Sunday, September 22, 2013

How do you people do it?

How do professors ever get any research done when they are teaching? I'm asking seriously.

Last week (Sunday to Saturday) I worked 49 hours. 35 hours of it was teaching, 14 of it was other stuff (e.g. looking for jobs, being a good lab and department citizen, email). 25 of those hours were for my adjunct position, which included grading about 35 lab reports. 10 hours were for being a TA. I had Adele (now 4 months old) with me at school Tuesday and Thursday (a friend babysat her while I taught). I worked at home with her (and Jon) on Friday.

I am feeling overwhelmed. I don't have nearly enough time to work on my own advancement. I need to get publications submitted and I need to find a job. Both of these things are feeling impossible. Jon said it best-- I basically have 4 jobs. Teaching at UBC, teaching at the other place, applying for jobs, and then continuing everything I've been working on for the last 6 years.

Part of me wants to just give up on my research aspirations and find a nice 9-5 job with some paid vacation and benefits.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Job lead

I've been corresponding with Dr. Evenbigger about being a postdoc with him-- a conversation that he initiated. But he's in Europe. There is so much to think about and so many unknowns, but this seems by far my most promising job prospect. It would only be for a year, but moving husband, dog, and baby to a new country where we don't speak the language is daunting. Although not as daunting as the job I interviewed for in April, since this at least requires no field work. With a breastfeeding baby and a still-recovering body, there is definitely no strenuous field work in my near future.