Prof-Mamas, How's the Semester Going? - Page 4

[kaybee]

Thanks Kristin. It does seem like everything happens at once!

Ack - 3 people who didn't finish! That's not promising. If I don't take the job, then I should be able to finish my dissertation by the end of fall quarter (I hope!). My advisor thinks its doable as long as I have my 2nd paper submitted and my 3rd well outlined by the time I leave here. I would have to finish the following year though.

I am a geologist, and my son is almost 2. Right now he's in daycare 3 days a week, my dh watches him one morning, and a friend and I swap childcare so I get another morning to work. If I take the job, then he's in daycare FT - it's a bummer, but seems inevitable at some point.

If I don't take this job, then I finish midway through next year, job hunt, and try and piece together work for 6 months locally. It could work.

Are you actually getting tons of job postings for geologists in Minnesota? That's where dh is interviewing. I'll PM you if I can figure out how.

[Geofizz]

What kind of job do you want long-term?

If you are looking for a research university, then a postdoc is much, much better than a sabbatical replacement position. It might vary a bit by discipline, but in my field of geology a temp position would have more or less excluded me from any academic job. This is largely because it would be nearly impossible for me to get a job at a liberal arts college given my background. If you are looking for a teaching position, then this could be a really good opportunity and might be seen by colleges as really good teaching training. You also have the extra strike against you that you will have to pick up your family and move for a year without any sense of where you will be after that. Wanna know why I think so many women leave academia?

What does your advisor say?

[Geofizz]

I need a place to brag....

After a long week at home with a sick kid and my parents in town, I got back to my office today to find the summary of my student evaluations from last quarter. All seven students ranked my class and teaching a 5 out of 5.

Wow.


Wow.

[mirlee]

Originally Posted by Geofizz

I need a place to brag....

After a long week at home with a sick kid and my parents in town, I got back to my office today to find the summary of my student evaluations from last quarter. All seven students ranked my class and teaching a 5 out of 5.

Wow.


Wow.

Great news! I received high rankings in my last evaluation, but there were a few comments that said I strayed from topic. :

This term is ending, but was very very hectic. Summer and Fall don't look any better!

[kaybee]

Originally Posted by Geofizz

What kind of job do you want long-term?

I actually do want to teach long-term (rather than research), so this did seem like a step in the right direction. My advisor even gave me the thumbs up to go ahead. Unfortunately, after calling every colleague my hubby knows anywhere near the school, he found lots of people who were happy to hire him…if only they had funding. So it looks like a no-go.

I’m actually pretty bummed about the whole thing right now, not because this was my dream job (it was just a 1-year position after all), but because it seemed like my future was completely not up to me at all.

Originally Posted by Geofizz

You also have the extra strike against you that you will have to pick up your family and move for a year without any sense of where you will be after that. Wanna know why I think so many women leave academia?

Umm, yea, I can see that.

It doesn’t help that my hubby got to steal my spotlight by finally landing a tenure-track interview. Although… he did finally land a tenure-track interview, which really is good news.

Thanks!

[wawoof]

After a long week at home with a sick kid and my parents in town, I got back to my office today to find the summary of my student evaluations from last quarter. All seven students ranked my class and teaching a 5 out of 5.

Congratulations, Wendy! I'm not surprised, knowing you, but that's wonderful!


Now my turn to vent. I start teaching a spring term class today. It's twice as fast as a normal class, and I've never taught it before. The theory behind doing this is that it's an opportunity to get paid to prep a class I'll need to teach in my new job that starts this fall. All well and good....

except that I'm now 6 weeks pregnant and morning sickness has finally arrived. No puking yet, thank goodness, just nausea. And we co-sleep and DS was a total wiggle worm last night so I'm SO tired. And I'm having an aversion to coffee. Yawn - time to go inspire 25 undergrads to care about research methods. Argh!

Thanks for listening.

[Ilaria]

I just wanted to subscribe to this thread...I'm on leave this semester...

[wawoof]

Just wanted to let you all know that my class went fine. Nausea subsided and adrenaline kicked in before it started so all was fine

Thanks for listening to my whining earlier!

[Geofizz]

I'm glad it went well. I figured it would. Right now, I only feel ok when I'm absolutely motionless with my eyes closed or when I've got a good dose of adrenaline going....

[kerc]

Originally Posted by Geofizz

Right now, I only feel ok when I'm absolutely motionless with my eyes closed or when I've got a good dose of adrenaline going....

so proposal writing season is a good thing then?


sorry you both are feeling icky.

[Geofizz]

On my last proposal, I would work for 10 hours straight, stopping just long enough to use the restroom. I'm working in 15-30 minute chunks now. It's not going very fast....

