« Reply #12 on: December 20, 2019, 04:58:43 PM »
From: What’s the longest you have been on the job market?
I understand the anxiety, the vulnerability and fear of instability. I would be feeling the same--I did feel the same when I was on the job market.
But there really is no answer to your question. If I tell you I spent 3 months on the job market before being hired at Harvard (not true), that wouldn't help you get a job. If I told you I spent 20 years looking for full-time work (which is actually almost true if you factor in the time while I was ABD), I don't think that would help you either. If I tell you have X amount of time before you have "expired" stamped on your forward--would you look for work any harder?
The only thing you can do, in my opinion, is to expand your search as wide as possible (i.e., don't limit yourself to only one type of school, be willing to commute a bit, etc.) and look for non-academic positions. Then hope you get something--maybe you will, and maybe you won't.
In other words, there are things you can do to improve your chances of success on the job market, but there is nothing you can do to guarantee success. And much is beyond your control.

Logged
Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.
Reprove not a scorner, lest they hate thee: rebuke the wise, and they will love thee.
Give instruction to the wise, and they will be yet wiser: teach the just, and they will increase in learning.