Heavy Travel Year

I just booked my trip to Korea. Later in the year I may go to the US. And I already visited Cloud Cuckoo Land (CCL). It will be my busiest flying year since 2002 when I did two round the world trips, a trip to Israel and back, and moved to the US from Australia. A total of 95,000 miles. This year is heading to 50,000 + miles but will still be only the third heaviest traveling year for me unless I exceed 2001's 60,000 miles (Two trips to the US and one to Britain). The next couple of years are going to involve a lot of flying too. I do actually have data on all the flights I have ever taken:



I started the file some time in the early 1990s when I was curious how far I had flown so far and there weren't that many flights yet to remember. The first time I flew was when I was 18 in 1983. It was also the first time I left my home country.

I didn't get the job in CCL and today put in another application for a permanent job at my current employer. This is fifth the since since we moved back to Australia. Some important people want to hire me and so the chances look very good. But I have had department chairs wanting to hire me before only to be over-ruled by other faculty members when they got to compare me with the other candidates.

Reporting from Cloud Cuckoo Land

I'm at the airport in Cloud Cuckoo Land on my way home. The internet at the airport is free as is university education in this country. And any student who graduated high school can go to any university in the country and study any subject they like. There are no caps on enrolments. It really is Cloud Cuckoo Land :) Of course, a lot of those students fail the exams in the courses they pick and choose another subject or drop out of Uni. EU students can also get to study free here. The town is beautiful and everyone I met at the university was friendly. However the job involves teaching a lot of courses in a technical area which is a skill I have but not my research focus. I'm not so confident of teaching that subject at the graduate level. The hours of teaching per week required is similar to what I taught in the US but I would have to teach twice as many courses for half the time each. At my current university (where I don't have a permanent position yet but things are again looking up in that regard) there is an exceptionally low teaching load. And then there is the question of whether we would want to live in a foreign country learning a new language, though I do know quite a bit of the local language already and think I could learn fairly easily. On the upside there is a very good possibility of a job for Snork Maiden too.

Well, there were 6 candidates interviewed over the last two days in a non-stop marathon of presentations and interviews. The decision on the ranking of the candidates is supposedly being taken now as I am writing.

Career Update

I bought the ticket for the interview in Cloud Cuckoo Land - $2947. That's a bit over the budget they gave me of Euros 2000. A direct flight to the capital seemed to come out even worse and then I'd need to get a train for 2 1/2 hours. So I'm flying to Frankfurt and then flying to the city in question.

In the meantime in Australia I am making progress on getting a permanent job despite some setbacks. It looks like a position I can apply for will again be advertised soon and there are various developments I am pushing which would provide a course for me to teach and collaborations with other areas in the university.

P.S. I took my suit to be altered to fit my new smaller size. It was big when I bought it but for some reason I believed the salesman that that was OK. Since then I lost a few kilos in weight. The alteration cost is less than a new suit of that quality and I think it will look better than when I first bought it when this guy is done with it. He altered a suit for me once before many years ago and also adjusted Snork Maiden's wedding dress.

Job Interview on the Other Side of the World

Just heard. About one month's time.

Weight Loss

When I cam back from Europe I found I was 2-3kg lighter at least than when I left and I decided to try to keep losing weight. I had been trying half-heartedly for a while. I've now been keeping a daily weight record for almost three months. The results look like this:



The scale is in kilograms (multiply by 2.2 or divided by 0.454 to get pounds). I'm 1.90m (6' 3") tall so that should explain why the number might look big to you if you're not so tall. As you can see, my initial enthusiasm wore off but I still seem to be losing weight. I've averaged a loss of 34 grams (just over an ounce) a day. Initially though it was about 67 grams a day. Mainly, I've tried to eat less at each meal, especially less bread and less rice and cut out calories for the sake of calories in the form of alcohol etc. And eat fewer and lower calories snacks. There is nothing I stopped eating completely though and I don't measure how much I eat. I just try to moderate as much as possible. This has worked before for me and it seems to be working now. It will take about another 9 months at this rate to get me down to my real target of about 90kg. I'm pretty happy to be approaching 100kg again though.

Downside is that neither of my two suits fits me now. One is too big and one too small. I don't want to get the big one adjusted to my current size though... I'm thinking anyway a suit will be too hot for my next interview and I'll just do the shirt and tie thing. This is academia and though it is part of a business school I noticed the pictures on the website of people are not wearing suits and ties.

