What if the job market paper still work in progress in November

Question

My research is a field research ( which was very difficult to implement) for which data collection process just ended. My goal is to finish the analysis and come up with a draft by November. The thoughts of getting ready for the conference and the timeline for that adds lot of pressure and I worry immensely about the quality of output. Any advise on timelines, specifically addressing what if the job market paper not ready by November would be greatly appreciated. Thanks very much

Answer 1

Remember that your first draft of a job market paper isn't the final draft. Having said that, your job market paper is vital both for selling yourself to your advisors (for recommendation letters) and to the market. Unless a "draft" is good,  it's going to cost you. And sometime in November you're going  to start missing out on opportunities for interviews at the meetings. At some point, you may choose to delay going on the market for a year.

Minor suggestion: Some amount of writing can take place in parallel with the analysis.

Major suggestion: Go talk to your advisor...NOW.

Answer 2

Bear in mind that some application deadlines are in October and quite a few that have November 1st deadlines. You will potentially miss out on a sizeable number of applications.