Do faculty hiring committees inform the candidates of the results?

My own experience was that whether and when a response came appeared to be exceedingly arbitrary. Some places gave a rapid "no", others gave a "no" after many months (one after more than a year), and some never said anything at all. I have heard of similar experiences from other people.

I have not been able to discern a pattern of which organizations are likely to fall into which category, and also know that different people seem to have different experiences with the same organization, presumably based on who is running the committee in a given year.

The very best practice is to inform appplicants as soon as possible that they are no longer viable candidates. Thus, first round cuts would know quickly that they have not advanced to the second round.

Whether or not this was ever common practice is debatable but it is undoubtedly becoming rarer. Some reasons include :

• Increased number of applicants: it is easier to tell twenty people they didn't make the cut, but some positions now receive several hundred applicants and search chairs are not always provided the tools they need for mass notification.

• Bureacriticization: some universities require that no one be notified until the final candidate be found, offered the job, and they accept the position. This can often be over a year past the initial job posting and is a stupid rule. Others require HR to do all communications, but HR can often not be entirely responsive or communication can break down.

• There is also variance caused by the degree of conscientious and amount of free time that the search chair has. Mid-career faculty often have absolutely no time due to administrative overload. Almost retired senior faculty have time but may have forgotten what it is like to be on the job market.

One crowd sourced solution is the job wikis that have sprung up. At least you'll know if and when the medium-round candidates have gotten telephone interviews (or the short list candidates have been invited to campus) and you can presume you're out of the running if you haven't.