Professor Justice's Secret Files

Tale of Two Weird Applicants

The new Department Chair of the College where I got accepted wanted to show the Dean that all the subjects assigned to her department had teachers to handle them.

I found out later that she was pressured to show everything was alright because, when she was appointed as Chairperson, another candidate was by passed. The other candidate was a faculty member of the department who, as I was told, was more senior than the Department Chair in terms of years of teaching experience and academic degree. Throughout that school year, the senior faculty was frequently sounding off and consistently showing why she was the one who should have been chosen.

This was why the Department Chair wanted to show that the first day of classes would go smoothly.

I was surprised because I did not have a teaching demo until a month later. I was asked to go to class immediately so that the Dean would not have to notify the Department Chair why a certain class did not yet have a professor.

My rank was assistant professor. This title was new to me. Back in college, we simply called all our teachers as "professor." I thought being an assistant professor meant that a senior or full professor would be coaching me in my classes. But, the way it happened, it was simply a rank.

As to how my application got approved, I was told later that it was choosing between two résumés the one which was less weird.

My résumé provided the information that I finished my bachelor's and master's degrees at an early age. I was a student leader for two years. I organized seminars and other events. I had a few media exposures when I was interviewed for some television and radio programs. Once, my story was featured in a magazine of general circulation. I volunteered doing unrelated jobs.

My degrees are a mismatch or called "horizontally aligned." The academe, however, prefers degrees that are "vertically aligned." The difference between the two was that the former refers to a bachelor's and a master's degrees that were unrelated, and the latter refers to having a higher degree that was a continuation of the lower degree.

At first glance, my profile showed lack of expertise and, because I got involved in unrelated jobs, it meant that I may have no focus or that I have not mastered the necessary skills needed for the university to trust me as a teacher. I also came from a school they were unfamiliar of. In addition to this, I had some accomplishments that–although were noteworthy–were quite odd for a young person like me who did not come from a top university.

Therefore, on face value, my job application should have been rejected.

However, there was another application there that they were hesitantly considering. The applicant had several master's and doctor's degrees. Some of the degrees were related or vertically aligned, while some were not. The applicant was older and more experienced than me. However, they find that person quite weird. They wondered how that person could be normal with all of those degrees.

Based on academic achievements, that applicant should have been accepted; however, the university already had an experience with hiring a professor who was overly qualified and demanded for a higher salary but underperformed as an educator and barely went to class.

The department that accepted me was full of those who had backgrounds in psychology. There were only two of us there who were not. I got accepted because part of the evaluation is the personal assessment of the Department Chair. Between my application and the other applicant's résumé, I was the one who was less weird. They thought that, since I was the younger applicant, it might be easier to handle me.

At this point, we can no longer tell if I was actually the one who was easier to handle because they never tried the other one. We never found out who was actually weirder. At some point in my teaching job, I was asked to take a psychological test and I passed. But I wish, for everything I did, that my stay in the university had been unforgettable for them and my students.