[restricting job search after PhD to a small regional area feasible?]

Your response has been comforting and I can relate to the feeling you had of wanting to quit the PhD (and I began to feel upset about it yesterday before I decided to post on this forum and get some feedback about options). 

I'm trying not to restrict my options other than the location aspect because, as you mentioned, I would be just limiting myself further. If there's any other field I would be qualified to teach or work in, I would jump at that opportunity if it meant I could move to my preferred location.  

As for the research, I would be open to working in a research position and would actively look for open positions when I'm about to enter the job market. I've just been mentally preparing myself to accept that research might take a little longer to find based on the limited institutions that do research in my broader field (other than universities). Even though the location will be far away from my graduate institution, I may ask to work on projects remotely (which will probably be unpaid). Since I have a couple of years, I will keep my eyes open for possible places to teach or research at. Thank you so much for sharing your experience and advice!

 

Well, for personal reasons (my husband’s job and the home we purchased is in the city where I reside) I really had no other option but to stay here for graduate school. And I probably won’t have any other option but to look for a job within the area as well. I agonized a little bit about this situation because I realized that my unmarried friends were a lot freer to move around, do program exchanges in other universities, etc. whereas I had to stay here. And as soon as my friends from older cohorts started graduating, I very quickly noticed that unless I am willing to relocate and go where the jobs are, my academic job options are somewhere in the range between “none” and “very limited”.  You’re aiming for the Bay Area so your range of options is probably wider than mine, but there were a few things that I thought about which helped me realized that even if I don’t get an academic position, it’s not all lost.

 

 

 

(1)    Research not only happens in universities. If you like research, there’s probably someone out there willing to pay you for it. In my case, there are plenty of research institutions associated with my university (where I currently work while I finish my PhD) and I’ll probably end up working full-time for them once I’m done. But that means I’ll also be close to my lab, my advisor and I’ll still be able to do more independent research with them whenever I find the time/need for it.

 

 

 

(2)    If teaching is your passion, you can always be an adjunct/sessional instructor without depending on their barely-above-poverty-line wages. I am personally finicky about teaching. I love teaching when my classes are engaged and willing to contribute to the class discussion. I loathe teaching when all I get are blank stares and it’s basically me monologuing my way through 1.5 hours of class twice per week (which happens A LOT when you’re in my area, i.e. teaching statistics/research methods to social science/psychology students). But if you really like teaching having an outside job that “pays the bills” so to speak allows you the flexibility of going into teaching and getting some experience that you can definitely put in your CV if your family situation changes and you’re suddenly free to cast a wider net in terms of a job search.

 

 

 

(3)    There’s always time to do whatever you want to do. You (like me) may end up discovering that you actually like doing research outside an academic institution more than in one. It’s weird how we can be sometimes, developing plans and goals and then freaking out about not reaching them. When the realization started sinking in that I may never end up getting a tenure track position I became somewhat depressed and even wanted to quit my PhD. But once I started working where I am now I thought “hey… this is actually better than I expected. I’m doing all the research I want minus having to submit grants, deal with admin, etc. and still getting paid for it!”

 

 

 

I do realize this may be a peculiarity of my specialization (data analysis for the social sciences) and other people’s areas of study might not be as flexible as mine.  But the one thing I feel you need to keep in mind is that you have to be flexible. If you restrict it like “I want a teaching-only position that has to be within the Bay area and in my field” then you’re gonna have a much more difficult time finding a job than if you’re willing to give yourself some wiggle room here and there. Remember, we’re all either newly minted PhDs or PhDs-in-the-works in a hurting economy that characterizes itself for high rates of un-/underemployment among people entering the workforce. We need to be more willing to adapt than the people who preceded us if we want to get somewhere. 

 

[restricting job search after PhD to a small regional area feasible?]

Also, I'm okay with part-time positions for a few years since I would have paid off my loans already and have money saved up. 

[restricting job search after PhD to a small regional area feasible?]

I would be willing to compromise on my first job until I find something I would be happy with. If I am honest, finding any descent job in the Bay Area after I finish would make me content enough as it will allow me to relocate and have some income while I look/wait for teaching/research jobs in my field. 

Thank you for the suggestion in networking at the schools early. I may be there for summer next year and will make it a point to contact them early and see if I can work with them on projects, etc. There are 2 state schools within commute distance from the city I will be living in for the summer and 4-5 community colleges (and 2  University of California schools but I'm skeptical I would find a job there right after I graduate).  

I've been also kind of learning more programming languages. I know of one that's used in the science field but I've been trying to learn python on the side for research purposes and so I can get an entry level job as a programmer in the area (since it's silicon valley) as a back up when looking for jobs but I realize I'll be competing with people more qualified.