Career Update

I had a phone interview with one college in the US but I heard on Saturday that I'm not being invited to the on-campus interview unless they don't like any of the candidates they have invited. In other words, I'm a back up candidate again. Haven't heard from any other US jobs yet but I suspect we'll be staying in Australia for now. I scheduled my interview for a job in Sydney in less than 2 weeks time on Friday.

Another Interview

This time in the nearest big city in a month and a bit...

Two Months to Go

Two months to go from today until I teach my first class. Three months till the next deadline for grant applications - though the real deadline is before that. And there a bunch of shorter term research demands coming in. So, it doesn't look like I'll be getting much of a summer vacation :) I don't have a contract yet for the new job and things move very slowly here but that doesn't stop me starting preparing for teaching. For example, here I have to find the teaching assistant who will help me with teaching the breakout groups called "tutorials". At least I have a textbook ordered, my own copy and all the materials from last year and the last time I taught a similar class in the US. The problem is that now most of the people who can help me with the details of scheduling etc. have all gone on vacation. At least I got to meet some and get the basic before the Christmas period started.

Taking a longer term perspective it is just over two years since I decided to get back into my academic career. Since then I have managed to get two one year jobs - the first one in research and the second in teaching/research (the one that I'm sorting out the details for now). I got a little consulting and a paid visit to Europe in the gap in between. I got several academic papers published in 2010 and three are already lined up for 2011 with about another three in various stages of review. I've also had several interviews for longer term jobs but no offer yet. I feel that am more productive and creative on the research side than I have ever been in my career at least since I did my PhD. So I think I made the right decision and that I have had about as much success as I could have hoped for.

Career Update

I am still waiting to get a formal contract, but this is based on what has been discussed. I should have a job for one year doing teaching and research. It's on the same campus I have already been based at but in a different department. The position is at a level equivalent to full professor in the US, though it's not called that here and of course it is temporary. Pay will be the first time I am earning a six figure salary. At the current exchange rate that's six figures in US Dollars too but it doesn't buy as much here.

The first course I have to teach is pretty much the same as the first half of a course I taught in the US and even using a different version of the book by the same authors, so shouldn't be too hard. Main difference is these are grad students rather than undergrads but this course isn't in their discipline so the difference between grads and undergrads isn't that big. So the teaching shouldn't be hard though I've never taught in Australia before.

This department is advertising a bunch of continuing positions but none is really in my area. I heard though today that a university in the nearest big city is looking for someone who fits my profile well. But, I applied there last year and didn't get an interview. But I'll give them another chance. I also got an invite for a phone interview with a US university.



So far I've proved that you can quit a job as a tenured professor, move country, take a year out and still get decent work in academia, at least some of the time :) The experiment will only be a full success though when I get a continuing position or a major grant. But you do need to have a good reputation and be prepared to work without getting paid for periods of time.

Career Update

I finally got answers on the two jobs I interviewed for at the beginning of November. I didn't get either. So looks like I will be taking up the offer I had of a one year position here.

I guess I am doing OK in this career search. I get interviewed for jobs I apply for but don't end up the top candidate. Academia is very competitive. Just to get into the interview pool means you are in the top few percent of applicants.

The main thing is that we'll be earning decent money in 2011 if all goes to plan from now on. The department I will likely be working for has some continuing positions that will soon be advertised but I'm not really a perfect fit for them. I'm going to keep applying elsewhere and try >another shot at funding my own position through a grant. The rules look like changing on the latter which might let me apply this time around. At least I have last year's efforts to start from.

Career Update

So I had two interviews and haven't heard back yet. I have now sent 4 applications out to the US - 2 on the West Coast and two on the East Coast, 1 to Europe, and one to another city in Australia. I'm discussing with someone at another university in that city about whether to apply for the job they're advertising (well, I'm getting more info as last year I applied and was rejected without interview). And then a short-term and long-term opportunity here have possibly cropped up. We discussed the short-term deal here months ago and I thought it was then off the table. But I was just told that it was mentioned that an offer had been made to me and I hadn't taken them up on it. So on that basis I should have a job from January for a year. I'll meet the guy making the offer at a conference in the next few days and will raise it with him there. I'm guessing he'll still want to wait the outcome of the two interviews mentioned above but there is light at the end of the tunnel after a lot of twists and turns...

Also at one of the US locations there is also a possibility that a position could be created for Snork Maiden in a different unit.

