Tom: If you had asked me six months ago whether I would have accepted an offer -- any offer -- for any academic job, so long as it was in the same city as one of Helen's offers, I would have said yes. But oh how times have changed.
As the hiring season winds down, I have two offers that match two of Helen's offers, but neither of mine is ideal. One is for a great research-track position at a flagship university, and the other is for a multiyear visiting position (with strong tenure-track possibilities) in a good department. Neither is on the tenure track, and I'm not quite ready to accept either one.
You see, when Helen and I started this process, we (like every other academic couple) had big dreams of landing dual, tenure-track jobs within commuting distance of each other -- one in physics for me and one in law for Helen. We've struggled a lot because the hiring season in physics is much later than in law, with schools putting pressure on Helen to accept their offers before I had even interviewed anywhere. Although it may not be wise, I'm still hanging on to my tenure-track dreams. After all, I still have two strong possibilities at universities where Helen already has offers, and I'd like to at least hear the results of those searches before Helen and I make any decisions.
Helen: I understand Tom's concerns completely, and I hate the fact that my time pressures may cause him to give up potential tenure-track opportunities and make a decision on his immediate future in academe before he's ready. But at the same time, I can't help but feel like we've already hit the jackpot. No matter what, Tom and I will have academic jobs in the same city next year.
Although I want Tom and me both to get tenure-track positions for the fall, I think we need to focus on our actual options and decide which one of these choices would be best for us if our ultimate dream does not come true. As it is, I'm having a hard time deciding between our "real" choices. For me, one university offers prestige, a good faculty with junior faculty members I clicked with, and good students, but it's located in a city that we have some concerns about. The other university offers a faculty I loved, a great location, tons of support, a great possibility for growth, and a low cost of living, but less prestige. At this point, throwing any other choices into our decision-making process would only overwhelm me.
Tom: On a basic level, I agree with Helen. We should focus on our actual possibilities, but I just want to make sure that we keep all of our options open, that we keep hope alive. I am as torn as Helen about our choices. At one university, I would be entering a department that was versed in my research. There would be a well-defined place for me in the department. At the other university, I would be helping to build a program in my area of research at a good department that is well-established in other areas -- an exciting possibility for a young scholar with big dreams. To me, it is a complete toss-up, and I have no idea how Helen and I will ever decide between them, that is, if we have to do so.
Helen: We seemed unable to reach a decision until we revisited one of the cities -- the one we had questions about -- as a family. Our visit was absolutely critical to our decision-making process and helped us eliminate that city from our list of potential residences. It's not that we disliked the city or felt we would be unhappy living there. It just did not feel right. Both Tom and I, however, knew that we would really like the area in which the other university was located. This was a very important issue for both of us because of how much we disliked our current city, where Tom's postdoc brought us.
With that trip out of the way, Tom and I then had to decide if we wanted to visit the cities where Tom's two remaining tenure-track possibilities were located. We had to move quickly, so we decided to visit just one city as a family. We chose the location of the law school that was my top choice.
Tom: And we loved it. Really, we did. It was the perfect town for us, and the law faculty there seemed perfect for Helen. I had had a chance to meet some of her potential colleagues, and it was reassuring to see that Helen could possibly join such a wonderful group. I also informally met with faculty members in physics with whom I would later interview, and I really liked them as well.
Yes, you heard me right. My interview at Helen's current top choice had not even occurred yet. How would we ever find out about my prospects in time? I wanted to get this job, not just for me, but for Helen. Of all our choices, this was the law school she liked the most, and the faculty really seemed to want her there. Her potential colleagues, including the dean, were even pulling for me and trying to apply as much pressure and to pull as many strings as possible to secure the position for me.
Helen: I thought that the last several months of our job search had been a roller-coaster ride, but they were a mere warm-up compared to the next few weeks. We had truly become invested in making this last possibility work, and getting Tom's department to move quickly enough for my deadline was excruciating. I simply could not ask for more time without eroding the law school's excitement about me. Time seemed to grind to a halt as we waited to see if everything would fall into place.
A few members of the law-school faculty urged me to accept my offer and have faith that something would work out for Tom. And boy, did I ever want to believe! But I didn't want to commit Tom to an uncertain fate without something more tangible from his department. Why couldn't everything just come together?
Tom: I must have been in a gambling mood, because based on an informal commitment from the hiring chair and a gut feeling (or was it idiotic wishful thinking), I told Helen to accept the offer from her current top choice before I had received a matching offer. My dissertation adviser would kill me if he knew. I was foolishly giving up two birds in hand (the other two matches we had) to go for the big bird in the bush.
Later, I received an unsigned offer letter via e-mail that should have assured me that I had made the right decision, but it only raised more questions. To make it worse, I met with a mentor, thinking that I would tell him I had just received an offer and he would be happy and proud. Instead, he managed to paint a gloom-and-doom picture of everything that could still go wrong. Where did this guy learn his mentoring skills? Interrogation 101?
I began to fall apart. Had I made the right decision? It was too late to think about that now. Helen had already jumped at my suggestion to accept. She was very happy with her new school and assured me that everything would work out for me.
In the end, everything did work out for both of us -- somehow. I received an official offer from my department, and our negotiation over the details, while nerve-racking and slow, resulted in a package that was more than satisfactory. I had been lucky in spite of myself. Somehow the stars had aligned.
Helen: What a ride. We still can't believe how lucky we are, and it feels good to relax for just a short moment with job interviews and decisions behind us.
Now all we have to do is tie up loose ends at our old jobs, pack our things, sell our house, find a new house, visit our families before we move miles away (as they keep reminding us), and find day care for our kids before we begin our new jobs.
Piece of cake.