Curious to see if there's anyone else on this forum that's been restriction in terms of location for jobs for whatever reason. 

 

[restricting job search after PhD to a small regional area feasible?]

When I entered my PhD program, I was pretty open to the idea of applying for jobs all over the country after I finish. But since then, I've been leaning more towards returning to the San Francisco Bay Area for a variety of personal and family reasons. I have 3 more years left in my phd program, which is in the social sciences field but my specialization is in atmospheric/oceanic sciences. 

How feasible would it be for me to find research or teaching positions if I restrict it to a small area like the SF Bay Area? My preference would be teaching positions, even as a lecturer, at state schools or community colleges. Ideally, I would want to teach in a 4 year institution but considering that I'm limiting myself geographically, I am loosening my restrictions on the other aspects. I do love teaching more than researching and find it to be more fulfilling for the reasons why I chose to enter my field in the first place. 

I know I have 3 more years left to finish my PhD, but for the last year I may request my department to allow me to complete my dissertation remotely. In that case, I may consider entering the job market in 2 years instead of 3, but would I qualify for teaching and research positions with just a master's and ABD? I wonder if I would even be considered for a job in 2 years if they know I'm working on my dissertation still.

I realize this is not why people enter PhD programs to settle for options like mine, but a change in family situation is why I want to restrict my search to this area (and am eager to finish my program on time so I can return asap).  I feel very worried about not being able to find a job in my field and having to consider a change in careers after working so hard to finish the phd.

Any advice/thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[How to deal with bad TA evaluations?]

 Thanks for sharing your thoughts mandarin.orange. I feel better knowing that this bad eval will not likely change my image in front of the admins (we are a small department). And I will recall this label next time when I'm about to read evals  Thanks!

[How to deal with bad TA evaluations?]

Thank you for the advice. This is helpful. It hadn't cross my mind yet how inefficient it is to focus a lot of my energy thinking about this review. I suppose I'm still kinda in shock because all the students had acted nicely towards me and I was so pleased by how well they were doing in labs.

I realize that my desire to be on good terms with everyone (and pleasing them) is probably why this is bothering me so much. I will try to practice filtering out the non-constructive comments and not spend so much energy worrying about the few bad ones. Thanks again!

[Switching research advisor??]

I agree with Gellert. But I would also recommend that you try talking to your adviser and letting him know that the project you are working on isn't really appealing to you. He may be able to have you work on something that appeals to you more.

Since he is funding you, it's better that you work for him for a semester or a year before you try leaving him. As someone above mentioned, it won't be a complete waste of resources for him since you would hopefully get some work done for his group. If, after a considerable time (like a year), you still feel disinterested, you should try to change advisers. It's not advisable to try to spend your entire PhD doing something you have little interest in.

[How to deal with bad TA evaluations?]

I got assigned last quarter by my dept. to TA for a lab that's not exactly in my field but is a lower div GE course. I would spend a lot of time preparing for labs and making sure I understand how to do the labs each week and thought I even went above and beyond sometimes finding resources to help my students navigate the class and the university in general. Only a few students mentioned how sometimes it bothered them that I didn't know the material as well but one particular review has been hard to forget lately. The comments were pretty harsh and the student accused me of not caring *at all* about the labs, sending a fellow TA to a lab section one week in my place (that TA had actually requested that I switch with her for that week because of some scheduling issue she had) and for "cheaping out" on lab materials one week (which the professor had actually instructed us to use instead of what was written in the lab). 

I'm having trouble with this review primarily because:

1) I don't want my department to think that I was not putting in any effort at all (which the review made it sound like). Has your dept ever brought up bad TA reviews with you? I'm pretty embarrassed about this one, to be honest. Do depts generally anticipate a few anomalous, bad reviews of TAs?

2) I feel upset that I'm being wrongly accused of being a type of TA I really wasn't.  It's been a few days since I read this review and now whenever I think about TAing, I get this awful feeling in my stomach.  Any tips on how to move on from a bad review?

There were several reviews that highlighted great things about my labs (one even said I was his/her favorite TA) but I now have anxiety about TAing because of this particularly harsh one.

Any suggestions on how to deal with bad reviews would be nice! I really want to learn from this, move on and be able to focus on my work and also not worry about my upcoming TAships...

[Preparing for the next wave of applications]

For your research interests, I would highly recommend not restricting your search to ecology or evolutionary biology departments. You will be surprised to find others working on similar topics in a totally different department. For instance, geography programs may be helpful to look into (check out this professor's research: http://www.geog.ucla.edu/people/faculty.php?lid=2737&display_one=1&modify=1).