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[paddington_bear]

I couldn't figure out an appropriate thread for this poll/post. I though about putting it in the Mid-Career thread, but it's not necessarily a mid-career question......

I'm still in the first t-t job I've ever had, after 12 years. Is this pretty rare? It's not unusual in my department;  the most senior faculty have been here for 25+ years, and in the 12 years that I've been here, only two people - out of about 9 - hired with or after me have left for other jobs. (And no one in my department is what I or others would consider "dead weight"; the senior faculty have remained active.) The geographic region leaves plenty to be desired, and the school itself has its problems like so many others. But I love my department colleagues. The department functions well, and the administration is generally good to work with. The region is fine - not great, but fine - with me. The difficulties of finding a job now, much less an associate prof. job, aside, occasionally I feel like I "should" leave, although I'm not sure why I feel that way. I haven't made myself tenure-able in my discipline, really, although I'm sure I'd be able to make a move to a similar school. I think I've been reading the "job-seeking experiences thread" too much, which give me "the grass is greener" syndrome. Sometimes I do wonder what it would be like to live in a more urban or diverse environment, but I don't want to give up my department to do that.

[fayefaye]

Just looking at my department I'd say it's evenly split between 1 and 2 jobs.

I'm too junior really to say much. I hope that my first job is my last. It seems like the kind of place I could stay in, but we'll see. Me, I'm just tired of moving.

[cityprof]

I voted "Other," because while I'm still at my first job and have been here for a decade, I'm not at all convinced I'll retire here. I love it here, love my job/colleagues and love the area, but I do not love the cost of living, and with two kids and a husband with a regular middle-class job (which is to say, not in finance or something similarly high-paid) it's getting tougher every day to justify staying.

Hubby and I both work on college campuses (he's not an academic, though, happily, which means he's more portable than I) and both love our jobs. And such jobs as we have are not exactly easy to come by. Still, we can't afford a house in this city and probably will never be able to, and I have some real doubts about the public schools, even in our relatively "nice" area.

Maybe we'll just move to the suburbs, though, which I think I would hate and would be only a tiny bit cheaper, but would probably solve the house/schooling issues.

edited to add: Most people in our department stay for the long haul. Only one person has left since I arrived (a very scandalous and unfair tenure denial). Lots of people seem to have more resources than we do, too, in terms of buying real estate--a lot of my colleagues are married to (well-paid) lawyers, have family wealth, or similar, so they have purchased homes in the area. And it's a great area if you can afford it, which is, I think, why few leave. Plus our department, despite a few of the usual crazies, is pretty collegial.

[amlithist]

(to answer the question):

God, I hope so.

[cancom]

In my partner's field (social work) there is a saying that people who work in the job she used to have always wanted to 'retire to a job with the school board.' That's what it feels like where I am.

Most people here get a job and stay forever - I'm in the minority by being under 40 (barely), and am younger than most of my colleagues by upward of a decade or more. It's interesting but kind of discombobulating since there is an imbalance between comfortable and still wanting to move on. I'm in the latter camp and can't see myself here for long.

I think that the context/life stuff makes more difference for me even if I could live with the strangeness of my job and institution. I think this forum was the right one for this question since life choices, which apparently academics are sometimes allowed to take into consideration as a factor in determining where to live, are not to be underestimated.

[larryc]

I thought my first job would be my last job--I'm in history! You might as well buy your cemetery plot with your first paycheck, they aren't getting any cheaper, right? And like the OP I loved my department. But a better opportunity arose and I was able to make the unlikely mid-career move. Now I will certainly retire where I am.

[zoelouise]

I picked "other".

I have been here more than 5 years and have tenure. This is my first t-t job.

I have interviewed at 2 places since coming here and been offered one; the other I would not have taken had it been offered (department chair made a timely counter-offer).

I like my job and my colleagues. People hardly ever leave, even folks like me who could and thought they would. Fact is, it's a nice place to work. Good colleagues, good students, good support from administration. Being the biggest department in the college helps.

This is not the type of position I thought I would be in; it's an R1 but this department is not exactly the type I thought I would join. The two interviews were the other kind of department- and I didn't like them! This slight mismatch was the primary reason I thought I would leave, but this department has bent a little to make the job fit me better than I thought it ever would. They really value a contribution, even one a little outside their usual areas.

The second reason I thought I might not stay is the that our place is considered very geographically undesirable, but it's actually a pretty good place to live. There is much joking, university-wide, about how many folks come for a few years and stay forever.

And maybe I will. But I keep looking around, too, just to see what is out there. (Husband is highly mobile and does not care where we live.)

[unoriginal]

Looking around my department and the nearby departments, I can only come up with one person for whom this is not their first t-t job. 

I've been here >5 years and I'll probably retire here.  It's not my first (or second, or third) choice of place to live, but it's ok and has grown on me.  More importantly, I have a two-body issue that I can't imagine we'll ever be able to solve again, so this is it. 

[glowdart]

We've been hiring people from other TT lines since the economy tanked.  This isn't true of the older generations. 

[betterslac]

I was in a government job for a few years, then 9 years in a faculty position in an undesirable geographical location, then 4 years in another faculty position in a better part of the country, now going on 2 years here in foreign country. I may stay here until I retire, or, if my book makes some waves, come back to the States if the opportunity presents itself.

Yeah, I've gotten around a bit.

[scotia]

I am in my second faculty job, though a big departmental merger in my last job meant that I effectively started afresh (in a permanent post - the UK does not have tenure) after 4.5 years in my first position. I left after another 4.5 years. If the merger had not happened I would probably have left earlier.

I am also in my second career, having worked in industry for five years after completing my PhD. I don't think this will be my final job before I retire, but I may be wrong. Certainly, although I get very frustrated at the intransigent bureaucracy of ScotioU, and at the attitude of some of my colleagues from time to time, and struggle with the lack of motivation of too many of the students, no-one here has shown themselves to be particularly malevolent (unlike both my post-doc and previous departments), which definitely adds to my quality of life. If I do move, I will be very selective about where I go.

[msparticularity]

My first faculty job was a continuing position (in which I was a full voting member of my department), and I left that for the TT position I have now. I am moving again next year, to a position I hope and expect will be permanent for me.

[paddington_bear]

All of these responses are very interesting! Although the sample size is small, obviously, I'm surprised by the poll results. I would have expected fewer people to think that their first job will be their last job, or to still have been in their first job.

[janewales]

I'm of the generation that hit the market in the late 80s, another very grim time. We were pretty much conditioned to start scouting out grave plots, if we were lucky enough to land a tenure-track job, no matter where it was. As it happens, I landed somewhere great, so haven't wanted to move, but in any case it's only recently that there's been a revival of the possibility of mobility at the senior level in my field.

[compdoc]

I answered that I left before 5 years, which is true. But 18 years later I am back. When I came, I thought it would be forever. Maybe not, but it would be nice.

My New Tt-town is the home of my heart, but the adjustment to being grown-up and no kiddos on the tt with a husband in another place has been a LOT harder than I expected.