Heartland

My hands acting up. Stiff and achy. Ex being a stalky f**ker. I need a drink. Preferably with company.

A dream about my dead wife.
Tends to be depressing.

Carpathian Psychonaut wrote:Saw the most extraordinary exposition of beauty I think I've ever seen on the Metro this morning. Made me almost stop breathing. Decided that if she got off at the same stop I would go totally outside of my emotional safety zone and strike up a conversation.......

She didn't & I didn't have either the heart nor the guts to disturb her from her book. Sigh. Another alternate timeline missed out on.

It's odd really. It's just not the sort of thing I'd normally consider doing yet I'm quite annoyed with myself for not doing it.

I recommend accidentally-on-purpose dropping a pen near her feet. When one or both of you lean in to pick it up (careful not to crack heads though - tends be quite the passion killer) you can get a conversation going with something like - "Thank you, that's very kind of you" / "Sorry, I keep meaning to get a Kindle" / "jesus god, you're the woman of my dreams, you gotta save me from imploding from my-not-having you, I got it bad!"

Y'know, something like that.

I have to go to the dentist. I don't like the dentist.

Piercings, tattoos, injections, having blood taken, surgerical procedures, everything else, fine.

But not the dentist.

... the academic job market. Ugh. One job that I'm perfect for, but it's in a part of the country in which I'd never want to live, and the pay consists of leftover vegetable scraps.

sultan2075 wrote:... the academic job market. Ugh. One job that I'm perfect for, but it's in a part of the country in which I'd never want to live, and the pay consists of leftover vegetable scraps.

tell me about it

i shouldn't complain really because i was lucky enough to find an assistant professorship position in a department that really suits my research area and if all goes well i'm going to start in May. but having done quite a bit of searching in the vacancies section of university websites i'm well aware that the market stinks. i really don't know what i'd have done if i hadn't found the job

are you considering jobs in the US or would you be tempted to try the European market too? not that it's any better, mind, but i imagine the deadlines are not as strict and it's probably not as competitive.

either way, best of luck with the search

LouLou wrote:

sultan2075 wrote:... the academic job market. Ugh. One job that I'm perfect for, but it's in a part of the country in which I'd never want to live, and the pay consists of leftover vegetable scraps.

tell me about it

i shouldn't complain really because i was lucky enough to find an assistant professorship position in a department that really suits my research area and if all goes well i'm going to start in May. but having done quite a bit of searching in the vacancies section of university websites i'm well aware that the market stinks. i really don't know what i'd have done if i hadn't found the job

are you considering jobs in the US or would you be tempted to try the European market too? not that it's any better, mind, but i imagine the deadlines are not as strict and it's probably not as competitive.

either way, best of luck with the search

Thanks. What field are you in?

I would be tempted by the EU market, actually. My wife's an EU citizen as well, which might make work authorization easier for me. Where would I look for academic job listings in the EU?

At the moment, the academic job market in the US is so bad that I know of three people who have found full-time positions in the last year, and of that three, one had to move to Australia and the other to Iraq.

my dissertation's on accelerated new product development, with emphasis on the trade-offs between performance outcomes (the exact tile changes every week ). i'm currently at a marketing department of a business school but a position at another marketing department was out of the question because in most of the schools i looked at they tend to gravitate towards either consumer behaviour or hardcore quantitative modelling. i do neither of those things, so no place for me. the handful of places where i might have fit in were not hiring assistant professors anyway. or, like you said, they were offering very short contracts and very little salary in return for ridiculous teaching loads . so my new job's at the industrial design faculty of a technical university, which is great because i've just about had enough of the business school mentality

i'm guessing you're a political science/sociology person? i'm not overly familiar with the area, but i don't see why you couldn't find a research group you'd like to work with here in Europe. i don't know if it's a business school thing, but a PhD from a US university seems to be a good thing around here as far as recruitment is concerned

well well my fav topic..higher ed. LouLou which bs do you work for? sultan2075, will send you a pm tonight or tomorrow with some links for you

sziamiau wrote:well well my fav topic..higher ed. LouLou which bs do you work for?

RSM

My dinner is so vile even the cats don't want it.

Vision wrote:My dinner is so vile even the cats don't want it.

's what happens if you cook it yourself

christophe wrote:

Vision wrote:My dinner is so vile even the cats don't want it.

's what happens if you cook it yourself

It was a nice over processed beef stew in a packet...D:

Vision wrote:

christophe wrote:

Vision wrote:My dinner is so vile even the cats don't want it.

's what happens if you cook it yourself

It was a nice over processed beef stew in a packet...D:

the horror.
if you can't even trust dodgy food in a plastic wrap

btw: my lasagne was wonderfull (the supermarket chef sure did another great job )

LouLou wrote:

sziamiau wrote:well well my fav topic..higher ed. LouLou which bs do you work for?

RSM

oh wow! small world:) I went for an interview a couple of years ago to RSM. so you'll start your PhD in May? I'm trying to get mine started in June but it's taking forever so I won't take anything for granted unless I see the contract.

not quite - i'm leaving RSM in May. my Phd contract expires in October but because the new boss wants me to start in May i'm not going to stick around until the end. i'd still like to defend in October though, as originally planned (it's going to be a bit tricky because i also need to prepare for the course i'm going to teach in September/October, but at least i no longer have to worry about finding a job).

i really hope noone at RSM reads this forum because i haven't told anyone yet, save a couple of close friends

are you going to stay in Maastrict for your PhD or are you going somewhere else? fingers crossed June works out for you

Oh wow. eHarmony can't match me with anyone. I'm...not sure what that means. Doomed to be a mad cat lady?

