next »

[rising]

This is pretty complicated, but if anyone has advice, I am game to hear it. I am currently pretty happy at my institution, mid-way through the tenure track. I am well-regarded in the field, but also part of a two-body problem. My husband began at my institution the year after me in a lecturer position, where he was so "needed" that he did several preps (a double-digit number) and a heavy teaching load in his first two years. The chair has been well aware of being very "lucky" to have a full time person who could do what 3-4 adjuncts would normally do, and the senior faculty regards my husband highly (they have even advocated for him to be converted to tt, independent of other efforts). My husband has kept trying to get research done, but it has been hard with the teaching, so his publication record is slight. It is important to also mention that my husband is in a different field, with a different dean.

When my department recently asked me what they could do to keep me at the institution, I said that a tt position for my husband would be pretty necessary, or else we would start looking elsewhere. My dean spent much political capital to try to make a tt happen position happen for my husband, only to have the other dean be ambiguous about following through. Rather than giving my husband a tt position, the university offered him a "pre-tenure" trial period of 3 years, where they would halve his teaching load to the typical tt teaching load (2-2). They did this so that he could catch up on his number of publications, and be eligible for a tenure-track position at the end of this period. The dean of his school is reluctant to put in writing anything about a tenure-track position being available at the end of the 3 years. I know this seems sketchy, but then it is a big investment for the university to halve someone's teaching load and pay adjuncts with the rest. In any case, my husband and I enjoy a good quality of life in many ways, we each teach full time at the same university (even if just one of us is tt), in the same city. It could be much worse, as this forum illustrates.

Here's where things get more complicated: to make a long story short, a dream university called me out of the blue, had me visit, and is ready to offer me a job in a setting and city preferable to the one I'm in now. I did not seek this opportunity out, nor was this an open search (there are no competing candidates), and Dream University knows I am happy where I am currently. Dream U. is the kind of place I can envision spending the rest of my life, and the place has considerably more prestige than where I currently am. (I can see myself at Current University for several more years, but not the rest of my life -- I would like to move "up" sometime.  I just did not envision the opportunity to move "up" this soon, with virtually no effort on my part to solicit a particular job. Dream University essentially fell in my lap.)

The problem is that Dream University cannot offer or guarantee anything regarding a spousal hire, in part because there is no department there in my husband's field. There are several universities in the area, and we would have to look around for a new job for my husband (who still is not super marketable because of limited time to do research). My suspicion is that the job market near Dream University is more competitive than where we are, since it is a more desirable place to live. My husband is also pretty reluctant to lose his current situation, which might actually allow him to catch up with his research and increase his publications over the next 3 years, so that he can potentially be much more marketable.

On the other hand, my husband does not want to be the "bad guy" holding me back from my dream job. I mean, what if we wait for 3 years for him to have his trial period, and the university was just stringing us along just to not offer him a tt position at the end of all that?

My question is: should I even let Dream University make me an offer, if I am not sure if we can go because of my husband's situation? I do feel like I am underpaid by my own institution, and an offer by this institution would provide ample evidence of what I am actually worth on the market. Perhaps I could use the offer to better our situation.

On the other hand, I do not want to alienate colleagues at Dream University or my own institution. The problem is, to get any substantial improvement in one's situation, getting a counteroffer from another institution seems necessary. I wish the system did not work this way, but it seems to. Does anyone have advice about what you might do in my shoes?

[menotti]

Tricky.  Any chance Dream U would delay a year or two?

Also, if you're desirable enough that institutions are calling you out of the blue and asking for you to come, one suspects that you'll have some other options in the future.

[zharkov]

I mean, what if we wait for 3 years for him to have his trial period, and the university was just stringing us along just to not offer him a tt position at the end of all that?

Exactly what I was thinking.  I've been strung along in my career here and there, and have seen other people very unpleasantly surprised because some verbal deal gets re-interpreted down the way.  I can hear it now:  "Oh, I'm sorry, we didn't mean that we would just give you a TT job, just that if/when a TT job opens up, then we would encourage you to apply." 

[menotti]

Also, is your husband in agreement that Dream U is a better location? 

[helpful]

How far away from Current University is Dream University. Is it conceivable you can move and your husband stick it out at Current University until he can get a job in the Dream University area?

[concordancia]

Could you afford for your husband to take a year off and/ or adjunct just a couple of classes for a couple of years while he focuses on his research?

[niceday]

I mean, what if we wait for 3 years for him to have his trial period, and the university was just stringing us along just to not offer him a tt position at the end of all that?

Exactly what I was thinking.  I've been strung along in my career here and there, and have seen other people very unpleasantly surprised because some verbal deal gets re-interpreted down the way.  I can hear it now:  "Oh, I'm sorry, we didn't mean that we would just give you a TT job, just that if/when a TT job opens up, then we would encourage you to apply." 

Where you are, your husband has nothing but a three-year position. If they were serious, they'd put it in writing. Dean's change, department head's change and words go *poof*. If you were going to try to move up anyway, this sounds like a great opportunity. Your husband has the rest of this year to write up a storm and start looking for jobs in the new location.

[tuxedo_cat]

I think you should definitely take the new job.  Long view for you:  this is exactly what you want, where you ultimately want to land.  It sounds like you have an impressive reputation, and yes, it's possible that other offers may come along.  But this is real, right now.  And the possibility of other offers in the future is entirely hypothetical.

The long view for your husband is is simply not certain, for the sensible reasons other people have explained.  I don't wish to sound completely insensitive about your spouse's career options, but what he has now is up in the air.  What you are being offered is solid.

