AMA Winter 2009: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Just returned from the American Marketing Association's 2009 Winter Educators Conference in Tampa. The city is nice (at least the part I saw) and the weather was beautiful.

I made some good contacts and was able to connect with some like-minded researchers. As always, the academic community was friendly, collegial and helpful. That's the good.

The bad and the ugly refers to the academic job market. Thankfully, I won't be going to market until August 2010, because this year's market was described as "terrible,", "grim" and "dismal, to say the least." However, a bad market this year is bad for us next year because of the spillover effect. Even if the economy bounces back, there is likely to be a glut of candidates from 2009 who either couldn't find a position or who just delayed entering the market. Either way, it's an ugly market in 2009 and a bad one in 2010

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