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JohnML
Joined: 05 Jul 2015
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 Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2016 6:15 am Post subject: |
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| PRagic wrote: |
Granted. So taking any given job is a personal choice. Sometimes people have limited choices, dictated by circumstance or what have you, and sometimes it's just a choice. Some schools are strict about working outside, some aren't. Some are strict only the E-class visas, some on all visa classes. Some people worry about getting busted, and some pile on the work and the devil may care.
Even great jobs have a lot of 'ifs'. My sister-in-law is (soon to be was) an exec with a large, world recognized survey and ratings agency. One day she got a call and they told her not to come in to work anymore. Oh, and not to tell anyone else at work or she'd violate a clause in her contract. Positions were being consoldated. She did everything right. Traveled a lot for business? Check. Slammed her quotas? Check. Got the right promotions? Check. Grew the portfolio and customer base? Check. And now this. They'll give her a couple of months to try and find something internally, but if there's nothing around, she'll have to move on. She didn't see the big 'if' coming. Nobody did.
You think TT jobs don't have 'ifs'? Kidding, right? I've seen a good handful of TT profs let go over the past few years for not addressing the 'ifs'. Just the way it is. And, by the way, TT profs not supposed to work outside the university unless they get permission first. Get caught, get reprimanded. Get reprimanded and possibly get passed over for promotion and/or tenure. In fact, at many schools, if you're a lower level assistant prof, you simply can't work outside the university. Period. |
You're right but the problem with good teaching jobs including those on TT is that they're pretty rare and competitive. In certain industries you can leave one week and walk into a job paying the same ($800~ a day) the same week. I've seen a bunch of non-natives do it back home, it's even easier when you speak fluent English. I could easily hold myself to that claim, there are probably 50 or so positions I see advertised on a weekly basis for this.
Oh now I noticed you pretty much said the same thing;
"opportunity costs associated with getting the doctorate, then get published, then roll the dice and try to get a TT job in a very slim job market."
This is the main problem, getting a good job and keeping it. If I wasn't convinced the market was terrible I'd be aiming for tenure; anecdotal evidence but in applying for teaching positions I was always up against a bunch of natives, a LOT of people for the position. If a teacher left one day they'd have a replacement before I could blink. I dunno why people say it's so easy to get a job teaching, it's not - the schools have plenty of choice even in remote regions.
Currently with what I'm working as we're always looking for individuals, it takes us at least 3 months to find one suitable candidate to interview... I've seen people do shit jobs and not be fired because now they know their projects well (takes years for someone to get up to scratch) and not to mention their skillset is so specialised and rare it would be hard to find anyone that fits the criteria in the first place. This is the reason a lot of us have notice periods (I have a six month notice period). If I decided to just up and leave tomorrow my company would be hilariously boned and almost certainly try to pursue legal action against me.
I'd hazard a guess if I left my old teaching job without giving them notice they'd be pissed but ultimately not give a toss. That to me does not sound like a secure job market. |
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PRagic
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
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| Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2016 4:40 pm Post subject: |
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Job markets shift, and almost always become more competitive. When my dad got out of the service, he said you could walk into a factory and get a job paying more than practically any grad, especially if you had an in-demand skill set. Boss pissed you off? Walk across the street and start a new job the next day.
When I was in grad school, the senior professors would talk about when they started their careers. Anyone with a PhD could find a TT job immediately upon graduation. Anywhere. Want to see California, New York, Washington, and, well, anywhere? Get in touch with a university there and send out a CV. Nice if your PhD is related, but we can work around that.
People started to want to become professors more and more. All of a sudden there was competition for jobs at the bigger name universities, then even at the smaller and lesser known schools. The supply of would be profs kept increasing, so they started increasing work loads and demanded ever more productivity to get promoted and get tenure. Then there were SO many would be profs that they could start getting people to work as adjuncts, thereby decreasing the number of people on thei TT. Of course, to understand these intricate processes required a legion of highly trained and very expensive administrators,
Sound familiar? Only English teachers aren't TT, and instead of adjuncts, Korea is bringing in English teachers from other countries for less.
Enjoy the flexibility your chosen career path provides. I hope it stays that way until you can wrap up your career. In general, people in STEM related careers, plus those in finance, sales, PR, and (specialized) marketing have it pretty good right now back in N. America or even if they want to work internationally. Obamacare is putting the screws to medical doctors, but by and large, people in health care make a decent buck, and that probably won't change in the foreseeable future. |
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