In Search of a Job? or Looking to Hire?

The annual ASA Employment Service assists sociologists and prospective employers by providing convenient opportunities for employers and job seekers to meet in a neutral, monitored environment for initial short interviews during the Annual Meeting. Last year in Philadelphia, 81 employers listed 132 positions, including 18 openings outside academia. 347 candidates registered with the service, and 1,720 screening interviews were scheduled.

This year the traditional paper-based service of the 1950s has moved online. Employers and job seekers will be able to enter their information in a module connected to the ASA Job Bank after appropriate fees are paid. Later this summer, an interactive scheduling calendar will be opened for setting up interview appointments.

The move to an electronically based service initiates one change in Employment Service (ES) registration. Employers will be able to pay the ES fee when they enter the information about the position(s) they wish to post in the ES. Those wishing to post their listings in both the Job Bank and the Employment Service will be able to do so easily. As part of the ES registration process, employers will be asked to identify who will be interviewing on-site at the Annual Meeting, and they will be able to search the roster of preregistrants to select their interviewers. All interviewers must preregister for the Annual Meeting.

Candidates who are looking for positions may preregister for the Annual Meeting and for the Employment Service in the same way as in previous years. After preregistering, candidates may then log into the ES module via the Job Bank and fill out the Candidate Profile Form and, if desired, upload a full resume. All preregistered users will be notified via email when the interactive calendars open for appointments.

All service users are urged to preregister by July in order to take full advantage of the pre-convention communication opportunities that the new online Employment Service will offer. Interviewers and candidates are also encouraged to bring their own laptops with them so that they can more easily maintain communications during the Annual Meeting. The on-site service will provide some computer terminals for use by registered ES users, and the ASA Message Center computers will be around the corner.