor Statistics publications. (SRT)