Job hunting progress

I've been horribly, horribly avoidant about looking for jobs, because I am scared I won't get any, and because I don't have a clear idea what I want to do with my future. Stay in academia or get a real job? Stay in Sweden or go back to England, or find a new country to explore? I managed to get started this week, deciding that I'd apply for everything I could find that looks vaguely suitable, and not agonize over every word of my applications, just get some out there.

So far the tally is:
Cold-calls: 1 (Cambridge) Result: semi-positive (he likes me, but has just heard his institution's budget has been cut by 20%)
Advertised research jobs: 1 (Dundee)
Advertised teaching jobs: 2 (Birmingham, University of East London)
Advertised science writing jobs: 1 (PLoS biology, based in Cambridge)

I think of that lot the most likely and probably the most appealing is the lecturer post at UEL. I don't want to be in London, but I like the idea of getting my teeth into some serious teaching, and I think I'm rather well qualified.

I seem to be drifting to the UK by default; that's partly because it's a lot easier to look for British jobs and to judge whether they're likely to be suitable and productive. And it's partly because at least part of me wants to live near a decent proportion of my friends and maybe even in the same country as

cartesiandaemon.

In other work mightiness news, I was pushy earlier in the month, with the result that we've managed to get our paper back to the journal with corrections completed, and two others in the group have submitted manuscripts, and there are two more in the pipeline. So I'm reasonably proud of that. And I can leave tomorrow for my long-awaited Christmas vacation with a good conscience.

On the less positive side, I have a stabbing headache, and have done for several days now. It's not bad enough to stop me getting on with things, but I would prefer it not to be there.

From:	blue_mai
Date:	December 18th, 2008 08:38 pm (UTC) 21 minutes after journal entry, 08:38 pm (blue_mai's time)

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gosh, well done on getting started with the job hunt. i'm a bit ARGH GET ME OUT OF HERE but too inherently lazy to actually do anything about it. have other things, will email.
oh also - long headache bad. have you tested whether lack of vitamins or daylight are anything to do with it? poor you

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From:	livredor
Date:	December 18th, 2008 09:59 pm (UTC) 1 hours after journal entry, 09:59 pm (livredor's time)

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Thanks for email, more on that soon. I doubt I would be looking for a job if I were only unhappy in my current one, it's the combination of being unhappy and the end of my contract looming that is pushing me.

I could be malnourished somehow, I suppose. I don't think the darkness gives me headaches, it sometimes makes me a little lethargic, but not worse than that. I suspect what I'm short of is more like sleep than vitamins, though.

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From:	livredor
Date:	December 18th, 2008 10:39 pm (UTC) 2 hours after journal entry, 10:39 pm (livredor's time)

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To an extent, the reason I have variety available is because I'm contemplating giving up the career I've spent the last decade training for and doing something I can kid myself is vaguely related. But it's true, having science qualifications does open a lot of doors. Thanks for the good wishes.

As for publishing papers, I don't quite know whether you're noting that we have more choice or less than you; I'd say we have more like 150 than 15 options, but it doesn't make that much difference which we pick, so it would never be the big question of the year. Basically you start at the top of the list, delete any obviously unsuitable or over-ambitious, and work your way down until you're accepted somewhere.

rysmiel has limited options cos they're in a very specific field; I'm just a biologist and can publish in any biology, medical, genetics or even general science journal.

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From:	livredor
Date:	December 19th, 2008 10:41 am (UTC) 14 hours after journal entry, 10:41 am (livredor's time)

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No, not at all! I was happy to have your comment, it made me feel supported. I'm sorry that I phrased my reply so it looked like I was snapping at you for having misconceptions about how my field works. I am stressed by the jobhunting process, and also by trying to figure out whether I will have to, and whether I want to, give up my lifelong dream. But I thought I'd kept that out of the tone of my comment, and obviously I didn't succeed as well as I thought I had. My apologies.

I'm rather intrigued by how you got to where you are, too, cos I think you're not much older or more advanced in your career than I am, but you seem to be taken much more seriously as a university teacher than I. I think that's partly because you're in the arts, and partly because you're American, and partly because you work incredibly hard.

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From:	friend_of_tofu
Date:	December 18th, 2008 09:05 pm (UTC) 49 minutes after journal entry

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And people in London would get to enjoy ore of you ;-)

Frankly, the entire structure of job-hunting is not just crap, but is actually pure distilled EVIL. It exists to sap the will, confidence and competence of every individual who touches it. It's universal kryptonite.

So, being avoidant is not pathological but deeply rational behaviour. Like not wanting to plunge your hand into boiling fat.

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From:	livredor
Date:	December 18th, 2008 10:50 pm (UTC) 2 hours after journal entry, 10:50 pm (livredor's time)

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Hey, thanks for being enthusiastic about the prospect of my coming to London, I'm most flattered! I agree that job hunting is evil, but I suspect being unemployed would be worse. So far my cunning plan has made it relatively painless now that I've got started, but if I don't get any positives I shall get very miserable.

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From:	friend_of_tofu
Date:	December 18th, 2008 11:33 pm (UTC) 3 hours after journal entry

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being unemployed would be worse

Oh no; being unemployed is indeed far worse than having a job, but substantially better than the period of torture known as job-hunting. And I speak as someone with a tendency towards workaholism, so, y'know, my utter rage towards job-hunting is not minor or passing. I know I will have to do it again at some point and I really just don't want to think about that, which is probably quite bad.

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