next »

[sisqa_]

Hi,

after having studied and worked overseas for more than 10 years, I've got - by a weird coincidence - an assistant prof position in my (European) country of origin. On the one hand, I'm very happy to have found a job - good salary, small teaching load etc. On the other hand my long-term goal is to work in Australia, and not to become a prof in my country of origin.

Apart from applying for suitable jobs in OZ (unfortunately there are not that many - or I don't think I'd make a chance, so I manage to apply for 3 to 5 a year, not that much) I'm a bit tempted just to apply for any job, es long as it's in an "exotic" location.

I'm wondering, whether doing so, i.e., leaving a prestigious tt job after half a year or one year to go abroad again, would mess up my CV and make me even less employable in future.  E.g., how would it look, if someone first got their Ph.D. and postdocced at R1 universities, and then teaches in St Kitts Nevis or some other place. Would there be any chance to apply for research oriented jobs, after having been in a non-research institution in some unknown place?

One of the obvious thoughts concerns research (output) in this time. I don't have any research funding for my European position and will have to apply for grants anyway. And in principle I could do my research any place in the world.

Thanx, sisqa

[seniorscholar]

I'm sure this has to do with your productivity and the demand for your field -- but in an overcrowded field like mine, changing jobs often (and particularly moving from a job at a "good" university to one in a "holiday" place) will suggest to us that you are not particularly interested in developing upper-level classes and publishing high-level research. When we hire someone, we want that person to stay around for a while and become a useful productive faculty member. A c.v. that suggests you'd probably leave as soon as a nicer climate offered itself would therefore put you in the discard pile.

[expatinuk]

I wouldn't really think about the 'exotic' location, I'd just think that the person couldn't stick around long enough to actually learn about the culture of the institution.

[sisqa_]

Hi, thanks to both of you.

Until now my cv looks perfectly fine in terms of sticking around - I haven't changed jobs often (I sometimes think, I should have changed some of them earlier): M.A., then two years in an company R&D department, then two years researcher/programmer in a very prestiguous academic environment, then a Ph.D. and then a two year postdoc.

On the other hand, there is not much demand for my field and I cannot claim to have a stellar publicatio record - so probably I should think about a very good scientific motivation, if i want to move to a holiday place.

Senior scholar - does teaching & developing upper-level classes really look better on a cv than teaching undergrad classes? I've heard conflicting advice - my current postdoc advisor recommended to teach the 100+ student introductory classes in my field, as universities would tend to give these teaching assignments to new hires and wanted to have s.o., who has taught them before. Another prof recommended to teach very advanced specific topics - so his advice was exactly opposite.