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[takomama]

I'm in the 3rd year of a postdoc and applying for jobs.  I'm in the (intentionally trying to be vague) population health research field.  I have a pretty strong CV, pubs in some good journals, and have taught as an adjunct on the weekend for undergrad and Master's classes. The natural step would be for me to apply for a TT job at an R1.  I have submitted  3 applications for this type of job and got: 1 offer (I delined), 1 phone interview but no campus, and 1 interview scheduled.  So, I think my chances at a job like this are reasonable.

However, I recently applied for an assistant prof non-tt job that has great emphasis on teaching and serving as director of the undergraduate program, with some research.  After the interview, I got an offer, and much to my surprise, the salary was very competitive.  My potential colleagues seemed happy, and the city is location that suits my family.   I'm the type of person who can find fulfillment in a number of roles, and I think I would be fulfilled in this job.  I also have 2 small kids, and the ability to be in a lower stress environment (no grant writing) is appealing. However, I have 30 years of working ahead of me, and I'm not sure  what type of advancement this job would offer.  It seems a little bit like I'd be putting myself on the mommy-track, but I don't think I really care.

What questions should I be asking myself??? Anyone chosen the non-TT when they had offers for TT job and regretted it?  I feel that the job security in this position is very high, even though it's no a TT.

[bioteacher]

I'm on the non-TT and have no regrets. You have kids, as do I. Every time I grumble at my paycheck, I remind myself that I am a slave with two masters (teaching, family), not three (+ grant writing/research). No, I cannot realistically advance where I am. But I am also not required to stay here for the rest of my life. It's the right job for me right now. There are jobs that don't even exist yet that I'll be qualified to do based on my experience now. And if I do end up "stuck" here somehow, there are worse fates. I can make a living and see my kids. While I spend way too much time on the computer at home, the tradeoff is that I am here to be interrupted in my work rather than having the kids in daycare 10 hrs a day.

It sounds to me like you are having doubts based not on this job, but on what you might be giving up. That's life. The path not taken will ALWAYS be a mystery. It may have led to better things, or it may have led right off the edge of a cliff. There is no way to know. All you can do is make the best choice you can based on the information you have at the time. It sounds to me like you found the dream job: good coworkers, good location, good salary, lots of variety in the tasks you'll do each day. If after 2-3 years you realize you made a huge mistake, you can job hunt again.

If you have doubts because this is NOT the kind of job you really want, that's a different matter. But there are no perfect jobs out there. We all have to make sacrifices. Do you want to move to a different location that your family will like less just so you make another 20 k a year and never see your kids but have the potential to advance someday, if you get tenure, if your university doesn't get so many $ cuts they don't lay you off..... etc.

Where does your heart lie? You've been in the environment long enough to know how cutthroat the race for funding is. Does that whet your appetite for a challenge or make you question why you'd choose that path when there is more job security elsewhere? How well will you cope with the daily pressure to Produce and Get Grants? You're the only one who can answer those questions.

Once you decide, commit to that path and don't look back.

[msparticularity]

I think the biggest question here may be about the research: how important is your research to you, and/or how easy or difficult would it be to keep it up in this position? You say that this job includes "some research," but a position with heavy teaching that also involves directing an undergrad program is not going to be conducive to your own research work! (You also mention having two small children, so I'm guessing that you're not looking for a 70-80 hour-per-week career right now.) This may or may not matter a great deal to you in the short term, but it will be the major issue in maintaining your employability for other positions--including for TT jobs if that's what you want at some point in the future.

I totally understand the sense that the pressure of this position would be less due to the absence of grant-writing responsibility, and on the surface it sounds like a reasonable match for you, at least right now. At the same time, do recognize that directing programs can very quickly become all-consuming. I am particularly struck in this case by the fact that the position is non-TT, too--which can really be a set-up for someone who has to deal with a larger department that will necessarily be controlled by people who are TT and tenured. High-pressure jobs where one has little actual control are among the most stressful, so this aspect also might seriously compromise both your quality of life and your research productivity.

ETA: I should mention here that I had a non-TT position for three years before I moved to TT, and I actually really loved it. If I hadn't been so focused upon my research, it would probably have been a very good long-term solution for me. That said, I had considerable control over the little self-contained program I was running, and I was teaching courses that I had designed and really loved.

[polly_mer]

It seems a little bit like I'd be putting myself on the mommy-track, but I don't think I really care.

Step one is deciding that you don't care about labels.  Mommy track is not a pejorative.  Choosing something that lets you have the kind of balance in your life that you want right now while not completely eliminating your options for future life is fine.  Just off the top of my head, a Supreme Court Justice, multiple Nobel Prize winners, and several high-profile government officials on the world stage have been on the mommy track or even been stay-at-home mothers.

Now, realistically, most of us are not going to be Nobel Prize winners or Secretary of State.  However, despite what the voices in your head may be saying, lots and lots of people are successful parents, workers, friends, spouses, and community members.  Joining that crowd is a wonderful thing.

The questions to ask yourself are:

1) How much do I love my research?

2) How much do I love the things that I will get to do in the new job?

 My prime driving force right this second to leave my non-TT position is to find a position that will either have more support for my research or pay better to do the same kind of job.  The work is fine, but either I want to be able to more easily do my research (as Blocky has gotten older, the institutional constraints on doing the research at a higher level have become more noticeable) or get paid enough that I'm not eyeing my research as a potential money maker if I could ramp up to 70 hour weeks.

[niceday]

Absolutely nothing wrong with the so-called mommy-track.

