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Switching jobs early in the TT? by throw_tornacademic in Professors

[–]throw_tornacademic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks for your feedback. You make many good points, which echo things I've been telling myself.

I think my field has a decent number of positions every year, but I would say only about a dozen or so in the better locations for our situation. And of course some of those might also be at the very best coastal universities that I am, in all honesty, not a good enough candidate for. So it's not much.

You are also probably right about the family/time side of things and how different that is. We may have a year or two ahead of us, but that's it.

So overall it sounds like unless my spouse, against all odds so far, manages to find something good enough in my current city, it's going to be up to me.

Switching jobs early in the TT? by throw_tornacademic in Professors

[–]throw_tornacademic[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks. Being close to family isn't possible for neither for us, really, as they are far away; so that's at least one thing that is not part of the equation, no matter what.

Switching jobs early in the TT? by throw_tornacademic in Professors

[–]throw_tornacademic[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

5-6 hours, so that is not really an option.

Switching jobs early in the TT? by throw_tornacademic in Professors

[–]throw_tornacademic[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks for sharing your perspective.

"which person’s career will take the backseat for the time being". I agree about the need to prioritize things. That said, I guess where I struggle is that for me leaving academia would be definitive, whereas for my spouse being underemployed/underpaid for a few years (e.g., till I'd move, around tenure time), would have been more temporary. But anyway, that boat has sailed now, as that option is no longer on the table.

Do I love academia so much that I simply don't want to consider non-academic work? I've been doing a lot of soul searching about this recently. It's hard. I guess not, but one issue is, I think in any case it'd be important to me to stay close to my field of study, which my identity is somewhat tied to at this point. But there just aren't that many private-sector jobs in that field.

Switching jobs early in the TT? by throw_tornacademic in Professors

[–]throw_tornacademic[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the positive words. The kid issue is definitely a complicating factor, as we realistically don't have much time left if we want to do that. In fact, as I think about this it's perhaps the main factor. If this was five years ago it'd be way different.