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[grasshopper]

Lately I have had the pleasure of dealing with a couple of colleagues who started their careers later (one of which is also junior faculty), and have attempted on many occasions to treat me as the "bad little boy" who magically took their academic mojo and hid it somewhere on my young person, perhaps in one of my articles or other publications that, apparently, I don't actually write, but conjure (like Harry Potter...)  So far I've been insulted, yelled at, degraded, and backstabbed by these colleagues. 

Huh. My handbook says that lesser colleagues should be riding your coattails, not backstabbing and scapegoating.

That's what I do, anyway, and it seems to have worked so far. Of course, I also have stunning good looks to coast by on.


Be hot and latch on to successful people. It's the only way to make it.

[tolerantly]

Maybe the problem's that you're a big complainer

Yeah, maybe:-) An academic career offers some unique benefits and I appreciate them.

To me, the biggest weakness of our job is it's extremely difficult to live where one would love to live. For instance, if one wants to live in NY, there are thousands of decent jobs currently available. If an academic wants to get a position at a R1 at a particular location, only one or two jobs in a good year... Even if you are a Nobel Laureate in your field, there's no guarantee thanks to academic politics.   

You can say that for a lot of jobs, though. Can you be a shrimp boat captain in Kansas? Probably not.

Humor aside - the lack of flexibility of geography is widespread. If it isn't a job that's forcing a move, it's the lack of one. Geographical attachment has not been a major issue for me, but as you build a family and as your parents age and etc., moving around gets tougher and you might have to switch to a "bloom where you are planted" mindset.

Sure.  (Failure to recognize this falls under the heading of "big complainer" and possibly
"eternal adolescent".)  All my work's telecommute, so in theory I should be able to live wherever the hell I please.  But I've got a little girl whose daddy and grandparents live nearby, so moving would mean harming her in a remarkably ugly way.  Here I will stay for the next decade or so.  By that time, my folks will be old, so I'll probably live near one of them.

But really, this is the kind of thing you're supposed to think about and deal with ahead of time.  Back when I was a kid, in my early 20s, I wanted to work in big-time trade policy.  I also recognized that if I did that, I'd probably have to live in/around DC.  I don't like DC.  That was the end of that.  I found other, related things to do that did not involve the Metro.

[southerntransplant]

But really, this is the kind of thing you're supposed to think about and deal with ahead of time.  Back when I was a kid, in my early 20s, I wanted to work in big-time trade policy.  I also recognized that if I did that, I'd probably have to live in/around DC.  I don't like DC.  That was the end of that.  I found other, related things to do that did not involve the Metro.

Certainly. But surely you can see that some of us get our epiphanies late....

[poresp]

Grasshopper, although I really don't see myself as doing anything truly special (just being myself), one of these same colleagues recently stopped speaking to me altogether as soon as I said "no" to a proposed joint venture (one which would not have benefited me nor my students at all, and isn't even in my subfield, but would have given the other person huge -and probably sorely needed- bonus points). 

Congratulations, by the way, on your good looks :) 

(It just occurred to me that I've now been quoted in a blind forum.  Can I use this for T&P? :)  )

Southerntransplant, I wanted to tell you that yes, I took every possible pain to be as collegial, kind, and open-minded as possible.  What I got for it was a whole lot of s#%t.  Also, I decided two years ago to "bloom where planted," a major factor in my own successes so far.