However, you need to carefully consider that your kids will not be small forever. Even as soon as they start elementary school, they will need and want less and less time with you. Also, your spouse can die, run-off with a trophy-grad student, turn into a person you want to leave. (Well, I hope none of those things happen but they do happen, unfortunately).

So, forget about the labels and think about 10 years down the road as well as today. What gives you most options and satisfaction in life? If you take this job, are you forever closing a path you actually would really enjoy for many decades? Or can you stay in this lower-stress environment for a while and then return to something more competitive you'd like? Or would you be happy in this position till you retire? Don't think of just now.

[takomama]

Thanks all for the excellent, insightful responses.  If the Department will agree to a few changes in the terms of offer, I'm going to take this job!  Wish me luck!

[busyslinky]

One issue, not sure if you mentioned it.  Is this director position a 12 month position?  If so, then you should consider the competitiveness of the salary compared to a 9-10 month position. 

[87735501111]

To those of you stressing that "mommy track is peachy," I think you should be a bit careful with this advice. It should be the case, and it *used* to be the case that women had children and then went on to have a successful career, as we see with these examples or even with my own advisor. In some professions this is still the case. But this is not true across the board.

These days there can be a strong negative signal if you take time out of the workforce. Thanks feminism - now we're compared more directly with men, for better or worse. (I say this as a feminist, of course.) While OP is not technically taking time out, just down shifting, given the excess of new PhDs with cutting-edge skills, I worry that if she takes this position, she is closing one door while opening another. If she isn't doing research at this new job, she might be edging herself out of contention for TT positions, because she will (probably) be judged together with the X years out of PhD people, rather than with the "new PhD" cohort. So there could be problems if she is not keeping up with her TT peers in terms of research, given who the comparison group might be.

Maybe you disagree with me, and it would be great to hear concrete evidence to this end. But I think it is more likely that OP is tracking herself away from TT and more towards research centers, government and administration, not that there's anything wrong with that. That said, an administrative + teaching track is likely to be much more sustainable than a nonTT teaching only position, because it does give her a ladder into university administration jobs, and a unique set of skills, plus what I imagine is a higher salary.

[polly_mer]

Maybe you disagree with me, and it would be great to hear concrete evidence to this end. But I think it is more likely that OP is tracking herself away from TT and more towards research centers, government and administration, not that there's anything wrong with that.

What I've heard and observed from women who took the mommy track in the STEM fields that overlap mine is that one has to get back into the research part to be competitive for TT positions that require research.  However, women who keep up some level of research or do another post-doc stint to get fresh papers along with grant experience are competitive for TT positions; for an assistant professor job, the search committees are far more interested in what you did for the past 3-5 years than actual time from degree.   

I can't think of anyone who went to the tippy-top uppercrust schools from the non-research mommy track (although I can think of a few women who went into research centers part-time for several years and then made the jump to academia), but I can think of several people who made it to Directional State U after ramping back up the research and then worked their way into more research-intensive institutions.

[takomama]

Thanks for the additional feedback. I fully acknowledge there are risks of taking this job, but that's true of going the TT, too.  I think what I'm struggling with is that I'm taking a route that wasn't expected of me and one that I didn't expect to go down myself, in part b/c I never gave much thought to do anything else that what was indoctrinated as being "the best".  I applied for the job on a bit of a whim, but once I was on the interview it was like:  "Hey!  This could work!  It might be fun!  I could have a life, too!"  ... and then I found out the salary was reasonable, which was just like the cherry on top.    Some of my fellow post-docs colleagues seem a bit confused/judgmental when I tell them what I'm doing, like if I COULD go the R1 route, why go elsewhere?  I guess we'll just have to compare notes 5 years down the road. 

[bioteacher]

I'm taking a route that wasn't expected of me and one that I didn't expect to go down myself...

Welcome to the Real World in all its glorious, messy, complexity.
<hands over a party hat, noisemaker, and confetti supply>

[daisyadair]

Step one is deciding that you don't care about labels.  Mommy track is not a pejorative.  Choosing something that lets you have the kind of balance in your life that you want right now while not completely eliminating your options for future life is fine. 

Thank you for this.  I don't care about labels, but many people at my school do.  I have been asked more than once why I settle for the job I have (FT/non-TT).  I answer honestly, so I can spend time with my kids and enjoy summers, evenings, and weekends.  They look perplexed, shake their head and walk away.  Sometimes that makes me feel like I should care more about labels.

[polly_mer]

Sometimes that makes me feel like I should care more about labels.

Would you rather have people occasionally shake their heads at your choices or would you rather be living the life that they would choose for you so that you miss out on the time with your kids, your nights/weekends/summers?

That's a question that everyone must answer individually.  However, I know that I've often been in very bad emotional shape by trying to fit into someone else's label instead of following my heart and head while occasionally dealing with the people who shake their heads over me.

Oh, and in case you haven't experienced it, no matter what you do, someone will disapprove.  Kids/no kids, career/job/homemaker, clothes, car/no car/bike.  It doesn't matter.

Remember: "You can't please everyone.  But if you do what you like, at least one person is happy".  I've seen this attributed to Katherine Hepburn.  Whether that's true or not, it's still good advice.

[oldfullprof]

I almost went non-TT at an R-1 (from a bad TT.)  But they couldn't match my salary needs.

[niceday]

You shouldn't worry about labels but you should not forget about the real issues going on the non-TT path entails and try to see if you can do anything to mitigate some of the downsides. You are gaining something but you are also losing other things.

What if you lose this job? What if your spouse dies/you separate? There may be things you can do to lessen the negative impact of such situations. Continuing to network and occasionally go for a competitive publication, for example, or making sure there is sufficient life insurance, etc.