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Shop Talk: Friday, November 11

November 11, 2011, 6:05 am

By Lawrence Biemiller

Dartmouth College life-sciences buildingDartmouth College has dedicated a 174,500-square-foot life-sciences building that houses six teaching laboratories, a 200-seat auditorium, classrooms, and more. The $92-million building, designed by Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, was paid for in part by $40-million contributed by the members of the Class of 1978, for whom the building is named. (Dartmouth College photo)

• U. of California at Davis Wraps Performing-Arts Center in Plastic as Contractors Work to Stop Leaks

• $171-Million Dorm Renovation Continues at Ohio State U.

• Indiana U. at Bloomington Seeks to Replace 300 Trees Lost to Storm

• Regional Rail Trail, Once a Canal, Cuts Through Yale U. Campus

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  • graddirector

    When my husband and I both defended our Ph.D.s, he was in the field with less employment opportunities but scored a great postdoc.  Thus, I worked on getting a postdoc close to him (it was the DC area so no sacrifices for me really).  Five years later, he has a permanent job and I start looking for TT jobs.  While he was planning on giving up his job then if I got something, it turned out I scored a job within 2 hour drive of his and he could telecommute 1/2 time.  Thus for the next ten years, he would live in a rented room 4 days every two weeks and be home for the next 10.  We did this through my tenure track period (I would concur with the other posters that this was nice, I would work crazy hours while he was gone and then pay attention to him when he was home) and two post tenure babies (not so fun being a “single mother” during those times though).  When the kids were entering school though, my husband’s job was losing its sparkle with some changes there, it was getting harder to do the single mother thing with the advent of after school “activities” and he really wanted to spend more time with the kids too.  Thus, he quit that very high paying job five years ago and took a local one at 1/2 the salary located two blocks from my office.  While he is bored in the job, he is having a ton of fun doing the dad thing and never had hard driving ambition in his career so I dont think there is much resentment in the end.  So, while his former high salary would be nice, in the end, we are paying for a really great standard of living.

  • abcde1234

    This: “never had hard driving ambition in his career”. I think that is the key-the asymmetries in ambition. My husband and I were pretty equally matched in our early career accomplishments and scholarly abilities. And since we were both in biomedical science we were lucky enough to be able to find postdocs and even faculty positions in the same city. But at some point it became clear to me (less clear to him, interestingly) that he was going to be able to sustain the insane level of ambition and competitiveness for long enough to propel himself to international stardom, and I was looking for a meaningful, enjoyable way to feel like I was having a positive impact on the people around me, contribute to the household income, and find the time to do other meaningful things outside of work. Having a kid helped clarify this. The realization has made my various career transitions and a relocation driven by his opportunities happen not only without resentment, but with a sense that we are a team, and new opportunities for him can mean new opportunities for me, so long as I maintain a broad definition of “opportunity”. 

    I know lots of two-career couples, and almost all of them are asymmetric in some way. This is especially true if there are kids. One is the super ambitions internationally famous scientist, and the other is just a regular academic who is good enough to get by. Sometimes the big shot is the woman, sometimes the guy (or sometimes it’s the other women-I don’t know too many male-male academic power couples, not sure why that is). 

    I like to say : I used to be a successful scientist. Now I just sleep with one.

  • esineva

    Our family is example of the wrong decision. My husband is older. At the beginning it seems to be reasonable that his career is of first priority. Right now it is bi-coastal scientific marriage, with sporadic family reunions and small chances to improve situation in the nearest future.

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