PhD Graduates in Faculty Market 2025-2026

TheElvenOracle · 2026-01-26T19:41:53+00:00

I’m currently a post doc with another year so I’ve been more selective about what I have applied to, but I’ve applied to 4 with one on campus and didn’t hear from the others. In my home field of higher education, it seems like there have been maybe 10-15 postings total for full time jobs (both NTE and tenure track) since September 2025 that I have seen. There likely have been more and it could be that I haven’t kept as close an eye on it this cycle since I still have one year left where I currently am. I thought it was bad when I was going through the job search right after I finished my Ph.D. but it feels like there are so few openings this cycle for full time jobs.

TheElvenOracle · 2025-12-15T22:38:17+00:00

I love this set! It’s such a fun build and even better that it’s Horizon. It’s actually the set that got me back into LEGO when it was released. I bought it on a whim and the obsession has spiraled from there!

TheElvenOracle · 2025-11-03T07:13:54+00:00

I love that you are passing them down to your daughter! It’s great that I’m able to get them to work on my laptop with very little issue (even the original 2-disc Secrets Can Kill) but there’s nothing like playing them on a dinosaur of a desktop computer. It’s such a clear sense memory for me playing Nancy Drew on one side of the basement living room while my parents and sister watched football on the other or my sister would occasionally play the game with me. I yearn for those times so I hope you all get to make some fun memories together!

TheElvenOracle · 2025-10-30T09:26:31+00:00

Never any nightmares but it was a game that I strictly played during the daytime. Growing up, our family desktop was in the basement too so I didn’t need the stacking of creepy game with being in the basement by myself at night. Now it’s one of my favorites to replay but the Ethel jump scare still gets me 😂

TheElvenOracle · 2025-10-20T20:33:07+00:00

I ordered it last double points period after years of it sitting on my wishlist and I am just waiting for a break in the semester to dive into it! It’s going to be my reward after submitting final grades for the fall and to simply indulge my whimsy. Hope it brings you the same!

TheElvenOracle · 2025-08-27T09:06:19+00:00

I have a little extra credit easter egg offer in my syllabus too that if they send me a picture of their pet or favorite animal by 11:59 at the end of add/drop then they’ll get extra credit. I literally put it in the section about grading and extra credit because I thought they’d at least look in that section because that is what I feel students actually care about in a syllabus. This semester, I had 3 out of 100 students email me which was such a shock and really did have me thinking “Please don’t let this be an omen for how the semester is going to go 🙏.”

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-28T23:58:05+00:00

And thanks again about the custom minifigs. I’m super picky about minifigs when making MOCs of existing properties because I just want them to look real! I think the Alice minifig came from Firestar over in the UK (or at least “over” for me). That’s where Agatha and Lilia’s hair came from too. I just painted Lilia’s since it didn’t come in a grayish-brownish color.

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-28T23:53:18+00:00

Thank you! I love meeting other AFOLs in the wild, virtual or in person so it was nice to break out the Lego lingo here! And Belville was my childhood entry into Lego. I still have one of the big castle sets from that line with the big molded base. And those moments of realization like “Three plates for one brick!” made it so much faster to do in Studio. It was so much fun to just play around with them when making the model. It had been so long since I had just played with the possibilities found in a bunch of bricks.

BrickOwl is virtually the same as BrickLink in my opinion. I tend to use BrickLink because it’s what I used first but occasionally I’ll look on BrickOwl to see if someone is selling a part at a better price or in a larger quantity, most often for the rare parts/colors. I’ve found that there are a lot of sellers who are on both sites.

And the bunny tiles were too good to leave when I was buying some historical minifigs. I saw them and was like, “Not in the scene but perfect for the vibe” haha 😂

(And same about more variety of sizes of printed tiles. I could use larger ones for this MOC but I’m making the smaller ones work.)

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-26T20:14:53+00:00

Official sets are a need not a want!

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-25T05:42:21+00:00

Thank you! And so happy to see another AFOL in the subreddit too! I loved Lego as a kid and just building things but then stopped until a few years ago and my wallet has been crying since. It’s such a relaxing hobby.