[wawoof]

I'm glad it went well. I figured it would. Right now, I only feel ok when I'm absolutely motionless with my eyes closed or when I've got a good dose of adrenaline going....

Sorry Wendy, that sounds miserable! Glad you're getting some proposal done, though.

[margauxmama]

How satisfied are you with your work/home balance?

Hi Professor Mamas,

I'm considering joining your ranks in real time, so I thought I'd first join you in the virtual world and get your perspectives on combining AP parenting with academia. Right now I'm a telecommuting consultant, and in most respects, I'm very satisfied with my arrangement. The drawbacks are the isolation annd lack of real-time colleagues, and also the blurred home/work boundaries that can make it challenging to keep to a schedule. Plus the work isn't quite as guaranteed, although I've been consulting for four years with no lack of work. I have a year old dd and we're planning on having another baby in the coming year. My husband is in a career transition and is working part time, so he's able to do childcare at least part time.

How satisfied do you feel with your current situation? Do you find univ life sufficiently flexible and family friendly, or do you feel harried? Would I be nuts to give up my telecommuting/consulting gig???

[kerc]

kaybee...I think I just saw an ad for your hubby's job talk tomorrow? Let us know how it goes!

[kaybee]

Originally Posted by kerc

kaybee...I think I just saw an ad for your hubby's job talk tomorrow? Let us know how it goes!

Yup - you saw correctly. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it goes well. Apparently the department is planning on making a decision on Thursday morning, so we should know soon!

Meanwhile, the one-year position I turned down still wants to hire me. It's nice to still have it as a back-up.

[kerc]

what's with physics depts making hires at this time of year (we are done with finals)? My friend's husband (who is a physics prof leaving this university) STILL doesn't know where he's going. He has a job offer at one place and the second place he really wants the job but just interviewed last week.


but the cute house across the street from me is for sale, it would be fun to have another family there....

[Geofizz]

Originally Posted by kerc

what's with physics depts making hires at this time of year (we are done with finals)?

Disorganization

: kaybee! It's great to have a backup even!

[Eruditia]

Originally Posted by margauxmama

Hi Professor Mamas,

Would I be nuts to give up my telecommuting/consulting gig???

Probably. Unless you crave the stimulation, frustration, juggling, and rare moments of elation of most professor positions. For me it's working out in the beginning phase of DS's life only because DH is staying at home (except for taking a couple classes and playing soccer) while I teach and because my mother moved from out of state to be able to babysit. We decided early on that we didn't want to have a child and just put him right into daycare (we were 37 when we had him, and felt like having waited so long we wanted to spend as much time with him as possible). So we have made the sacrifice of living on one income.

I'm torn because I really honestly love the research component of my job and worry that I won't be able to continue with that at the level I'd like to. I deal with it by doing the bare minimum for teaching and service and prioritizing my research time. Luckily I can do most of that from home (I'm in the humanities) and even often with the baby on my lap. I can't think of another job where I could spend as much time at home and still be out there among colleagues when I need and want to be.

[kaybee]

So now what...?

Originally Posted by kerc

kaybee...I think I just saw an ad for your hubby's job talk tomorrow? Let us know how it goes!

So, Rik got the job! Talk about a quick turn-around. It's tenure-track, it's a good situation for him, and the salary is even good. We like the place, it seems like a good place to raise kids, we have family nearby... BUT... Now comes the fun of sorting out how this affects my career (i.e. something about shooting myself in the foot).

I've waffled a lot lately about whether or not I really wanted to stay in academia, but I still don't feel ready to step off the boat yet. I still have 6 months on my thesis (and I just got "portable" funding for fall quarter!). I can still apply for jobs across the country next year - it just becomes that much harder.

Have any of you gone through a 2-career academic job hunt? With kids? The old stand-by of taking jobs in 2 places temporarily just isn't going to happen. I had Alex for 2 months on my own when I was running some experiments and it was awful. I don't want to do it again!

Ack! I feel totally split on this - both happy and frustrated at the same time.

[kerc]

YAY! on the job. this is such a small community -- in another aspect of my life I typically watch an outgoing physics prof's kids every wednesday and it came up that they were meeting that evening to discuss the new hire.

have you asked about the possibility of a position within the LLO or geology or NRRI for you?personally, I'd ask for a job for you and either way take the job with the plan to put both your names back into the hat next academic job cycle and see what comes out. You're still finishing your phd right? so theoretically you might be able to work out some kind of post doc with SAFL/NCED. Speaking of which, if you have some math skills I hear that Dr. JBS (who we both know) here in town is looking for a post doc to do something...but I err, forget what the grant he got was funded for so I don't have more info.

If you come just for a year, then it's like taking your one year position...only you're close to your family. If you can work something out longer so be it.