When I last left you my postdoc mentor had contacted me to let me know he had money and that I could very likely have my position back. I was left a bit conflicted as to what I most wished to happen - go back to the postdoc or get the teaching position - and I was worried about having to commit to one before hearing about the other.
Of course things have gotten a bit murkier since then.
At the end of last week I was offered a chance to teach one course at a local technical college and while I do have to go in tomorrow to meet with the dean of the Health Sciences Division at that college it's pretty much a sure thing that I would get the class if it works with my schedule. When I first found out about this opportunity I panicked. Essentially, I felt that agreeing to a part-time position meant that I couldn't take the full time position should I be offered that at some point. In the end, I realized that I cannot pass up a sure thing for a possibility and have accepted that I could do either the postdoc or the full time teaching job too, even though that would equal one miserable semester.
Having this extra option did prompt me to e-mail those people in charge of the visiting instructor search just to see if they could give me a bit of a timeline. I don't know much, but did manage to find out that the committee will be offering interviews to candidates within the week followed by a quick decision. I've heard that before, but hopefully they really do stick to this timeline. If I could know about that job within 2-ish weeks, I think that would be early enough to not really lead to me having to decide about returning to the postdoc before I know all my options.
But now I have a bit of a new dilemma. While I've been proceeding for a long time thinking that a teaching position is the best way to go I realized that I'd been distracted from the importance of having a bit of research that I can call my own, even to get hired at a smaller, liberal arts school. This has been a natural side effect of applying for a job that was teaching only. However, a visit to my own alma mater over the past week reminded me that I would be expected to provide my students with some sort of research program in virtually every other position I might apply for. I never quite got that far in my postdoc. Of course I had a project - but it wasn't the one my boss was going to let me take with me some day, many years down the road. More to think about while I wait to hear back from both the university and/or my postdoc mentor.
I have to say that I'm considerably calmer now that I know that I'll be teaching one way or the other this fall. It has taken a while, but things are beginning to come together. Now all I have to do is wait a few more weeks to figure out what my full time work will be - and whether I have a decision to make about it or not.......
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