Drinks another coffee and she finds it hard to stay awake

[austin_dern]

Another week, another job rejection. At least it's nice to get some notice, although to be honest I had forgotten I had ever applied to the school. It's down in Georgia, suggesting to me it was somewhere that gafennec recommended to me, and I suppose it's a sign of lingering despair that it just really doesn't register anymore. I don't even know how many ``live'' applications I have out there.

What has got me strangely depressed is I got invited to interview for a job. It was originally sent to the mathematics department at my graduate school, and I sent a note saying I was interested if it was still open, and they asked for my CV. All that seems well enough -- today they asked if I could provide any references, and if I could come up Monday or Wednesday next week to give a roughly 45-minute talk showing off my teaching skills. And I suppose that's what poured cold water on me: it'd be something like four hours driving up there and just as long driving back, and the position, if I got it, would be a one-term adjunct position for one or two sections of freshman calculus, with a ``may be a possibility'' of one or two sections of the same for the spring term.

If it weren't so far away -- and it's far from anyone I could plausibly beg for room to sleep in -- that wouldn't be so bad, but it is obviously far out of range of my vaguely job-like current employment. Unless they're paying Princeton University-level salaries for adjuncts it'd be financially more responsible to continue sitting nervously in my office while waiting for a specific responsibility. (Even if they are paying Princeton money, it would still not be close.) And that with the need to rent an apartment and set up a home for maybe four or perhaps eight months ...

I don't want to close out possible leads, particularly since I did jump without really looking into this, but I don't really see how I could plausibly take the job, even if I got it. And yet I wonder how much of this is rationalizing the fact I don't really want to do eight hours driving in one day or stay in a hotel overnight and split the driving over two days.

Trivia: The typeface Clarendon was designed by Benjamin Fox in 1845 for Robert Besley at London's Fann Street Foundry. Source: The Meaning of Everything, Simon Winchester.

Currently Reading: Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938, R A Scotti.

Comments

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

Well, as a notion of 'keeping you in the game', it might be worthwhile to pursue the position; given your current job status, you now have the ability to bargain from a position of strength if they tender an offer. "Thank you, but given my current employment, I can only accept this if I'm guaranteed three sections over both semesters, and salary of X." Then name the X that would satisfy you, and be prepared for a no but ready to be astonished by a yes.

--Chiaroscuro

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Well, it's a bit early to say, but there might be developments along this line soon. I'll let you know when something does turn up.

[reptilemammal.livejournal.com]

Mongi's got a good point there. I ams sure there is something out there waiting, I just don't know what it is.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Well, what I want is to be paid for living in Singapore and writing my blog, but I've got to build up to that.