A PhD candidate's job search in the field of Second Language Studies

During this past academic year, I went on the job market in the field of second language studies (broadly considered, including applied linguistics, second language acquisition/studies, TESOL, etc.). Now that the dust has settled, I thought it might be worthwhile to break down how my search went. As I understand it, the job market varies from year to year, so my experience may or may not be relatable to other former and future PhD students going on the market.

Before going on the market, I knew that my most desired outcome was in academia; although I did/do have some interest in working on the language testing industry, these positions are advertised and hired outside of academic timelines. I targeted tenure-track assistant professor positions relevant to second language studies (e.g., applied linguistics, TESOL) in North America. In total, I submitted applications to 15 jobs. I began seriously looking at job postings in September 2018 and submitted my first application early in October 2018. My last application was submitted at the end of January 2019. To summarize the search, I've put together the figure below (a Sankey diagram created with http://sankeymatic.com/). 

Breakdown of my job search.

I like these Sankey diagrams - in this case, they tell the story of my search quite well. Of my submitted applications, I heard back from 10 of them; this was pleasantly surprising. I think this is a relatively high rate, which I attribute to looking for positions where I was a good match. I didn't apply to positions where I didn't see a realistic shot, such as those asking for K-12 public school teaching experience and research expertise. Of the 10 phone interviews I did, I received 6 campus invites (i.e., second-round interviews). I was again pleasantly surprised here. I had some experience with academic interviews from my days as a university ESL/EAP instructor, so that helped. I also did some interview practice with my advisor and studied each program diligently.

From the initial campus visit invites, things got a little bit rough. Some of my difficulties were related to being overseas in South Korea: 2 programs would not fund international travel for final-round candidates. It was gut-wrenching to do, but with a family to take care of and not knowing how long my job search could go, I couldn't personally justify spending thousands of dollars on chances at jobs, especially when I had chances at others that wouldn't sting me financially.

Luckily, I was able to complete 3 interviews, all of which were more pleasant and a little bit less stressful than I had imagined, resulting in one offer at a teaching-focused program in a really nice location (I'll have more details as I get closer to starting the job).

This offer necessitated cancelling another campus interview, which I felt bad about (they were very pleasant in the phone interview and willing to accommodate my travel). It also required me to withdraw from a search that started in January for a position at a great program that aligned with my profile.

All in all, I certainly can't complain about my experience: 15 applications is probably around or a little below average these days, and at the end of it I ended up with a job at a quality institution with the possibility of staying around for a long time (assuming I can earn tenure!). But things definitely felt competitive. Despite doing fairly well for myself in grad school, I knew I was competing with lots of other people who did well in grad school, and some people who were 1+ year out of grad school with commensurate teaching experience and publications. I know that 2 of the positions I applied for have been filled by (excellent) people coming off of visiting assistant professorships, and I wouldn't be surprised if a few more end up that way.