A decision.

I have done a lot of thinking over the past few days and I have decided that I am going to take NAJ. I am in the final stages of negotiating with them, I just sent an email stating "here is the salary that I would be thrilled to accept this position at". I hope they can meet that price and I can move forward with planning to leave. I wasn't even going to ask for much but I got the health & dental insurance info and I realized that my premiums are going to triple and my co-pays will double. That would eat up a lot of my shiny new salary so I hope they will help me out with that.

I've decided to take on this new job as an adventure. I think I'll really like it, they're doing some really cool research, the job will be challenging, the people seem really great, and I get to learn a whole different side of research from what I currently know. Plus actually working a 40 hour week I might actually have some time to get caught up on the backlog of work I currently have. I could easily write up 8 first authored papers if I had the time. So hopefully I will do just that.

I will probably still go on the academic job market in the fall, but only for ideal jobs. I'll test it out and see how I feel if I get any offers.

Job Search Update

Non-academic job (NAJ) has now spoken to both my GA and my Post Doc Mentor (PDM) but have not yet called/emailed me with an offer. PDM called me yesterday to congratulate me on my offer and when I informed her that I did not yet have an offer, kept insisting that I got the job. I was like "okay, but I haven't heard from them at all since my in-person interview".

I was a little put off by PDM's call because 1. I still don't have an offer and I think they were just assuming I was getting the job but I felt uncomfortable with that assumption given that NAJ still hasn't contacted me at all, and 2. because PDM seemed just a little too excited for me and made me want to ask "um, don't you want me to stay"? When they inquired if I was excited I said "Well, yes it's a great job but at the same time I just want to know what all my options are before getting too excited about anything". PDM said they understood but "still it's great to have an offer" (um.. I don't have an F'n offer!!!) So it made me feel like they were just a little to enthusiastic about the prospect of me leaving.

I'm interested in hearing any opinions regarding how worried I should be about how long this job offer has been in the works. My phone interview with them was about 2 months ago, my in person interview was 2 weeks ago. Before that I had sent in my application 1.5 months before they contacted me for the phone interview.

Should I at all be worried about taking a position with a company that takes this long (and who knows how much longer) to fill a position they claim they have a "desperate need to fill?" The delays make me wonder if there will be other aspects of this job that carry on for an incredibly long time. Should I worry about some bureaucratic process or inefficiency? Can I ask them about this without sounding condescending or insulting them?

Oh, and my cell phone just rang with an unknown #, I didn't pick it up because I didn't know the #. Then it went to voice mail and rang again so this time I picked it up in case it was NAJ calling.... it was a wrong number. Bastard!!

Job News

Non-academic job that I really like is checking my references. GA emailed today to ask me what she should emphasize during their phone call. I called her and we talked for a while about this job and my chances of staying at my post-doc.

She said she thinks I should stay at post-doc if given the chance (it's a very prestigious position) but then when I told her about the non-academic salary she said "sometimes a job is worth it for the money." Nice huh? :)

They're calling her tomorrow morning, no word about the grant or my other two references in terms of whether they talked with people from the non-academic job.

what do I want to be when I grow up?

Things went well today. I met with two women involved in the project that I would be overseeing. They were wonderful, very nice and really trying hard to determine whether this was a good fit for both of us. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be offered the job, they asked for my references and salary requirements and by the time I had returned home they had sent me the benefits summary.

I feel really conflicted right now. I may have to make a decision about this job before I know whether the grant that Post Doc Mentor and I wrote will be funded. We're close, but won't know for sure for about 3 weeks!!

I am just now starting to feel like part of the family in my lab. I love the research I'm doing and everyone I'm working with. A year is just not enough time in any one place, and my experiences here are moving me in the exact direction I wanted to go in terms of finding a kick ass tenure track position. However, there are no guarantees that I'd be able to find a job in a location close to home state, never mind home state itself. I would have to go through all the hoopla of an academic job search (which gives me dry heaves just thinking about it), I would have to work my ass off on the tenure track and being leery of feeling settled down. DH would have to change jobs yet again (this is the third state we've lived in since marrying all due to my academic persuits, and we're finally home).

However, non-academic job is really amazing. It's applied research so I'd utilize my 10 years worth of research experience while learning a whole new way of doing things. New analysis, new language (writing for policy makers and stakeholders rather than academics), new research area. However, I will not have the freedom to chose what I study, I would be pretty far removed from the data collection process, and would probably never do another experimental study at least as long as I stay with them. Salary is almost double what I make as a post-doc, and it would guarantee that DH and I would be able to stay in home state. We both long to be close to family and feel settled.

I know, I know right now I don't have either option and I should put off the worry until I have even one offer but we all know that just isn't going to happen. Ugh I hate stress.

I am off to the beach for the weekend with my sister and her kids so there will probably be not blogging for me.

RBOC: Soooooooooo Tired Edition

• Ran my study today for the first time with new Interns.
• Interns rock!! Summer participants suck, 8 people scheduled, 3 people run... need I say more?
• I don't understand the no call/no email/no show. Dude, call me at 11pm and leave a message or hit reply to the email I sent to confirm your appointment and just say sorry can't make it.
• Another full schedule tomorrow, if only 3 show up I might start pulling people from the street to give my poor interns some running experience.
  
• I need to look over the damn homework reports tomorrow night before my interview on Friday.
  
• Post Doc Mentor got grant score... it's close... may or may not be funded, won't know for about 3 weeks.
  
• YIKES.... I may soon have to make a major job decision, however I'm too busy and tired to think about that right now.
• YAWN.. I'm going to bed. g'night.
  

Alone in my office

I am the only one here this AM. I've been here for 2 hours and it's amazing to me how productive I can be when there isn't anyone else here to disturb me.

I am hoping my mentor gets around to reading the paper I sent her. I am anxious to hear her thoughts. I have a feeling that her making me a deal to stay here hinges on whether this paper goes over well or not. YIKES.

On the job front, another one of the jobs I applied for has been canceled. Again, it's nice that they let me know but it's making me nervous about my job prospects. I did get a confirmation email for a third job that said they were looking over their applications and would be getting in touch to do interviews in the next few weeks.