You can also look at it this way:  if there are other opportunities to move in the future, they will be more likely to arise if you are already at a comparably prestigious institution (Dream U).  The greater your professional status, the more likely you are to have some leverage to help secure a position for spouse.

Or as someone else asked, what if he takes a year off, or adjuncts with just a single course, which would allow him the time to complete more research and get greater momentum back in his own career trajectory?

[lizzy]

If I were you, I'd go for the dream job.

You say that you can envision yourself at the current place for a few more years. In that case, your husband is likely to be in the same position when you're ready to move on. And I, too, don't like the dean's refusal to put something in writing for your husband. He could conceivably be in a worse position later.

I'd go for it, and do my best to ensure that my husband had time to focus on his research.

Best of luck to you and your husband!

[larryc]

Will Dreamy U. come up with some other kind of job for your husband, admin or something?

[niceday]

Ugh, typo. I meant deans and department heads change. (Started to type "neither the dean's nor the chair's word is worth the paper it's not on" and then forgot to delete the apostrophes.)

But, anyway, a T-T job for your husband in a job you don't want to stay for long isn't worth much.

[rising]

Thanks everyone, for all your thoughts and advice. In all the emotional hullaballoo, I had forgotten that department heads, chairs, and deans change, so that people forget verbal promises. Two to three years is a long time. That is really worth pondering. (Speaking of promises, two years ago, because I was a finalist at another top university and then won a top award, the university promised me a raise, but then the provost yanked the money.)

The question about whether we'd live apart is a good one, but my husband and I are very committed to staying in the same city, as Dreamy U. would be 6-ish hours of plane travel time from Current U. For us, that would just be difficult and the unhappiness would outweigh career benefits for either of us.

Not surprisingly, I am just too junior to warrant a juicy spousal hire. Dreamy U. did not propose any help in finding other positions for the spouse - it is just beyond their control, as my spouse's field does not have a department at Dreamy U. At most, it appears Dreamy U. would be able to facilitate introductions to department chairs at other institution's in the spouse's field. (We also could probably drum up some contacts too in that area.)

As to Concordancia's point, I never even thought about the idea of him adjuncting or not working and us just buying the time so he can work on his research. We could probably afford that, though I don't know if that would bruise his ego.....Does it look bad if someone is adjuncting, versus being a full-time NTT at an institution, when one is looking for work? Would it look worse if he were not full-time, even if he had more papers and research going? (Obviously, I know this is contextual and depends on the situation - but this is an idea I never thought of, so I thought I'd throw the questions out there.)

It is so tough to think clearly in this emotional morass - I really do appreciate getting some other perspectives.

[niceday]

In most fields, publishing trumps all. He's already got a post-Ph.D. record.

If you can afford it, it might be a really good thing to give him a break so that he can recover his research and be a strong candidate for positions nearby DreamyU.

[tuxedo_cat]

I'll start by putting it in blunt terms:  it is more important -- for both of you in the long run -- to take care of your career, to take advantage of a pivotal opportunity, than it is to take care of his potentially bruised ego about giving up a position that has very short-term job security.  But I realize that you can't possibly pose it to him in this way.

I have one question that I know you probably can't answer, but that may be an important factor here.  If Dreamy U doesn't even have a department in your spouse's field, I suppose it's possible that he works in a discipline that has very difficult job opportunities anyhow (since Dream Universities tend to have more disciplines rather than fewer).  I will guess that he's looking at a very challenging career trajectory under any circumstances.  The one thing that will clearly matter is more publications.

If you move to Dreamy U, and he has to give up his current full-time for either adjunct teaching or no teaching, sure, that would be tough to face for any of us.  Bruised ego, that's a given.  However, if he can get past the bruised ego, he might be able to see that it also means he would be facing what all of us in the profession generally crave:  the time to commit most of our energies to completing research and getting some articles out with minimal teaching responsibilities.  That's not easy to spin as an opportunity, but it some very simple logistical ways, your new job offer IS an opportunity for him to get a break. 

Here is one significant hitch:  access to libraries and research facilities.  Depending on what field he's in, this could be a challenge.  However, here's where Dreamy U might be able to come through.  I have never heard of negotiating for library privileges for a partner as part of job negotiations, but really, that costs a university virtually nothing.  And in a big city, he might have access to research materials through public universities and public libraries to what he needs.

Here's the other hitch:  he has to do the work.  He's really got to buckle down for that one year and get the work out.  And let's face it, some of us don't publish that much because we're overwhelmed with teaching and some of us don't because it's just hard (I'm in  the latter).  This is a gamble for him, no question.  But he should take this gamble sooner rather than later.  The further away you get from your research, the higher that hurdle is to get back into the work, and the more potentially out-of-date the work will be.  I think time is of the essence.

Good luck -- I can see that this is a really tough struggle for you. 

[janewales]

Another thing to consider-- you're clearly a desirable candidate, and doubtless will continue to be so, but you say you're currently about half way to tenure. If you stay where you are, you'll soon have tenure, and that will make you, in most fields anyway, somewhat less mobile, because, particularly at places like Dream U, mid-career moves (which is what a post-tenure move is) usually demand a whole new level of stardom.

I certainly don't think your husband's chances of finding a new job (or of being considered for an eventual spousal appointment) would be hampered by his not working as an adjunct for a year or two; he has the experience, and now he needs the publications. If you can afford to have him take a year off to work on his research, that might be an excellent move.