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[anonynew]

I'm not quite on the tenure-track, as where I'm at doesn't offer tenure, but I'm in my second year as an assistant professor, and it's driving me nuts. I know I'm lucky to have any job at all, let alone one in the same city as my spouse and kids, let alone a full-time job in my field that pays a living wage and a boss who isn't insane and colleagues who are nice.  Even given all that, the students at my for-profit institution are both sub-par and entitled (why do those two travel together so often?), there is no time or support for research (promotion to associate prof. rests on teaching and service), and the administration of this multi-campus behemoth is concerned exclusively about increasing enrollment and retention, improving our "branding," and upping our "marketshare."  Academically, I came from a different place; my Ph.D. is from an R-1, my BA from an exclusive SLAC, and I spent a decade teaching in a terminal degree program at an R-1 (a job that was defined as temporary- I couldn't keep it longer).  Most people at my current institution identify themselves as practitioners, rather than scholars; I'm unusual in that I still attempt to do research and define this job of teaching as my primary occupation.  It's a bad fit.   In a what good luck/what bad luck twist, my spouse is gainfully employed (yay! food on the table! shoes on the children's feet!), but it effectively rules out relocation as an option, which is how I wound up at my current institution to begin with; I didn't do a national search. I've been on the local market since I got the job, and have also tried to remain active publishing and presenting (one conference and one publication last year), but not much has been advertised and the few positions I applied for didn't go anywhere. I'm sure the answer to this dilemma is some version of "Be happy where you're planted," (rephrased: many would kill to have a FT academic job, so what are you griping about?) or, "Take Prozac," or "Publish hard and fast- it's your only ticket out" (a hard task with the current teaching load), or, as another thread suggests, "Turn this into the job you'll love."  I'm working at it, but something about for-profit education offends my sensibility: we take students we shouldn't to make enrollment quotas set externally, and then have extensive, painful disciplinary hearings to kick out said students when it turns out they can't do the work even at the marginal level needed to pass.  Upper administration treats us like line-workers in a factory before the idea of quality-control circles/TQM; we're to implement policies and not think too much about them. Faculty governance is not a meaningful concept.  So... I'm a bit desperate, and afraid I've said too much even in this posting. Any advice (stay? go? how?) would be appreciated.   

[harsh_critic]

You have 4 options:

1. Grin and bear it (stay at your current job).

2. Get another job in academia. As you said with your severe geographic limitation this may not be feasible.

3. Get a job outside of academia, but at a place that treats you better.

4. Leave your current job and stay unemployed.

Ultimately you need to figure out your priorities and needs. #4 may not be feasible due to financial constraints.

My suggestion is to stay at your current job as long as you can keep your sanity and keep applying to other academic jobs. Once you can't take it any more, leave and find a job outside of academia. It's not worth it to lose your sanity for the sake of staying in academia. Life is too short.

[london1]

Run, run, run like the wind!  With your qualifications you could find employment anywhere.  I know you are place-bound, but is there a community college nearby?

[larryc]

You seem pretty determined to be unhappy and to preemptively rule out any suggestions that might improve your lot. Good luck.

[queen_b]

I've been on the local market since I got the job...

Keep applying, but be discreet. Expand your search area if you can. Consider relocating an hour away if family permits. Don't stop the search until you get a position that generally makes you proud.

[charlieinthebox]

London1 is certainly idealistic in thinking you can get a job anywhere.  It's not so easy, and there is such a thing as being overqualified.  I know I have not been considered for a few positions because they assumed that with my qualifications, I would take the next good offer that came along and be out the door.  And they were right.  All of which means the search for the right fit can be arduous, especially with limited geographic possibilities.

That said, why stay at the job that makes you miserable?  I understand the need to make money, but you can apply for non-academic positions and move to something to keep the bills paid while you continue what may be a lengthy process of tracking down the right academic job, and the new non academic position could give you time for the research that you will need to do to be a contender once that golden opportunity presents itself.  If you have already taught for two years at for profit U, another two years won't help your CV much more.  But make sure you have a few colleagues in your corner who can write recommendations for you.

[expatinuk]

Perhaps if you put a paragraph break or two or SIX in your whine you'd be presenting yourself better.

Oh, that's right, you're from an R1 and an exclusive SLAC background.

The world OWES you a decent job with excellent students.

[zharkov]

The neat thing about schools like your's is they give students who may not have been accepted into other colleges a chance at a college education. Many are underprepared and won't make it, but some will and it will really change their lives.  And while for-profits answer to stockholders, where the underlying interest may not be education, the same may be said for non profits that ho answer to bondholders or state schools that answer to the legislatures.

So thinking about the students and not dwelling too much on the power that be may help resolve this.

And naturally, keep looking. 

Here is a question:  Is there a reason why you can find a job in another part of the country and then have your partner find one near by?

[anonynew]

Thanks, all, for your advice, comments and suggestions.  It was not my intention to come across as "whiney" or entitled; I certainly do feel lucky to  have this job, as the title of the post suggests in all sincerity.

Zharkov's point is well-taken, and I very much appreciate the opportunities for graduate education this institution is giving students who might otherwise not be admitted to graduate schools.   That was my favorite part of the last job I had, in a terminal MA program. One of the things that is so painful about the current job is that we take some people who could make it, successfully, as something/somewhere, into a program where it's pretty clear from the beginning that they're not going to make it (because of lack of English language skills, for example) just to make admissions quotas, and then they're dismissed in a term or two for failing to maintain grades, but their psyches are a lot the worse for the wear. We haven't done them any favors, not only by taking their money in what I would call bad faith (we offer almost no financial aid) but by taking people who rightfully felt good about how far they'd come, and putting them through a preventable process that leaves them feeling like a failure, in many cases.   I feel embarrassed, not because of my "background," as one poster put it, but because I feel like I'm doing the wrong thing; morally, this is very hard to live with.

When you couple that (the "good students done wrong" to by us) with the not-insignificant number of students who are behavior problems, the job feels worse to me.  I am working with three students who are in the process of being kicked out, two of whom are threatening to sue (me, the president of the institution, everyone they've ever come in contact with at the school), and one student who failed a comprehensive exam, of whom I am genuinely scared.  That student is furious, silent, threatening; when I heard the Va. Tech. story, that student instantly came to mind, although I had always pictured that the student would turn up at my house with a gun, rather than do it at school. I have two young kids, and a not-unlisted address; it feels insane to wonder if I should get a security system to protect me from students. I wish I were paranoid; yes, I'm documenting everything.

Anyhow, I do hope this doesn't come off as more "whining." I've tried to put in paragraph breaks, as the lack of same seemed also to annoy people.  Yes, I'll keep applying. I did the hour and a half commute to a job for a year, but it meant leaving three hours ahead of time because one couldn't predict traffic, and in the end the person on leave came back anyway. As for another part of the country, my spouse has a niche job which, for all practical purposes, is unduplicatable- they created it for hu because they already knew and liked hu, and wanted to find a way to keep hu; but hu's income contributes much more than mine to the aforementioned, shoes, food, etc., which makes relocating to improve my job satisfaction unlikely.  I may face the non-academic market soon; I've done such jobs intermittently, and it turns out I miss the classroom contact- I like teaching, and as it turns out, I get decent evaluations, so I'd like to keep teaching if I can.

I appreciate everyone's feedback.  For whatever it's worth, I don't feel like I'm preemptively ruling out all suggestions/possibilities; if the answer were easy or obvious, I hope I would have found it and run with it long ago. This may be depression but it's not entitlement.