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[inneedofadvice]

Situation: You verbally accepted (not in writing) a low-paid visiting position (=school 1). A week or two after (no later), you were offered a tenure-track position that was suitably paid and in a more desirable location (=school 2). (This is assuming school 1 did not give you more time to consider, so you made your decision before you were able to hear from school 2.)

Questions: Could/would you then apologize to school 1 and inform them that you changed your mind and would not be joining them in the fall? Would school 1 really fault someone for taking hard-to-come-by stable employment if the opportunity arose early in the hiring season and if a contract or offer letter had not yet been signed and returned?

Please advise.

[larryc]

If you did not sign a contract, you are completely in the clear to choose Door #2.

Congratulations.

[nevertenured]

lol, this is a familiar topic

[mleok]

Honestly, even if you did sign a contract, I would still accept the tenure-track position, and worry about the fallout later. In practice, reasonable people will understand, and unreasonable people won't, but there is no profit in constantly trying to placate unreasonable people.

If you inform them a week after you accepted the offer, they would likely still be in a position to recover from that without too much inconvenience, so I wouldn't feel too bad about it.

[imawakenow]

In one of the few areas in which there is (almost total) consensus on the fora: TT > VAP.

Be gracious when you retract your acceptance of the VAP, but take the TT offer.

Congratulations!

[nocalprof]

.... TT > VAP.

...

Congratulations!

Correction, TT >>> VAP

Congrats!

And don't sweat leaving the other position - it's a no-brainer.  Just be nice and apologetic.

[inneedofadvice]

Thank you for sharing and for putting my mind at ease!