The Challenge of the Early January Concours Deadline - Goodbye Christmas Holidays 💩

After a break from posting, we’re diving back in to talk about a recurring frustration: the timing of the CNRS concours application deadline. This particular deadline, landing right after the holiday season, adds an extra layer of stress to an already intense process - something that shouldn’t be underestimated.

In this post, we’ll first clarify what exactly we’re dealing with, then explore how this impacts both the quality of applications and the personal lives of applicants. Finally, we’ll throw in some personal speculations about room for improvement.

The Holiday Season Squeeze

For those navigating the French national research concours, the early January deadline looms large every year. This date, consistently set just after the winter holidays, stems from a practical timeline: the concours typically opens in early December, leaving applicants a one-month window to prepare their applications. On paper, this seems like a reasonable amount of time. In practice, it’s anything but.

The major issue with this timeline is its overlap with the Christmas and New Year holiday season. For most researchers, late December is a time when work slows down after the mad rush to finish the year - a rare moment to recharge, spend time with family, and enjoy some well-deserved rest. However, the early January deadline disrupts this balance, forcing applicants to spend much of their holidays focused on their applications.

While it’s true that significant portions of a concours dossier can be prepared before the holidays, one critical aspect cannot: feedback from colleagues and mentors. A strong application requires multiple rounds of revisions and input, which depend on the availability of others. Unfortunately, researchers tend to prioritize immediate deadlines, meaning most feedback comes either in the last two weeks before submission or, for the well-organized, right before Christmas. This tight timeline leaves applicants scrambling during what should be a period of rest.

The Impact on Work-Life Balance

The effect on work-life balance is immense. In France, the winter holidays, alongside the summer break, are considered one of the primary opportunities for extended rest. In other countries, the winter break is often seen as the main vacation season, particularly for those who do not take long summer vacations. For concours applicants, however, these holidays are repeatedly disrupted year after year.

The strain isn’t just on the applicants. Their families also feel the impact of this disrupted downtime, and over the years, this pattern becomes increasingly frustrating. Adding to the problem, many research labs in France mandate taking vacation during the winter holiday period, which makes the situation even more paradoxical. Applicants are left balancing enforced vacation time with the immense pressure of preparing their dossiers.

The Illusion of a Break

Most applicants do take some sort of break during the holidays. This pause is not only a necessary time to rest but also an important opportunity to gain some distance from the application file and return to it with fresh eyes later on. However, a break taken directly before a major deadline is rarely a restful one. The looming deadline is hard to ignore, and for many, it results in a half-hearted attempt at relaxation, where the mind remains occupied with unfinished edits and pending feedback.

Even under these circumstances, it is super important to take a break:

• You do deserve to take some holidays even if it’s a complicated deadline that lies ahead: taking time for yourself will allow you to regain some energy for the last days before the deadline.
• Taking a break from your application is efficient: when we work non-stop on a project, it’s easy to forget the broader view, and having a general view of your research in the scientific context is something that matters a lot to the selection committee.
• Even if the holidays are supposed to last roughly two weeks, forcing yourself to take at least 2-3 days away from work, focusing on your family and friends around you, will help you release the pressure: you know you’ll get back to work soon, and don’t worry, it will be more than sufficient.

This year, we were in a somewhat privileged position: the deadline fell on the fifth day after the general end of the two-week winter break. This meant applicants had a full four days post-holiday to work on their applications. While this isn’t a perfect solution, it did allow for a small but valuable buffer between holiday downtime and the final submission push.

Last year’s deadline, for the CNRS concours 2024, fell on February 8 due to budgetary reasons of the CNRS. This provided an extreme relief from the usual holiday stress folding into the application process. The application crunch time fell into a period during which everyone around us was working normally too, making it far easier to focus without the added challenge of holiday disruptions - and it allowed for a true winter break.

Could the Deadline Be Adjusted?

One obvious solution would be to shift the CNRS concours deadline to later in January. This change would provide applicants with at least two solid work weeks after the holidays to finalize their applications. However, the concours calendar is already tightly packed. Hiring committees rely on the time between the application deadline and the summer to carefully review submissions, conduct evaluations, and make decisions. Shortening this period would place additional strain on an already demanding process, making adjustments to the deadline challenging. But would cutting two weeks from a process that spans several months really cause that big of a disruption?

Another possibility might be moving the deadline to before Christmas. While this would give applicants the chance to enjoy a true winter break, it introduces its own complications. The concours must be officially approved and opened by the ministry, which depends on broader government timelines. Advancing the opening to mid-November to allow for a pre-Christmas deadline may not be feasible, or even impossible under the given administrative processes. An earlier deadline thus seems considerably more unlikely than a later one.

Rethinking the Concours Timeline

The early January deadline for the concours has long been a source of frustration for applicants. It disrupts the holiday season, undermines work-life balance, and forces applicants into a multi-year cycle of compromised rest. While logistical challenges exist, finding a solution - whether through a later deadline or another adjustment - would alleviate a significant burden on the research community. Moving it to even only two weeks after the current standard would be a major game-changer.

It’s time to rethink the concours timeline and prioritize the well-being of its applicants. After all, ensuring researchers have the time and mental space to produce their best work benefits everyone - not just the applicants, but the scientific community as a whole.

Links:

• Infos about 2024 CNRS concours delay in opening: https://sncs.fr/2023/10/16/les-concours-chercheuses-et-chercheurs-2024-au-cnrs-devraient-etre-decales//