I'm not in biology. You know that, of course, since I'm your mom. You also know that I've been in a contract research firm and now at a university. Pros of contract research were an immediate permanent contract (but lately we've been seeing that the word "permanent" doesn't count for much because if the funding runs dry they restructure and drop whoever they think won't bring in funding in the new field they've decided to focus on. Pro 2: the wages were higher. But that also meant we had to "underbid" ourseves to compete for projects and were always either doing quick-and-dirty work or unpaid overtime to make our deadlines within budget. Now that I have university tenure, I still have to chase grant money, but it's for my grad students and not so much for me. I only need to cover extra expenses, like field work costs and some "pocket money" to attend conferences and such. I also enjoy teaching, even though it has its down sides as well. And now that I've finally made full professor, I'm earning pretty well. Universities can be lousy at personnel management, though. I've been in one downright poisonous department a few years back. So what impression did you have of folks at the dep. that's offered you a job? In a sense, you were interviewing them as well as the other way around.

Bear in mind that I didn't choose my initial contract research job because I thought I'd like it better than teaching, or because I liked the department, or because I was happy with the contract details. I "chose" it because it was the one job offer I had in the same city as your Dad was working. When I started to feel burnt out, I changed jobs. By then I had enough publications and so on to compete for a 3-year grant or a tenured teaching job or ... whatever. In other words, you're not making a life-long choice; you're making a choice that will open up some options down the line, but maybe help less on others. I think the job offer involves lots of teaching but not much time for research ...? Then too, it's a 1-year job. Well, for 1 year you can afford to miss out on field work because you still have things you can publsh from your PhD, given a bit of writing time. So you're not likely to close off the research option, but you can strengthen your teaching option. A big question is -- When do you have to answer? I.e. Do you have to answer already before you know if BF is being offered a job in the same place? That does seem likely, right? And if so, it's a pretty rare situation, that two early career academics both find jobs on the same campus.

But you know all this. Talk it over with BF, and then go with your gut feeling. Whatever you decide, just don't look back. You'll have made the right decision for you. Have faith in your own judgement and keep looking forward.