Friday, June 13, 2014

Now what?

So, I quit my professor job. I moved back to the city I consider home. I unpacked (mostly).

Now what?

I don't have a job. I'm not an academic anymore. I am unemployed. I am most definitely burned out. I am not motivated to search for a job. I'm most definitely not motivated to BE the Ph.D. sort of person. I don't have it in me to network and be a fake me.

I kind of just want to flip hamburgers at McDonald's or something. Except I want to be paid well for doing it. *sigh*

I don't know where I'm going, but somehow I have to start doing something.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

I'm home.

Yup, it's done. I left my adjunct professor position with a high chance of eventual tenure. I moved home, without a job.

It was the right decision, dear Internet, I have no doubts about that. It was so right, I'm not quite sure if the whole professor thing ever happened at all. It just feels right.

Never mind that I'm unemployed. *ah-hem*
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Yeah, so, the job search.

I have an interview coming up. It's an interview for a contract research position, working under a PI. I already spoke to the PI on the phone and the first thing she asked me was to tell her how wonderful she is. I'm thinking working under a PI ain't going to work for me. The plan was to leave academia. Working under an academic PI is not leaving academia. I've done this before and I have a pretty good idea how it'll work out: I'll be shit on on a regular basis, treated like some kind of moron, not a professional.

I'm going to the interview and putting a decent foot forward, but make no mistake, my friend(s), I'm interviewing them.  I need to decide whether this is the right job or not. Likely not, actually, but it might do for a while, allowing me to pay the rent while I look for something else. Or it might not. We'll see.

And then there's still the job. You know, the non-academic job I applied for over a year ago and have been coveting ever since.  It hasn't been posted again, but a "lower ranked" job at the same company was posted and I applied for it. I haven't heard. And then, today, another job was posted at the same company. This one is, let's say, "middle ranked," meaning I think it's higher than that last one, but not as good as the one I covet.  I guess I need to apply to this one too. I am sort of afraid I'm going to come across as begging for anything at all. Desperation. Really, I just feel like it's pretty close to the only company that would work for me.

There was another one that I applied for. It was flashy and awesome and perfect and I would have loved it. They were looking for someone with a master's, not a Ph.D., which is actually more interesting to me.  I applied when it was posted, then contacted them a couple days ago to give them my change of address. They replied saying they had shortlisted people already and I'm not in.  I could SO have done that job, long term, and been happy. I think it's a case of a boss with a master's not wanting to have a Ph.D. under him.  Dammit, I never should have done the damned Ph.D.

Anyway, I'm home and I'm happy. But, of course, the drama continues while I hunt for a long-term job.  In the meantime, I'll just enjoy being home and let the memories of that two-horse town slip away.