Moving

[tahnan]

I'd like to take a moment to remind everyone out there that academia is one of the worst ways to try to make a living. An unemployed ordinary person who wants to move will do one of the following:

(a) Stay where he is until he finds a job, and then move to wherever that is;
(b) Move to where he wants to be, and then look for a job there.

An unemployed professor has neither of these options. We're not like accountants and programmers and salesmen and what have you; we don't have the option of looking for a job in May, and if we fail we look in June, and if we fail we look in July, and so forth. There is no searching until you find a job. There's the tenure track search around January, and there's the one-year positions around June (give or take a month in both cases), and that's it. So if a professor hasn't found a job by, say, July, he's not going to have a job for another year. And there's very little point in going to your favorite city and looking for a job there. No matter what city you're in, if it's of sufficient size, someone will be looking for an accountaint or a programmer or a salesman, but academia just doesn't work like that.

The upshot, for me and my wife, is that we don't really like Philadelphia at all and have no desire to stay now that my time at the University of Pennsylvania is over. Which means that right now we're packing so that we can move to...well. Boston unless I get a job elsewhere, in which case elsewhere. And that makes it really hard to plan, which is why we don't have a place to live in Boston (what were we going to do if we signed a lease and then I got a job in California?), or for that matter anything lined up there workwise. All we have is three weeks in which to pack up this apartment and drive the stuff, well, somewhere, and we'll kind of see what happens from there.

All things considered, this is far and away the worst year I've had since around 1995.

Comments

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

Suck.

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Ugh. I'm sorry, that sucks.

I selfishly hope you wind up back in Boston. I miss walking into the Diesel and seeing you, engrossed in work, at one of the little tables near the front.

But I do hope you're moving to a place that has a job for you. Because while Boston is nice, it probably doesn't last long without an income. :(

[mamagotcha.livejournal.com]

Oh, Tah... this sounds horrible. Dunno if you've been reading my journal; I'm considering splitting the family for a while rather than relocating to another midwestern city, and waiting on the west coast until Bill can find another job there. So even though he did find a job, we're still having issues figuring the whole thing out.

Bill got a couple calls from places after he got the Chicago offer in May... seems a few places that had hiring freezes laid on them during the search last winter finally unfroze some assets to continue their hires. Maybe there will be something like that happening in your field, too?

I guess I have nothing more helpful to offer than "I hear you, and I hope your search ends sooner rather than later."

[cnoocy]

That sucks. It may be helpful to remember that things got better after 1995.

[marith.livejournal.com]

Ouch. :/

[rikchik.livejournal.com]

Ugh, that's terrible. Hope you get some good news soon.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

*hugs a lot*

[servant-of-clio.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry. That really sucks. I hope something works out for you soon.

[q-pheevr.livejournal.com]

Damn.

I hope you have a job and a place to live soon. You're good at what you do, and I hope that one of the many universities that could use someone of your talents will have the funding and good sense to hire you.

[speaks.livejournal.com]

Bleah! My condolences and prayers if you will take them.

[dreams-of-wings.livejournal.com]

If you do end up back here, which we selfishly hope you will, please let us know what we can do to help.

[aatish2.livejournal.com]

Is there an option to get a non-academic position in the interim while you wait for things to clear up? Perhaps something that still involves pedagogy only maybe not at the graduate level? My understanding is that your students adore you and you are an uncommonly fabulous professor - is the country truly at a point where that isn't something that can become a source of livelihood?

Hope that the ordeal ends soon and thinking of you.

[rubrick.livejournal.com]

I was thinking much the same thing. I always feel that there must be some kind of work for the brilliant, though I realize the world doesn't always agree.

Hopefully being out of Philly will at least provide an emotional boost. Living somewhere you dislike is terribly draining.

[thatwesguy.livejournal.com]

Yikes. I'm really sorry to hear that, Tahnan.

For what it's worth, I'm happy to be a resource to you for exploring work you love outside of academia. So far I seem to be a pretty good job of both loving my teaching job and paying the bills... and minimizing the silliness that work usually creates.

Good luck!

[rpipuzzleguy.livejournal.com]

I sympathize. Godspeed.

[saxikath]

Blech and blech and further blech. It'd be nice to have you back in Boston, but the whole situation definitely sucks.

Hugs.

[jydog1.livejournal.com]

remember, if you need to store stuff with us just let me know! Good luck.

[greenlily.livejournal.com]

Well, yuck. *sending you wishes for something wonderful to turn up soonest*

[in-parentheses.livejournal.com]

Guh. I'm so sorry. I don't have anything helpful to add, of course (not holding the purse strings of a major university, or even a minor one), but I think about you guys often and hope everything works out Real Soon Now. You need some good news. *hugs*

[littleowl.livejournal.com]

For all that being near my parents has been nice, my love of the Main Line is no greater for having come back here as an adult. Some part of me wonders if I'd like the city better, but overall, I have gotten spoilt by 7 years of California living and I miss the freaking sun.

I have also been unable to make much headway in the job market here in spite of /not/ being in academia and may possibly wind up back on the West Coast if things work out but as others have posted, this may involve short-term family-splitting.

Either way, moving sucks.

[(Anonymous)]

agh...I'm sorry this is happening to you. Maybe you can treat it as an involuntary sabbatical...

--Norvin

[iron-chef-bbq.livejournal.com]

You can crash with us in Pelham for a while if you need to while you look for a place. Also, there are jobs in our public schools, and they accept candidates who do not have teaching certs if you have a degree in the field. Just a thought.

[antihip.livejournal.com]

Belated, because I was traveling, but: I empathize. Best of luck in finding a position and a more permanent home.