FAQs: References

(Please note that you can click on any of the images in this page to see them at full-size.)

Q: I lost my password. How can I recover it?

1.       Visit https://econjobmarket.org/ and look for the candidate sign in area in the bottom right corner of the page. Click on the “Click here to recover lost password” link.

2.       Enter your email address and click “Recover.” 

3.       Check your email. If you don’t receive an email after a couple minutes, check your spam folder. Some universities have overaggressive spam filters.

4.       If you cannot find the email in your spam filter, contact support as a last resort, and say that you have already exhausted these steps prior to emailing support.

Q: How do I designate someone to be my proxy?

1.       Log into your account at https://econjobmarket.org/ using your email and password.

2.       Under the ‘Proxy’ section, click on “To appoint a proxy click here.”

3.       Fill in your proxy’s E-mail address and name. You can also easily adjust your notification settings to allow your proxy to receive all email notifications by checking the box at the bottom of the form. After completing the form, click “Set new proxy.”

Q: How do I change my proxy?

1.       Log into your account at https://econjobmarket.org/ using your email and password.

2.       Under the ‘Proxy’ section, click on “Change.”

3.       Fill in your new proxy’s E-mail address and name. You can also easily adjust your notification settings to allow your proxy to receive all email notifications by checking the box at the bottom of the form. After completing the form, click “Set new proxy.”

Q: How do I remove my proxy from my account?

1.       Log into your account at https://econjobmarket.org/ using your email and password.

2.       Under the ‘Proxy’ section, click on “Dismiss.”

Q: I’ve switched jobs. How can I update my email address associated with EconJobMarket.org?

1.       If you remember your password, log into your account at https://econjobmarket.org/ using your old email address and password.

2.       Click on “Update my information.”

3.       Fill in your new information and click “Apply Changes.”

4.        If you do not remember your old password, and you are unable to access your old email to retrieve your password, please contact us to remedy the situation.

Q: How do I change a letter of recommendation for a candidate?

You can change a letter of recommendation for particular application by clicking “Show Applications” next to the candidate’s name and then updating each letter to the new one you would like to send.

Q: How long will automatic delivery designation be valid?

                Designation of automatic delivery is valid for 90 days. If the candidate for whom you designate an automatic delivery applies to any positions within that 90 days and assigns you as a reference, your letter will automatically be submitted. After 90 days you will have to reinstate automatic delivery, by clicking on “Re-instate Automatic Delivery” next to the candidate’s name on EconJobMarket.org.

Q: If I set up automatic delivery, will I still be able to send a personalized recommendation for some of my candidate’s applications?

                Yes. You can override the automatic delivery for particular applications by clicking “Show Applications” next to the candidate’s name and then updating the letter to the personalized one you would like to send.

How-To Guide: Recommenders

Managing Candidates

When you log into your recommender account, you will be able to see a list of all the candidates who have specified you as a recommender. From this list you can see how many applications the candidate has submitted and how many of these applications are awaiting letters of recommendation to be uploaded. 

You can see more details about the applications a particular candidate has selected by clicking the "show applications" button for a given candidate.

Once you click this button, each institution to which the candidate has submitted an application will be revealed as well as the status of your letter to that institution.

Submitting Letters

You can submit a letter for a candidate to a particular institution by clicking on the "submit letter" link next to the institution in the list of applications a candidate has submitted.

This will take you to a screen which will allow you to upload a letter to be sent to the specified institution. You may name this letter and attach personal notes to the letter for your own future reference. To upload the letter, click on the "browse" button and select the file you with to use as your letter.

You may also wish to only upload one letter to be automatically delivered to every institution a candidate applies to. This can be done from the candidate list by selected "submit letter for automatic delivery".

To see how to use additional recommender features or for more specific questions, please consult our Recommender FAQ.

FAQs: Candidates

(Please note that you can click on any of the images in this page to see them at full-size.)

Q: I lost my password. How can I recover it?

1.       Visit https://econjobmarket.org/ and look for the candidate sign in area in the bottom left corner of the page. Click on the “Click here to recover lost password” link.

2.       Enter your email address and click “Recover.”

3.       Check your email. If you don’t receive an email after a couple minutes, check your spam folder. Some universities have overaggressive spam filters.

4.       If you cannot find the email in your spam filter, contact support as a last resort, and say that you have already exhausted these steps prior to emailing support. 

Q: One of my recommenders still hasn’t submitted my letter! Will you send him a reminder for me?

                EconJobMarket.org respects the notification preferences selected by recommenders when they register for the site. As such, we will not contact a recommender for you. It is your responsibility to contact your recommender and make sure he/she submits a letter on time.

Q: One of my recommenders has a new email address. Can you change his email in the system for him?

                If your recommender has a new email address he/she will need to log into his account and update his information himself. If he is unable to access his old email, he should contact us and provide legitimate proof that the new email address belongs to him (i.e., an institutional website listing the email address).

Q: My letters of recommendation disappeared! What do I do?

Don’t panic. We do not delete letters from our system. Try logging back in and see if the letters are there. If one is missing, it means either your recommender deleted it, or their automatic delivery expired. Contact your recommender and ask them to check their Econ Job Market account to ensure their letter is delivered properly.

Q: How long will it take for my references’ accounts to be approved?

                We attempt to approve reference accounts as soon as possible. We need to verify that the recommender’s contact information is accurate and that the recommender does not already have an account on Econ Job Market. You and your recommender will receive confirmation of approval as soon as the process is complete.

