Perhaps with my new perspective, I can breath new life into this log

Hello readers. I know that I have been a tad lacking in posts lately. 11 months without a post equals relative death I suppose. The problem was that I always felt like each post had to be some brilliant epitaph to whatever was on my mind and, frankly, the world has been really lacking in whatevers for my mind to be on... or whatever. Now I realize that my simple daily discourse and ramblings are actually significantly more profound than much of dribble you find in the science blogging community (I'm not judging the science bit, just the dribble bit).

I would like to use this log to discuss my attempts over the next year to get a job and a future in physics and/or beyond. I have been in some long discussions recently about the job market in academia and beyond and my plans and goals have completely changed as a result. I will try and post about the process and will try to get a bit of advice along the way.

Goals

My goal has always been to try and get a tenure track job at a liberal arts oriented "teaching college" in the New York area. The CUNY system has always seemed ideal, but I have recently discovered that the schools prize research skills far more than I had previously thought. It is apparently fairly essential for me to do at least 1 or 2 postdocs so that my credentials are substantial enough that I could initiate a research program involving undergrads.

Normally my plan would be to do exactly that but unfortunately - and here's the killer - I've got a two-body problem.

Two-Body Problems

For you lucky ones out there who don't know about the two-body problem, its when academic types fall in love with other academic types and are actually stupid enough to expect to be able to have a happy relationship and a decent career.

My partner is a PhD student in Chicago, and that means that my geographic area for my postdoc is greatly restricted. We tried the long distance thing for a long time already and I'm just not willing to do it much more. I will be applying for postdocs in October. Anything within 100 miles of chicago is pretty much fair game but, as anyone in academia knows, limiting yrself to a 100 mile radius is pretty much signing yr own unemployment check. So, in case I fail at that, I'll be needing a back up plan.

Plan B

I'll

Perhaps with my new perspective, I can breath new life into this log

Hello readers. I know that I have been a tad lacking in posts lately. 11 months without a post equals relative death I suppose. The problem was that I always felt like each post had to be some brilliant epitaph to whatever was on my mind and, frankly, the world has been really lacking in whatevers for my mind to be on... or whatever. Now I realize that my simple daily discourse and ramblings are actually significantly more profound than much of dribble you find in the science blogging community (I'm not judging the science bit, just the dribble bit).

I would like to use this log to discuss my attempts over the next year to get a job and a future in physics and/or beyond. I have been in some long discussions recently about the job market in academia and beyond and my plans and goals have completely changed as a result. I will try and post about the process and will try to get a bit of advice along the way.

Goals

My goal has always been to try and get a tenure track job at a liberal arts oriented "teaching college" in the New York area. The CUNY system has always seemed ideal, but I have recently discovered that the schools prize research skills far more than I had previously thought. It is apparently fairly essential for me to do at least 1 or 2 postdocs so that my credentials are substantial enough that I could initiate a research program involving undergrads.

Normally my plan would be to do exactly that but unfortunately - and here's the killer - I've got a two-body problem.

Two-Body Problems

For you lucky ones out there who don't know about the two-body problem, its when academic types fall in love with other academic types and are actually stupid enough to expect to be able to have a happy relationship and a decent career.

My partner is a PhD student in Chicago, and that means that my geographic area for my postdoc is greatly restricted. We tried the long distance thing for a long time already and I'm just not willing to do it much more. I will be applying for postdocs in October. Anything within 100 miles of chicago is pretty much fair game but, as anyone in academia knows, limiting yrself to a 100 mile radius is pretty much signing yr own unemployment check. So, in case I fail at that, I'll be needing a back up plan.

Plan B

I'll hopefully be doing a sequence of posts on my plan B because I haven't actually figured out what it really is yet. This is what I know:
to boost my teaching credentials, I'll be trying to get some light-weight part time teaching gigs ASAP. Maybe something at a community college this spring that I can do with just an MSc, and then hopefully something a bit better once I am fully accredited. Nothing smancy, just some adjunct part time work at one or two of the local colleges. Try to develop my "technology in teaching" skills (read: credentials I can put on a CV), since I hear those are quite big these days.

Then there's the part B part of part B, which might make it part C or maybe B squared and entails getting a one year master's degree in a field where I can imagine getting a private sector that might make me feel like I'm doing something good for the world. Maybe something involving the environment and/or mathematical modeling/computer simulations. Over the next several months I'll be trying to pick a backup field and apply for a 1 year master's programs starting in the fall of 2008. I will try to blog about my options and thoughts as they come up. Advice or encouragement or warnings or ideas would all be greatly appreciated.