Leaving academia

Bad news on the academic job front.  None of those applications are going anywhere. But here's the real kicker -- it looks like even this hick town, two-bit job I currently have isn't going anywhere.  I think it's over.

They have this attitude that new PhD graduates will do anything to get professor experience, and therefore it's okay to give them shitty work conditions, because they'll still be happy to have at least that.  Well, that ain't the case for me. I'm not THAT into being a professor. I don't carry the academic snobbery view that only academia is success, that getting a "real" job is a sign of failure.  Nope, I don't buy it at all.

The job conditions in my current job just got a whole lot worse. I won't explain why, because I want to maintain anonymity with my one anonymous blog reader (hi there!!).  But the conditions just got worse to an extent that it's not really feasible for me to stay here.

And anyway, I don't really want it.

I read this blog, and this post, and while it's not me, I can see it becoming me so easily. The words sound like me. They are what I will become if I try to make academia work.  Everything she says -- quantity over quality, work over any semblance of a personal life, never good enough.  I hear my voice in that post and I don't want that to become me. So, considering the lack of offers, all my year's worth of mulling it over, and the nose-dive in my work conditions where I currently am, I guess the decision is that I'm leaving.

The tricky part?  Finding a new job, of course.

So, here I am, sending out the regular job applications for regular jobs. You know, a cover letter and a two-page resume. Not a hundred pages. Unfortunately, I always look over-educated and under-qualified. Nobody is calling me.

I will move, since the only reason I'm in hickville is for this job. But I have to coordinate the move with, you know, the details of life.  I have to find a new job, if only a temporary one in my destination city. I need something though to make the move work from a logistics standpoint (rent, contracts...). I need hope. I'd really like some reassurance that it'll work.

Seriously, something has to be out there for me. Something decent. Can I find it? Can I find a version of it within the tight timelines that life imposes on us?

I so want to get this done. Anyone want to come help me pack?