Q: My request to create a reference account for one of my recommenders was denied. What should I do?

                If the request was denied, you should have received an email with an explanation. If we request more information to validate the recommender’s contact information (we will usually request more information if you submit a gmail or yahoo account that anybody could make), provide us with an institutional or otherwise reputable website that shows the email address on it.

If the request was denied because the recommender already has an account, please log back into your account and search carefully for your recommender. (We recommend just searching by last name and looking through the list for the right person.)

How-To Guide: Candidates

Step 1: Finding positions from ads

Once you are logged into your EJM account, click on the “new application” link.

 

From here, you can browse postings on EJM. Some postings accept applications through EJM while others require you to submit an application on another site or by alternative means. If the position accepts application documents through EJM, there will be an “Apply Now” link to the left of the application.

Results can also be filtered by institution, position, or fields which the poster of the ad has specified.

Step 2: Applying to a Position

Once you click on “apply now”, you will be taken to the application page for the selected posting. Here is an example:

Application will vary from institution to institution in which documents and questions they want you to submit. Take a look at the questions and documents asked by the application. Once you have the documents you want to submit selected, you can upload them by selecting the “Upload Documents” link. Once you upload a document to EJM, you will be able to access and use it in any application you want.

Step 3: Assigning Recommenders

Once you submit your application, you will be asked to submit your list of references.

Here you will be given the option to add a new recommender to the list of recommenders associated with your EJM account or to add a new recommender. “Add a New Recommender” will allow you to search EJM’s database of recommenders to see if the individual you are using as a recommender is already in the system. 

If your recommender is in the system, you may select them from the recommender search. If they are not in the system you can add them to the system by clicking on “Enter Recommender Information”. EJM staff will then have to verify the information you enter for your recommender before giving them an EJM recommender account. This process typically takes less than 24 hours.

Once you have assigned a recommender, you can see the status of their recommendation for that application.

For any questions that were not answered here, please consult our Candidate FAQ.

FAQs: Recruiters

(Please note that you can click on any of the images in this page to see them at full-size.)

Q: I lost my password. How can I recover it?

1.       Visit https://econjobmarket.org/ and look for the candidate sign in area in the bottom center section of the page. Click on the “Click here to recover lost password” link.

2.       Enter your email address and click “Recover.”

3.       Check your email. If you don’t receive an email after a couple minutes, check your spam folder. Some universities have overaggressive spam filters.

4.       If you cannot find the email in your spam filter, contact support as a last resort, and say that you have already exhausted these steps prior to emailing support. 

How-To Guide: Recruiters

Updates coming!

Notes for Junior Candidates (2)

At this time of the year, EconJobMarket (EJM) gets a lot of support requests from candidates about specifying their references and about communicating with them.  Here are a few common questions and answers related to references (also called “recommenders”):

1. How are reference accounts established in EJM?

EJM has a large database of references.  A new reference account is established whenever a candidate specifies a reference for an application and provides the proper identification for this person (including the reference’s own email address), and when the reference does not already have an account.  The database has been constructed over the past few years.  If your references provided letters on job-market candidates in the past, they probably already have reference accounts with EJM.  In this case, when you submit an application via EJM and give your references’ names and email addresses, they will be shown as already in the database.

2. Are my references notified every time I submit an application?  How can I be sure that they are prompted to submit their letters?

References are notified when their reference accounts are initially established (that is, the first time they are named for an application).  Subsequently, the notification schedule is determined by what the references specify in their account preferences (see point 6 in the October 15 blog post).  If you want to make sure that your references know about your recent applications, you should communicate directly with them.

3. My references say that they haven’t received any emails from EJM recently and they do not know how to log into the system.  What do I do?

Tell your references to use the reference password-recovery link on the EJM front page.  Entering a reference’s email address into this form will generate a password reminder message, sent to this email address.  Have your references check their email spam/junk folders if they don’t find the message in their in-boxes.

4. In my department, a staff person handles the letters on behalf of the faculty references.  I don’t want to bother my advisor with email messages from EJM.  Should I specify the email address of the staff person when specifying references?

No.  EJM must keep track of individual references using a unique identifier, which is the email address.  As noted above, references are not bothered with email reminders unless they specify that reminders be sent.  References can designate proxies in the system; these are staff people who can access the system and upload letters on behalf of the references.  If your department has such staff people, stay in contact with them to make sure that your application files are complete.  To reiterate, do not associate a staff person’s email address with a reference in EJM.  If you do, the reference will be denied.  (Actual people check this.)

5. If one of my references has multiple email addresses, which one should I use when specifying references in EJM?  Can a reference change his/her email address in the system?

Because EJM folks manually check to verify the identity of references, you should use the most “official” email address that your reference has (as opposed to gmail, yahoo, hotmail, etc., addresses that anyone can obtain without any formal identity verification).  EJM staff retain the option and authority to use a different email address to create a reference’s initial account than the one a candidate might supply; this is done, in particular, if an official email address is known for the reference.  When a reference gets a new account, he/she is free to log into the system and change the email address.  If the initial email address used for the reference turns out not to be functional, then the reference may not get his/her account information.  In such a case, please have the reference contact EJM support for assistance.  When EJM approves a new reference account application, a notification is sent to the candidate and includes the email address of the reference.  This is to help you determine if an incorrect email address has been used to establish the reference account.

5. How can I ensure that my references write good letters on my behalf?

Do brilliant work!  Kidding aside, I’m sure you are doing your best.  I hope your experience on the market is a good one.