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[bluejeannie]

My husband & I have the two body problem.  He has a strong job opportunity in Cambridge.  I am having a hard time finding jobs that I could get in Cambridge, unless I want to do a post-doctoral fellowship.  That's not really what I would like to do.  My first choice is to teach at the university level.  Or I'd like to find some other industry or academic job I could be happy with that involves less isolated work and not being tied to a bench.  Basically I'm tired of working alone in a lab and feeling like what I do doesn't have any immediate benefit to others.

I'm just overwhelmed by the job searching right now.  Whenever I look at jobs posted on the biotech company websites it seems like they all require you to be in the UK already.  I'm not sure if I qualify for anything given that I'm American and I don't have my spousal visa yet.  Do I have to wait to apply until I get my visa and until I'm actually on English soil?

Please, if anyone has any ideas on places I could look at in Cambridge, send them my way. 

Also, should I broaden my search to London?  Is it insane to think we could live in between London and Cambridge and commute each day?

[august_leo]

My husband and I are both Americans in the UK. I have a faculty job, he is underemployed, but just got a great post-doc (though sadly not full-time (100% FTE or 1.0 FTE, full-time equivalent)). He is in a STEM field.

jobs.ac.uk is really helpful as is nature jobs, I think. I know he uses those a lot. totaljobs.com is helpful too, he said. The Guardian (newspaper) website might be good too. I've heard the area between Oxford and Cambridge is really good for some STEM fields. You will likely have to broaden your search a bit. With trains an hour commute isn't the same here as in the US, so don't be scared.

I'd be really surprised if you got an interview without being here, now that the economy isn't what it was when I interviewed (Fall 2006). Also, immigration laws have been changing and the number of visas universities can support/sponsor are capped, I have been told. So, having a spousal visa in place will likely help because you won't damage their quota (or won't be seen to do that when you apply).

What seems to work ok for us is for him to send CVs with a UK address and to note in the applications and cover(ing) letter that he has the right to work here.

With the REF (formerly RAE, or if you look up RAE it may be helpful) coming up there may be more faculty openings in the near future--if you have really good publications since 2008.

Edited to add: in the UK it is very common to hire someone merely hours/days after the interview and to want them to start right away, so yes, being on UK soil should really start helping you.

[hegemony]

You could commute between the two but it would be expensive both ways, and pretty isolating.  Cambridge has a lot of opportunities, though I think you'll be better placed to get them once you're in town.  For one thing, they'll probably want an interview.  You probably know already that academic jobs are very tough to get.  A Cambridge postdoc is as hard to get as anything, but it would be a great credential for your CV if you could land it.  You don't say what your experience or credentials are, but I'd think a university teaching job in Cambridge -- or London -- would be a one-in-a-zillion chance, particularly for someone starting out, particularly for someone who hasn't been specifically aiming at that kind of thing for some time.  A job in industry sounds as if it would be more doable.  But I wouldn't recommend a set-up between Cambridge and London, particularly as you don't even know where your job is going to be.  If you can afford it, try to live in Cambridge itself.

[scotia]

If you want to stay in an academic setting it would also be worth looking at places like UEA (University of East Anglia) based in Norwich, University of Essex in Colchester, and maybe even as far afield as Leicester and Loughborough (one of my academic couple friends had a job at Loughborough while spouse was at Cambridge). There is also Anglia Polytechnic University somewhere in that corner of the UK, though I couldn't say where, and the University of Hertfordshire.

The best thing to do is keep an eye on jobs.ac.uk and on university HR web-sites. Unlike the US market, the UK market is year round: if there is a vacancy we try to fill it immediately. Having said that, the summer tends to be quieter, so don't despair if there is nothing immediately. We are mostly so engrossed in exam grading and exam boards at the moment that recruitment is a low priority compared to the piles of exam scripts roaming the corridors in search of graders. Then there will be a catch-up period while we work out we have vacancies and fill out the zillion and three forms that HR require before we can advertise. Then we wait for the Dean's signature, because s/he is off at a conference in a sunny location. Then, eventually, September comes and we scramble to recruit. Maybe other places are not quite so insane as mine.........

[drspouse]

That sounds pretty much standard at our place too, scotia.

I know a lot of people who commute/d at least for a short time between Cambridge and London. Some had a pad in town for a couple of weeknights. It's incredibly common; most of the academic institutions are within walking distance of King's Cross, the mainline station for Cambridge.

I think two body problems are a lot more tractable here, because you usually have at least one other decent institution within an hour (or in our case, a fairly major financial centre as I managed to acquire a two body problem by marrying a non-academic).

I can't speak to the applying for jobs while here/there. But for research posts (rather than teaching/research) it is usual to expect a start date within a couple of months. For teaching/research (i.e. assistant professor which = lecturer here) many UK candidates will have 3 or even 6 month notice periods, so the employers may be more willing to wait for you.

[bluejeannie]

I should add that we probably wouldn't be moving to Cambridge until around Christmas time.  We both need to finish up our PhDs over here.