Tax Refund

It came in pretty close to my estimate at $A 4231.81. The money will go towards reducing margin debt and maintaining my monthly $A500 investments in a managed fund. Yes, we've managed to keep both mine and Snork Maiden's automatic savings going over this period (no retirement contributions for me though). The recent round of interviews and presentations ended today, should send out the next application ASAP... Seems like they went OK to well. We'll see what the search committees think.

Interviews/Applications

I had the interview I mentioned before on Thursday. It went OK. It wasn't my best performance in an interview but I wasn't horrible. I really don't know what the outcome might be. One positive I didn't know about is that they need someone to teach in my area of specialization as the person who was teaching those courses has left.* Then on Friday was part I of another interview in my home town here. This was just a friendly chat with some general representatives of the department. One academic who I know well and two PhD students. Neither of us had much clue about what we were meant to discuss. I asked them some questions about the department and they asked me some. The more serious sessions are on Monday and Tuesday. It is a lower rank position at a very interdisciplinary place.

In the meantime I just sent an application in for a job in Austria. Yeah, it's hard imagining that I'll be able to teach in German any time soon, but I'm curious what happens. I was indirectly invited to apply.



* This isn't the usual academic job search where specializations were specified in the ad. They are looking for the best people in any area of the overall discipline.

Career Update

I now have an interview lined up here for early next month. The original deadline for the job was early this year but they advertised for a whole bunch of positions and put together a very high powered interview team which would be very hard to get in one place together any time. And then I went travelling for almost 6 months. So it has taken 8 months to give me an interview in the end. They will be interviewing higher level positions for a while yet so I don't think my absence made much difference. We'll be doing plenty of prep for the interview closer to the date. The hardest question I think will be why I want to join this group when I have applied for jobs with other groups here and failed to be appointed. I don't need to give them a presentation. Presentations have been my weak point in recent job hiring processes. Not the interviews.

I am not actively looking for positions outside Australia but there is a constant flow of ads for jobs around the world that comes through the various networks. Now there is an ad for a job in the US in a highly desirable location geographically (in our opinion) where maybe Snork Maiden could also get hired on grant money as she has connections. It would put me back to the same point I was at in 2002 when I moved to the US from Australia and I am really not keen on making the move back to the US. But maybe it is something we should look at? The problem is though they are open to more senior candidates than many job ads are I wouldn't be offered tenure and Snork Maiden's position would also be very precarious and we would have no rights to live in work in the US until 5 years plus it would take to get a green card (given my previous experience). At least this time I could apply for a green card for Snork Maiden together with myself in one application. Last time around my application was already in progress before we met and we didn't marry until moving to Australia. If we stick things out another year here in Australia she can become a citizen here already. So there is an incentive to do that.

Accepted

Back in March I wrote that I was nominated by the Australian government for a UN scientific advisory body. I just heard today that the UN group accepted my nomination and so I will be participating for the next few years. Now if only I can convince someone here that this shows I should be worthy of getting a job! :) There are hundred of people involved in this effort but still there are not that many from any one country.

Snork Maiden's Funding Confirmed

Some good news. Snork Maiden heard that the funding her team got for the next two years is no longer contingent on them raising additional matching funding. On the other hand, they'll be able to employ one less person without getting more funding but her salary is funded by the confirmed money.

Indirectly Informed of Rejection

They just announced today who got the positions in my department. So, I find out that I won't get an offer (there was a chance of a second round offer). I haven't received formal notification of rejection yet. So it is annoying to find out this way. By not appointing me and instead appointing a more junior candidate they have been able to partially fund a couple more very junior positions... Now all my focus will be on my upcoming interview (date not specified yet) at another department here...

Rejection...

Today, I got the rejection e-mail for the job in Brisbane that I applied for. We didn't want to go to Brisbane anyway and I didn't want to do this job, particularly, anyway so no big deal. Still haven't heard the outcome for the job I most recently interviewed for here though.

Another Interview

Yeah, another one. Sometime in May. Depending on ranking this is the top department in Australia. I think I need to do a different presentation than the one that failed to get a first round offer here. I think it is my presentations that are letting me down... The most impressive stuff I can show though is a very incomplete project. So not sure if that can work.

More Concrete Offer

So I met with the Director just now. He offered me a backstop one year regular teaching/research position if all three candidates accept the offers they made. It might take a month till we know what the outcome is. It will take about a week to get contracts to the candidates and then they will have 2-3 weeks to accept or reject...