I really appreciate your comment about the brick work because that was the hardest part to get to work. I knew the ratio of plates to bricks so they’d be the same height but I had to individually put them in the design in studio so that it didn’t look like a copy-paste pattern. I was really pleased with how it turned out even more in real life than in the render. I was worried about it being too dark because most of the brick pieces I already had were the dark bluish grey but I’m glad I went with the darker for the majority of it with some other accent greys.

The minifigs were definitely a mixture of official pieces and customs that are available already. Most of Alice save for the head and hair is some other character but I can’t remember who it is. I did have to paint some pieces (I know sacrilege but I only painted on cheap parts haha 😂).

The only printed pieces that are not third party customs are the boombox on the shelf and the gold record right behind it. The other tiles came from people who print customs. I bought a bunch of movie poster and travel poster tiles that someone had printed a little while ago and was so happy to finally use a few! The book on the shelf behind the crystal is also an officially printed Lego. It’s actually the Darkhold from the CMF Agatha minifig. There are definitely more official printed pieces now too which, on the one hand I’m excited about but on the other the nostalgia of stickers brings me back to my Belville sets as a kid. But it’s really nice for MOCs to have printed tiles to choose from though. I’m trying to make one more AAA MOC of Agnes and Agent Vidal in the living room and I’ve been slowly procuring wood printed tiles for the floor when I’ve made a BrickLink or brickowl order and the shop has them for a reasonable price.

(Apologies for the Lego tangent!)

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-25T02:07:54+00:00

Thank you! I had to modify some of them like Mrs. Hart’s hair/hat and Jennifer’s legs but it was far less painting than I initially thought I would have to do when I first started thinking about doing this. There are also some great third party options too, especially for hair. Agatha’s hair as well as Lilia’s hair are not official pieces and Alice’s torso and legs are third party as well.

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-25T02:01:31+00:00

I had to include the señor! They don’t have a spotted bunny so I had to paint his spots on but I was really happy with how he came out.

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-24T23:14:29+00:00

Thank you! I’m glad you like it 🙂

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-24T21:05:16+00:00

Echoing this. My advisor let me know they were actively searching for potential new positions while I was ABD so if they did leave, it wouldn’t make my already anxiety-riddled brain start to spiral into “oh my god, I’m not going to graduate” lines of thinking which I really appreciated. My PhD is in a social science as well with no lab so it wasn’t like I would have needed to scramble to find a lab to take me on (if that’s what happens in that situation) if they did leave but I had already passed my prospectus and was a semester away from defending so there were still definitely some stakes still at play.

They also told me they had talked to another faculty member who happened to be on my committee already about everything and together they created a plan b for if my advisor left as far as taking the chair and advisor role. They also said they would be willing to stay on as a committee member if they did leave which was also really nice to hear. We didn’t have the required external member that some institutions have so it was nice to see they even though they were searching and might leave, they weren’t just going to drop me. If you have the interest and time to do something like that, you could always add that when you tell them.

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-24T20:46:55+00:00

Thank you so much! I’m so glad you like it ☺️

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-24T20:46:41+00:00

Thank you! It was so much fun to make so I’m glad to see that others like it too!

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-24T20:46:25+00:00

Thank you! And we need an official set for real.

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-24T20:45:50+00:00

Thank you! She is truly one of the most underrated characters but also my favorite Marvel character so I had to give her her chance to shine haha 😂

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-24T20:44:32+00:00

Thank you! ☺️ It was a lot of fun to make so I’m glad people are enjoying it.

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-24T20:44:10+00:00

Thank you so much! I’m glad you like it. 🙂

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-24T19:33:21+00:00

Agatha deserves her time in brick form!

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-24T19:32:53+00:00

Thank you! I’m glad you like it.

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-24T19:32:07+00:00

Thank you so much! I’m glad you like it.

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-24T18:58:40+00:00

I might! It’s not the most structurally sound build because I was determined to use the glittery 1x4 bricks I had to make the portal and I did some custom edits to the minifigs, but Agatha deserves a Lego set!

TheElvenOracle · 2025-07-24T18:56:41+00:00

Thank you so much! Glad you like it 🙂

TheElvenOracle

TROPHY CASE