Your profile indicates you’re currently in Canada, so I voted for Auckland and Brisbane, since they are the farthest from where you are now. Having been to neither Australia nor New Zealand, I can’t make an informed recommendation on either.
The only city on your list I have visited is San Francisco, It’s a fabulous place to spend a day, or a week; whether or not it would be a good place to live rather depends on how you like cities. I feel that San Francisco does have a more ‘European’ feel than most US cities, if that makes any difference.
They’re both in Beijing (21M people, ugh), and I just don’t think I could tolerate a city of that size especially with the pollution issues.
Both Australia and New Zealand have good, world class centers for AI research (see below). At 45 (in 8 days, looking forward to birthday cake), I’m not trying to make a big splash, and have a long and distinguished career. I’m just trying to enjoy what will likely be my last career (I worked in IT, management and the army, so I’ve enjoyed some good variety). Also at 45, I want to live somewhere nice. I’m done with the rat race, traffic, and angry people, and trying to get ahead, thpppt, to heck with all that. So the smaller, cleaner, nicer cities are very appealing to me.
Australia
New Zealand
I’m sure there’s more than those but those are the ones I know of for certain.
Seeing the thread on woodcarving just reminded me of something. See when my dad’s “career” took off as a woodcarver, he said to me that every day he feels like he’s retired because it doesn’t feel like work.
That’s how I feel about research. I honestly feel like I’ve retired, because I absolutely love what I do. So I just don’t feel any pressure to anything more than what I’m doing. I’m 100% content right now (well, with my own life, maybe not with what’s happening in the world).
I never really understood what my dad meant, until just recently when I started looking for a new job and there’s was no anxiety, pressure, nothing. It feels great. So why would I want to spoil that by going somewhere I’d be miserable? Who wants to “retire” someplace miserable? LOL
In that case I’d look at Germany & Switzerland. The opportunity to travel all over Europe would be nice, and I would assume that those nations have laws promoting good work/life balances. Plus the cities listed aren’t overly populated.
Come to Australia (Brisbane). No crocs that far south, the drop-bears won’t actually kill you provided you eat Vegemite, and the climate is to die-for (provided none of the other lethal things get you first).
I endorse this view. Great work life/balance to be had, and fabulous opportunities for easy weekend travel to multiple countries (and to use up the extensive holiday allowance you’ll receive).
For the European options, you should realize that Switzerland is crazy expensive. If this is reflected in higher pay, then it is a great deal if you want to travel around (everywhere else will feel like a bargain). If the money is the same (as in say, Trier) you’re probably better off somewhere else (Trier for instance).
Is this a post doc? Joining a research group? Building a research group around your research?
For those worried about cost of living, competent researchers in a hot topic field are well compensated, even at an entry-level (post doc). Especially in places like San Francisco, where a good researcher can double their salary just by snagging the right opening across the street.
From a scientific impact standpoint, I’d prioritize:
San Francisco
Zurich (ETH?, IBM?)
Brisbane
Auckland
Trier
Tampa
If you are less interested in the hurly burly of science and just want to quietly research and discuss with colleagues, occasionally presenting at a conference, then I’d shuffle these a bit:
Auckland (NZ is really far away from everything)
Brisbane
Trier
Zurich
Tampa
San Francisco
Finally, for those thinking about this as the type of job like IT, administration, etc., please understand that if one is a competent researcher (as evinced by your thesis work) in a STEM discipline from a ranked research school (one of the ways you can tell you are at a ranked school is that once you are in the PhD program, the university pretty much pays you to attend), you are pretty much assured of a middle-class to upper-middle class salary for engaging in what is essentially high level intellectual play. International travel is not only possible, but generally expected, and even lowly postdocs can expect to be able to travel to a couple of international destinations every year.
It’s not hard, all you have to do is earn one of those college degree that is “no worth it” according to many on this board.
When I joined the board, I thought long and hard about a good user name that would show I wanted to fit in. (For a while LoudMouthCondescendingKnowItAll was the leading candidate.)
Then I realized the perfect description that was also an obscure joke…
Depends on how much he is going to make in San Francisco. I live at the end of one of the BART lines, and 1500 sq. ft houses near me are over $1 million. But the weather is great.
That would make it my top choice (in Europe at least). Zurich is fairly big and international and you can go to Germany, France, Italy, Austria, etc for a day trip if you want… where everything would feel cheap as hell. Also, the Alps are kind of ridiculous, especially if you like the color green.
I want to thank everybody for your feedback. It is going to be months before I find out what is going to happen (probably by the end of the year), but I’ll be sure to put an update here.
