I have it on good authority that I’m about to be offered a position I applied for, but it’s an odd case of having no “gut hunch” (not that gut hunches are 100% or even 89% accurate) over the decision. It’s a job at a university that has lots of advantages over my current position but nothing that’s absolutely major, and at the interview I got neither warm fuzzies nor cold pricklies- just a resounding “hmmm”. The people were nice but we didn’t super-click, and neither did I get a “two faced byatch” sentiment towards anybody. The job itself is doable but not a dream-job. The city is likewise.
A fairly concise (at least for me) bit of back-info:
I have job hopped a good bit in recent years due mostly to family matters. I left a job I liked in Georgia for Alabama when my mother’s health began to decline, and my impression of the library I worked for there, even on the day I applied, was negative- I never would have taken it left solely to my own devices. When my mother was diagnosed as terminal I accepted my current position, which is a job where I am not utilized to the best of my abilities (nice people, but NO professional challenge- I’ll probably kick myself when I go to another job and have 4 plates spinning and 4 on a table waiting to be added and remember that “I used to complain that I wasn’t challenged enough”). I don’t regret the hopping in recent years as it was necessary, but it is important to me that I remain at my next position for a while to atone for it.
The advantages of the new position include-
1- it’s convenient to Atlanta (within an hour to MidTown) so that I can take advantage of the things that city has to offer (and Atlanta is where “my platonic soulmate” lives)
2- it’s far enough away from Atlanta that I don’t have to put up with the traffic and the congestion and the prices that city has to offer
3- I can complete my second masters on the U’s dime (tuition remission) and I really need one if I’m to remain in this field
4- I know the boss very well and got along well with her when we worked together before
5- It’s a large enough college to have a college feel but it’s not a research university (i.e. the “publish or perish” and faculty ego factors aren’t as huge)
Money is about the same- a little more but the higher CoL eats it evenly, so no loss no gain.
Disadvantages-
1- The library is old and somewhat neglected
2- The people seem nice but unimaginative/unexhilirating (if you know what I mean- not that there’s anything wrong with that)
3- I would have to deal with the tenure track stuff again (which this library is blessedly free of)
4- Moving’s always a pain-in-the-ass
5- There’s nothing remotely “special” about the town or the campus
6- While I’d be closer to my closest friend there, I’d be leaving good friends here
So it’s a Burridan’s Ass type of thing. I have no instinct in the matter and the two bales of hay seem roughly equal. The job I have now is tolerable but unsatisfying, a semi-pleasant waste of time careerwise, while the one I’ll be offered would be more challenging, but you never know when you’ll stumble into a hornet’s nest (so, major risk, but also a chance I’d get there and love it).
So the reason I put this in IMHO rather than MPSIMS is to ask this: when you have a major decision to make and no real overwhelming advantage to moving or to standing still, which do you think it’s best to opt towards- move, or stand still?
