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[drb20]

I'm not sure if this is the best thread for this, since the two-body has resulted in my problem, but is not the core of my problem, but here we go:

My situation is quite complicated and I am very uncertain of what will be good for me in terms of my future career. I recently moved to the States from the UK where my spouse got a tenured professorship at an R1 university. This was too tempting to turn down since he wasn't previously tenured. I didn't get a proper job before moving due to the limited time to search and have been a visiting researcher and adjunct lecturer here, which consequently means that I have spent a year preparing new courses, learning about American undergraduate teaching (they are *quite* different from British students) and done pretty much no research. After a national search for a tenure track job this year I got 4 interviews, none that turned into an offer.

Now I am facing yet another year of teaching and 'research' and another round of tenure track applications. I have no grad students here and no research group that I can work with (my research pretty much requires collaboration) which makes it very challenging to do research projects. I am therefore considering taking a post-doc somewhere else to get into a research group and continue publishing. My concern is how this will look on my CV and how it will hurt or benefit future possibilities. I am 4 years out of my PhD and already had a University Research job in the UK (they have a different system, but it was equivalent to a tenure track job with limited teaching) which I obviously gave up to move to the US. I'm prepared to live away from my spouse for a while (1-2 years) but previously we had only talked about being apart if I got a tenure track job. There is nothing permanent for me at our R1 university at the moment, and likely won't be for years to come so eventually he will have to move as well. I am really stressing about it and not being in a permanent position is hurting my self-confidence in terms of academia. In addition my PhD is from a no-name University in Europe, so although I am well-respected and well-published (half-way to tenure) in my field, I worry that my application gets immediately rejected from search committees who are not familiar with my sub-area.

Any suggestions of what to do? Take a post-doc four states over or stay as an adjunct teacher and probably have no progress in terms of research.

[easily_distracted]

Tough situation to be in.  In the US, if you are in the biological sciences, doing 4+ years of postdoc work is not unusual, nor is doing a second postdoc.  I've heard that the success rate of postdoc -> tenure track positions is somewhere near 15% so you might just need to hang in there until this year's searches begin.  Also keep in mind that postdocs here are temporary or staff (ie non-faculty) positions so the fact that you were essentially earning the UK equivalent of tenure previously really holds no weight in the US.

Maybe look into the possibility of adjuncting and then collaborating with an established PI at another institution to keep your research turning over.  If you can get yourself affiliated with a school/lab, start applying for as many grants as possible as that will help you get a tt gig.  The fact that you had 4 interviews is a promising start as a lot of people don't even get one (surf previous posts for a couple of minutes and you will see this a lot).

[dr_strangelove]

What's your general area? In physics, it's not at all usual to see candidates with 4+ years as a postdoc. (I myself was a postdoc for five years before landing a TT position.) So I wouldn't worry about that.

Depending on the type of school you're applying to, having a year of teaching in the US could be very helpful to your application as well. So keep applying, and good luck!

[drb20]

Thanks for the advise. I am in science yes (however not biology), but in my field it is not uncommon to go straight from PhD to tenure-track job, which is what many of my graduating colleagues have done this year. I guess I tend to socialize with people whose PhD is from R1 universities and it is very frustrating for me to get passed over by people who have a quarter of the publications I have and who is straight out of grad school. On the other hand, I know that it is all about how one fits into a department and apart from one of the interviews, I can see I wasn't necessarily a good fit. I like the idea of finding a professor to work with and I plan to write funding proposals for funding myself (that would also mean I could stay at university with spouse :-). Also thanks for the note that US teaching is good for my CV. I was really surprised about the difference, US students are much more 'in your face', where UK students only talk to you if they *have* to and rarely complain about grades :-)

[easily_distracted]

I did my PhD in Australia where it is also common to go straight to a tt position so I completely understand your frustration.  I wanted more research experience which is why I passed up a few golden opportunities (that ended up going to much less qualified candidates than I would have been) to come to the US for a postdoc and even though I have lost out financially in the past 4 years, I am about to start a tt position that fits me perfectly (great program, great people, great school, great location).  The teaching experience I had during my PhD as well as the success of my postdoc put me on top of the search committee's list of candidates and also allowed me to negotiate for a substantially higher salary that my peers here in the US ... oh, and I'll also be earning much more than I would if I was entering my 5th year on the tt at home. 

You would be surprised at how many postdocs in the sciences have had little/no teaching experience so you have that edge already.  It's also all about finding the best fit both for you and the school/department.  Hang in there and try to use every opportunity you can to boost your cv.