"Working in a Coal Mine..."
I've been meaning to write this entry for a while. It's job search time, and we are looking. I know some applicants and friends of applicants read my blog, but I'm not talking about our search. I'm sure I'll have some general comments later.

I actually thought of this entry when I read Dr. Crazy's summer entires about the negative reaction she was feeling in regards to her job search. I have the exact opposite problem. People here expect me to be on the market. Two people here at my university, upon hearing that I am on our search committee, have said, "Well, that will really help you when you go on the market again." One person then said, "Um, I mean 'if' you go on the market again."

I'm not exactly sure from where the comments come, except for the fact that several of my peers who started with or after me have left for various reasons, mostly personal, like spouses who can't get jobs here or a desire to be closer to family. There are also a few faculty members who came here as their second job, so it's not like people are jumping ship.

I can't go on the market this year because the research grant I have from the university says I must give at least one year back to the university after the grant, which makes sense. It would be wrong to use my release from teaching to look elsewhere. I did apply for two jobs last year because they were dream jobs in some ways, but I also wasn't too into it. I couldn't let "opportunities pass," but I was ambivalent about change, even for a supposed dream. I'm pretty happy this year to say, when people forward ads to me, that I can't apply.

I'm actually surprised that people would react negatively to someone's choice to leave. I mean, if they just negotiated a big raise or had instituted some kind of departmental or programmatic change they would not be around to continue, okay. But for the typical faculty member, there are many reasons to look that have nothing to do with the job. Concomitantly, there are also reasons to stay that are personal and may not have anything to do with the job.

I've just been thinking about that a lot lately as I look at applications. It's hard to know who really wants to live in this area, who might have family they want to move closer towards (or further from). That's the stuff that really shapes who will fit here, but no one can know what all that stuff is. Even candidates don't always know. I mean, some people move expecting a certain kind of life (spouse finding a job, starting a family, hitting a certain kind of social scene) but finding something else. Some people end up happier in the process than they expected.

No real point to this, but these thoughts have been in my head for a while. And my head is swirling, so off to bed.

ETA: After reading Collin's response, I do want to be clear that, in my penultimate paragraph, I'm not suggesting that applications should be read through a crystal ball and that we should try to figure out who really "wants" to come to a certain place. Quite the opposite, actually. We can never know, so we should not try. I can see how that paragraph can be read the other way, though.

I just think back to my experience. I had no freaking idea where I wanted to go or what kind of place where I wanted to be, so it would have been wrong for anyone to assume anything since I had no assumptions myself. And that's still true today, with the main point of this entry being that no one should be assuming I want to leave just because others have. Now that I've said that, I'll probably get some job ad in email tomorrow that sounds perfect, I'll apply, get it, and all of you will be thinking this entry was all a big joke.
- posted by Nels @ 11:15 PM | | | Link |