academic career advice

[chicago]

do whatever your heart is telling... because you will ultimately end up there anyway...

[salsabike]

This is what the west coast of Wales looks like:

[uk elephant]

Like you said, Salsa, Wales is stunningly beautiful. But would I like to live there? It is pretty remote. No big towns for shopping or symphony concerts. But then again, I now live only an hour from London and I've been there three half days in the three years I've lived here but always complained about the lack of hiking around here. Hmmm....perhaps Wales would be good.

As for the job, I waver between panic and excitement about it. I didn't get a good look around the departement when I was there because I was only there for a half hour interview and a half hour talk, but what little I saw was good. The few people I did meet seemed nice and the facilities good. And they are getting huge influx of funding for a new building and a restructuring of the entire curriculum which would give me as the teacher of animal behaviour a lot of freedom to design those courses. It is only a one year post to start with with focus on teaching that first year, but they want this to then merge into a more traditional lectureship post with a mix of teaching and research and from the dept heads description of the situation, what mix of research and teaching I would get after that first year was largely dependent on what I wanted. I think if I decide I want a job in academia, this would be a very good opportunity. But is that what I want? and is Wales what I want? Who knows?!

[mayanorange]

If it's a one year post, I say go try it. If you don't like it, you can move on at the end of the year. If you like it, it sounds like a very flexible option to continue has been offered, which is rare. Is this more career advancing than where you are now? Do you have any other irons in the fire that you're waiting to hear from? I imagine there's not a ton of Unis in western Wales, so if being in the same place as BF is dire, then that's an important consideration. DH and I ended up in Boston partly by accident, but it's really the only area we could depend on finding 2 posts. Of course we did transcontinental long distance for 3-4 yrs before it all came together. If it's going to open doors later, then it's worth the sacrifice. It seems like starting out in academia they want people who have been lecturers (asst. prof over here) already, but how do you get that first job then? Maybe 2 years there to establish your foot in the door, then you can be more competitive elsewhere. Or by then you'll be desperate to find a non-academic post.

[salsabike]

Like you said, Salsa, Wales is stunningly beautiful. But would I like to live there? It is pretty remote. No big towns for shopping or symphony concerts. But then again, I now live only an hour from London and I've been there three half days in the three years I've lived here but always complained about the lack of hiking around here. Hmmm....perhaps Wales would be good.

I know--I would be thinking all those thoughts too. Shopping I don't know about. Arts, the university might provide, or other towns that aren't too far away from this town. And the job sounds pretty exciting actually. So, given that you may not KNOW FOR SURE right now whether it's what you'd want for the long haul, if it sounds interesting/promising/like an adventure you'd like to try, then that may be as good as your conclusions can get right now. Then you'd just be making a leap and seeing what happens...

[bnylo]

Wow what a great thread for advice, could have used this 25 years ago when I was floundering around for career choice. I guess it wouldn't have helped me because I didn't know myself at 21. Had I understood myself better, I would have realized that I could not thrive in the business world because I had no interest in its primary function: the making of money. And key point is - the kind of personalities business attracts are not the kind of personalities inhabiting academia.

Do you want to be around business people? Are you a more practical personality interested in the here and now rather than what was, what might be what could have been?

If you like ideas, new ideas and the exchange of ideas, academia is where it resides. Given the financial turmoil of recent times, financial gain in business is offset by layoffs and uncertainty as great as grant seeking.

Finally, in academia, there's teaching. It can be really rewarding if you have a good pool of people.

[uk elephant]

I think I have come to the conclusion that I will take the offer and give Wales a try. There are a few details to sort out, but assuming all goes well, we'll be moving in a couple of months. Interesting times ahead!

[madscot13]

In the future I think it would be interesting to teach. I don't know about operating a lab but there are a few instances that you can get out of that.

Congrats on the job offer. For what it's worth I love Wales.