LouLou wrote:not quite - i'm leaving RSM in May. my Phd contract expires in October but because the new boss wants me to start in May i'm not going to stick around until the end. i'd still like to defend in October though, as originally planned (it's going to be a bit tricky because i also need to prepare for the course i'm going to teach in September/October, but at least i no longer have to worry about finding a job).

i really hope noone at RSM reads this forum because i haven't told anyone yet, save a couple of close friends

are you going to stay in Maastrict for your PhD or are you going somewhere else? fingers crossed June works out for you

oh okay...are you staying in NL? yes the plan is staying in Maastricht, I was eyeing the University of Bath but it's not going to work out as they don't want to pay the tuition for me. how long did it take you to get this far? were you working at the same time?

btw were you in Tilburg for the Sisters? In that case I probably have met you???

LouLou wrote:my dissertation's on accelerated new product development, with emphasis on the trade-offs between performance outcomes (the exact tile changes every week ). i'm currently at a marketing department of a business school but a position at another marketing department was out of the question because in most of the schools i looked at they tend to gravitate towards either consumer behaviour or hardcore quantitative modelling. i do neither of those things, so no place for me. the handful of places where i might have fit in were not hiring assistant professors anyway. or, like you said, they were offering very short contracts and very little salary in return for ridiculous teaching loads . so my new job's at the industrial design faculty of a technical university, which is great because i've just about had enough of the business school mentality

i'm guessing you're a political science/sociology person? i'm not overly familiar with the area, but i don't see why you couldn't find a research group you'd like to work with here in Europe. i don't know if it's a business school thing, but a PhD from a US university seems to be a good thing around here as far as recruitment is concerned

Yes, sort of--I do political philosophy/theory (ancient/medieval/modern/postmodern) and American political theory, which means I am in the unfashionable backwater of most political science departments I'd rather muck about with old books than muck about with statistical analyses of voting patterns. I'm about halfway through my dissertation right now, and the job market in the US is absolutely dire. I'd love to get a job in the EU, though.

sziamiau wrote:sultan2075, will send you a pm tonight or tomorrow with some links for you

Looking forward to it. Thanks!

@sziamiau - yep, sticking around in NL. at least for now. my contract's for 4 years - it's anyone's guess whether i'll stick around or bugger off. if my track record's anything to go by, it's bound to be the latter

it's been almost 4 years since i started at RSM. the first year was the MPhil, which was pure unmitigated hell because i had 2 years of coursework plus a dissertation crammed into one year. add to that the uncertainty of whether i'd be admitted in the PhD programme or not, it was anything but fun . that first year counted toward the PhD degree, so I got a 3-year contract once it was over. after that it's been pretty much plain sailing. and no, i didn't work anywhere else. i don't know if i could have if i wanted to because it was a full time contract.

re: Bath - that's a real shame . i did my first MSc there and it's easily the most delightful place i've ever lived in. can't you get even a partial scholarship or something?

re: Tilburg - yep, i was there. but i don't think we met. Helsinki it is then

@sultan2075 - greetings from the unfashionable backwater of most marketing departments . one thing i really like about being the ugly duckling is that you manage to stay out of the p*ss race because people don't see you as competition and let you get on with it. it's a different story when you enter the job market, of course. perhaps a humanities faculty with an interdisciplinary focus might also work for you?

LouLou wrote:
@sultan2075 - greetings from the unfashionable backwater of most marketing departments . one thing i really like about being the ugly duckling is that you manage to stay out of the p*ss race because people don't see you as competition and let you get on with it. it's a different story when you enter the job market, of course. perhaps a humanities faculty with an interdisciplinary focus might also work for you?

It'd be absolutely perfect for me, actually. Do you know of one? I found a job that looked good (teaching in a great books program) up in Canada, but my wife can't legally work there, and it's only a three-year position.

sultan2075 wrote:

LouLou wrote:
@sultan2075 - greetings from the unfashionable backwater of most marketing departments . one thing i really like about being the ugly duckling is that you manage to stay out of the p*ss race because people don't see you as competition and let you get on with it. it's a different story when you enter the job market, of course. perhaps a humanities faculty with an interdisciplinary focus might also work for you?

It'd be absolutely perfect for me, actually. Do you know of one? I found a job that looked good (teaching in a great books program) up in Canada, but my wife can't legally work there, and it's only a three-year position.

If anybody needs a old grouchy curator/fundraiser in a quiet Humanities department give me a shout! Post Phd life has been busy though a bit mad. A nice position with a tweed jacket, tea and good books would be nice!

Having a bit of an academic "meh" day, myself. Coming to the end of term at an alarming rate. 8 courses, 8 exams, and I don't even think I'd be able to pass exams from when I was in first-year.
It's so f**king difficult to motivate myself to get studying in the evenings when I'm in uni nearly all day. After I'm back home, and have made some food, the concept of picking up that quantum mechanic book again is Just Plain Unpleasant.

Ach well.

sultan2075 wrote:

LouLou wrote:
@sultan2075 - greetings from the unfashionable backwater of most marketing departments . one thing i really like about being the ugly duckling is that you manage to stay out of the p*ss race because people don't see you as competition and let you get on with it. it's a different story when you enter the job market, of course. perhaps a humanities faculty with an interdisciplinary focus might also work for you?

It'd be absolutely perfect for me, actually. Do you know of one? I found a job that looked good (teaching in a great books program) up in Canada, but my wife can't legally work there, and it's only a three-year position.

i can't think of one off the top of my head but i'll ask around and give you a shout if something comes up.

Much obliged.