My husband is already lining up his postdoc, but I was hoping to line up a job closer to the time we are moving.  If I go with an industry job do you think I can start applying 6 months before I would start?  That would probably be ok for academia, but in industry they would typically want me to start immediately, right?

[frogfactory]

I know quite a few couples who lived between Cambridge and London due to each having a job in one.  I seem to remember Bishop Stortford being where a couple of them lived.  They did this for quite some time - as far as I know they still do.

I've done the London-Cambridge commute myself in both directions for periods of time, and it's really not that bad - the express train is only 45 minutes - if you don't have too much extra travelling time on either end.  It was expensive, though I was making a pittance and supporting two on it at the time.  There were a handful of PIs at one of the London departments I worked at who all lived in or around Cambridge and commuted daily, and they seemed to like it just fine that way.

There are some decent places to live in Cambridge a short walk from the station (I'm thinking out towards Mill Road) that are affordable to rent.  I've never been a homeowner, though, so I can't comment on that.  I get the impression car parking near the station is a bit of a 'mare, but if you have a bike, you're set!

[drspouse]

Six months seems a long time in advance for an industry job - I was more thinking academic (teaching) jobs - it is a long time in advance for a research job in academia too but obviously they want him!

[scotia]

Six months seems a long time in advance for an industry job - I was more thinking academic (teaching) jobs - it is a long time in advance for a research job in academia too but obviously they want him!

I agree. Because the UK market is so different to that in the US it is not impossible to be interviewed and start almost immediately: for my first lecturer (equivalent to assistant professor) post I was interviewed in the first week in March and started on 1st April of the same year. HR procedures can slow things down, but I would say that it is way too early to panic if you are only arriving in December.

[wegie]

There is also Anglia Polytechnic University somewhere in that corner of the UK, though I couldn't say where,

Now Anglia Ruskin -- and it's about two hundred yards away from the railway station in Cambridge.

and the University of Hertfordshire.

Although that one suffers from the fact that the public transport options are such a pain . . . none of the Cambridge trains stop at Hatfield.

There's also the new Suffolk Campus (a joint venture between Essex and UEA) in Ipswich as a possibility. Although when we were visiting friends in Ipswich last summer, there were already rumours that there was going to be some scaling back of the size of the project.

For biotech, the companies that have spun out of the university would be a good place to start -- try looking at the vacancies at the Science Park website, which is where a large number of the spin-outs are based. The other place I'd try locally would be Addenbrookes.

[scotia]

There is also Anglia Polytechnic University somewhere in that corner of the UK, though I couldn't say where,

Now Anglia Ruskin -- and it's about two hundred yards away from the railway station in Cambridge.

Oops. But then I only discovered yesterday that the University of Luton is now the University of Bedfordshire.

[wegie]

There is also Anglia Polytechnic University somewhere in that corner of the UK, though I couldn't say where,

Now Anglia Ruskin -- and it's about two hundred yards away from the railway station in Cambridge.

Oops. But then I only discovered yesterday that the University of Luton is now the University of Bedfordshire.

Ah, but have you encountered the University of West London? And can you guess what it was ;-)

[scotia]

There is also Anglia Polytechnic University somewhere in that corner of the UK, though I couldn't say where,

Now Anglia Ruskin -- and it's about two hundred yards away from the railway station in Cambridge.

Oops. But then I only discovered yesterday that the University of Luton is now the University of Bedfordshire.

Ah, but have you encountered the University of West London? And can you guess what it was ;-)

Another one? I would guess it is the university formerly known as Thames Valley?

Can we please stop changing the names of UK universities - it plays havoc with my ability to give advice on postgraduate admissions.

[qrypt]

There is also Anglia Polytechnic University somewhere in that corner of the UK, though I couldn't say where,

Now Anglia Ruskin -- and it's about two hundred yards away from the railway station in Cambridge.

Oops. But then I only discovered yesterday that the University of Luton is now the University of Bedfordshire.

Ah, but have you encountered the University of West London? And can you guess what it was ;-)

Another one? I would guess it is the university formerly known as Thames Valley?

Can we please stop changing the names of UK universities - it plays havoc with my ability to give advice on postgraduate admissions.

You would send someone for PG study at TVU?

[drspouse]

There is also Anglia Polytechnic University somewhere in that corner of the UK, though I couldn't say where,

Now Anglia Ruskin -- and it's about two hundred yards away from the railway station in Cambridge.

Oops. But then I only discovered yesterday that the University of Luton is now the University of Bedfordshire.

Ah, but have you encountered the University of West London? And can you guess what it was ;-)

Another one? I would guess it is the university formerly known as Thames Valley?

Can we please stop changing the names of UK universities - it plays havoc with my ability to give advice on postgraduate admissions.

You would send someone for PG study at TVU?

Presumably not, but if they asked about UWL then hu wouldn't know it was TVU.

Do you think that's why they keep changing their names?