Below are questions which users frequently ask about the AMS Career Center. Please consult them if you are confused about any aspect of this website. If the answer to your question isn’t provided below, send it to us using the Contact Us form.
About the AMS Career Center
What is the AMS Career Center?
The AMS Career Center is a hub for community announcements, calls, jobs, and other resources designed to help you advance your career in music studies, teaching, and performance. The Career Center includes:
- Calls for papers and manuscripts
- Calls for award nominations
- Conference information
- Graduate programs in music studies
- Job notices
- Promotional notices
Moreover, the Career Center makes it easier than ever to find opportunities. Searchable by keyword, location, topic, career track, and more, this platform supports the professional development and networking of AMS members and constituents. You can create an account, set up regular alerts for the types of notices or announcements that interest you, and have them delivered daily, weekly, fortnightly, or monthly to your inbox.
The Career Center also hosts “Field Notes,” a special career-themed blog with stories, resources, interviews, and items of interest to music researchers, teachers, administrators, and performers at every career stage.
What are "opportunity types"?
The AMS Career Center doesn’t just feature jobs and internships. It offers access to a range of opportunities that are of interest to students and professionals involved in music studies, music performance, and related fields. The full range of “opportunity types” is listed on our Browse Opportunities page, and includes calls for applications, publication calls, conference calls, and much more.
What are “opportunity topics”?
Posts on the AMS Career Center are organized and archived by type and topic. Opportunity topics allow site users to more specifically identify the types of listings that they would like to have sent to their email box via the “alerts” function. When setting up an email alert, users are provided with a list of topic categories (such as Arts & Music, Area Studies, Nonprofit / Higher Education) that allow for greater specificity in the configuration of email alerts. To get only the opportunities that most interest you, configure your alerts using a combination of post types and topics.
What is an email "alert"?
Email alerts are automated emails configured by the user which deliver Career Center posts directly to your email inbox. Alerts can be configured to be sent daily, weekly, fortnightly, or monthly. You can also use tags and filters to configure alerts so they only deliver opportunities of interest to you. Configure your email alerts now.
What is a "bookmark"?
Users who are logged into the Career Center website have access to “bookmarks.” These are tags that a user can append to posts on the site which make them easily findable. If you see a post that interests you, bookmark it! That will make it easy for you to find it again when you are next on the site and logged in. You can find all your bookmarked posts by clicking on the “Dashboard” link on the logged in menu in the upper right corner of the site.
Posting
How can I post an opportunity to the AMS Career Center?
To post your music-related call, job, or other professional notice to the AMS Career Center, you will have to create an account and click on “Post!” on the “Opportunities” tab on the site’s header menu.
This page, which is only accessible if you are logged in, will prompt you to create an organization or select a previously created organization. It will also ask you to accept the site’s Terms and Conditions.
Thereafter, you will be asked to enter the details of your professional opportunity and preview. Once you are satisfied with your post, you can submit it. If you have selected a free community post type, your work is done. If you have selected a paid community or commercial post type, you will be prompted to pay.
Once your post is submitted, it will be reviewed by the Career Center staff to ensure that it conforms with our guidelines. If it does, it will be posted within 24-48 hours. If it does not, a member of staff will contact you to request changes or explain why we cannot publish the post.
Why do I have to create an "organization" to post?
All posts must be submitted under the umbrella of an organization, entity, group, or project. This is part of the American Musicological Society’s effort to verify the legitimacy of posted opportunities. The AMS does not guarantee the validity of all Career Center posts, but it does make a significant effort to ensure that all listed opportunities are genuine.
Does this mean that only posts from universities or companies are accepted? No. Interest groups affiliated with universities, colleges, societies, centers or departments, research or special project teams, even organizers working on events and projects early in the organizing process may post. However, to do so, they have to identify themselves as an organization, group, project or other entity by choosing a name and providing an email address and website.
If you are unsure whether your opportunity can be posted under these requirements, use the Contact Us form to explain your situation and we’ll try to help. The Career Center staff are committed to facilitating all legitimate posts that are likely to be of value to the community of music scholars and performers.
What are "community" and "commercial" post types?
Posts on the AMS Career Center are divided into “community” and “commercial” post types.
Community posts include calls for papers (for unpaid conferences and publications); calls for applications (for grants, fellowships, subventions, and other funding opportunities, NOT jobs); announcements of free events (conferences, performances, workshops, etc.); calls for nominations (for awards, honors, and unpaid service positions); unpaid career or mentoring opportunities; etc.
Commercial posts fall into two categories: paid job opportunities and commercial products. Those are defined as follows:
- Paid job opportunities include tenure track positions, contract positions, administrative positions, paid performance gigs, paid internships, and paid contract roles and opportunities.
- Commercial products include all items offered for purchase, rental, or subscription, including publications, conference and performance tickets, software and digital products, degree programs and educational workshops, instruments and audio-visual equipment, etc.
Why do you charge for "commercial" posts?
“Commercial” posts fall into two categories: advertisements and paid job notices.
The AMS charges for the posting of advertisements because the Society believe that organizations and companies that use the Career Center to promote their paid events, degree programs, publications, software products, and other paid products and services should help sustain it by paying a small fee. Likewise, employers who use the Career Center to secure employees, often highly skilled, to help them provide revenue-generating goods and services, should also help sustain the Career Center service.
Even more importantly, charging for the posting of advertisements and job notices, both well-established nonprofit practices, is a way of subsidizing the roughly 70% of Career Center posts that fall into the free “community post” category and are not directly revenue-generating. If we did not charge for advertisements and job notices, the AMS could not maintain the Career Center and thus could not provide a forum for the posting of unpaid opportunities, calls, and other community notices.
What "post type" should I choose and how much will it cost to submit?
Choose your posting product based on the type of information you want to promote. If you have a “commercial” post, you can do a regular or featured post.
- Regular “commercial” posts cost $99 for thirty (30) days, are searchable on the Career Center site, and distributed to interested users via user alerts.
- Featured “commercial” posts cost $145 for thirty (30) days, are searchable on the Career Center site, distributed to interested users via user alerts, and are highlighted on the Career Center website and in user search results.
If you have a “community” post, you can choose a free, regular, or featured post.
- Featured “community” posts cost $145 for thirty (30) days and are searchable on the Career Center site, distributed to interested users via user alerts, and highlighted on the Career Center website and in user search results.
- Regular “community” posts cost $29 for thirty (30) days, are searchable on the Career Center site, and distributed to interested users via user alerts.
- Free “community” posts are available on the Career Center site for five (5) days and distributed to interested users via user alerts.
I just submitted my post and it isn't on the site. Why not?
Once you submit and, if required, pay for your post, it must be reviewed by the Career Center staff. We cannot and do not guarantee the legitimacy of all posts, but we make significant efforts to verify their appropriateness, legitimacy and timeliness. And to do that, we have to review every post thoroughly, check all links, and confirm that the post conforms with all applicable policies and guidelines.
If your post conforms with Career Center posting and product guidelines, it will be approved. Most posts are approved within 24-48 hours. (Please allow more time for posts submitted on weekends or US holidays.) Once your post is approved, it will become available on the frontend of the Career Center website.
If your post does not conform to our posting and product guidelines, a member of the Career Center staff will contact you with requests for changes or to explain why it has been rejected.
My post to the Career Center was not approved and published. Why?
There are a few reasons why your post might not have been approved and published. These include:
- Non-functional URL links
- Excessive word count (see our posting guidelines, which request a limit of 300 words per post)
- A conflict with the Career Center’s Terms and Conditions
Typically, if your post is not approved, a member of the Career Center staff will send a request for changes or corrections. In the rare case that a post submission is simply rejected, a member of staff will write and explain why.
If your post does not appear on the site within 48 hours (allow more time for weekend and US holidays) and you do not receive a follow-up notice from the Career Center staff, please use the Contact Us form to inquire about the status of your post.
Troubleshooting
I am having trouble using the site. How can I get help?
Use the Contact Us form to report problems or request help. Our staff are generally available to answer questions and provide technical assistance between 9:00am and 5:00pm Eastern Time. (Please allow more time for support on weekends or US holidays.)
