In the comments section of Tom Cochrane's post in our long job-market journeys series, Amanda writes:
Marcus can we have a thread on moving for a job? For some people who love adventure, I suppose the choice is easy. But for most people, they are faced with a real life-altering, and not at all easy, choice regarding whether to permanently move somewhere very far from friends and family or leave the profession. In my experience, there is an expectation that you must be willing to move anywhere or else you are simply not dedicated enough to be a philosopher. But is this rational? In a discipline that prides itself in critical thinking it is amazing we don't talk about the tradeoffs of being an academic. One big one is that moving away from family means it might be impossible to eventually care for aging parents. I would love to hear how some people went through this decision making process, and perhaps some thoughts on whether professional expectations are reasonable or healthy.
An excellent query – one I haven't seen much discussed. I too would love to hear from people who've had to make these kinds decisions, both on (1) how they made their decision, and (2) their experience once the decision was made (how their lives changed, whether they are happy with the decision, etc.).
For my part, I made one decision sort of like this while on the job-market, and came very close to having to make even more difficult decisions. My first job was a VAP at the University of British Columbia. Because I was basically done with the PhD and it was the only offer I had, I accepted the offer–even though it required me to move out of the US away from the love of my life (my now-spouse). It was not a terribly difficult decision, as we had an excellent relationship that I firmly believed would survive the move. However, once I got there, it was very difficult. We flew to visit each other only once a month or so, and so even though I still had another year left in the VAP, I decided to apply for jobs back in the US. Fortunately, I got offered another VAP in Tampa, which I accepted. While I was told that transferring from an R1 job to a teaching job might have implications for my competitiveness on the job-market–something that seems borne out by my job-market experience (as the kinds of interviews I got before and after the move were very different)–moving to Tampa was nevertheless an easy decision. I was unhappy being away from my spouse, and decided to prioritize the relationship. I am glad I did.
I nearly faced much more difficult decisions later on. During my next several years on the market, I got fly-outs to several institutions on different continents: in the UK, Asia, Europe, and Africa. Although I didn't end up with job-offers (and so never had to make a difficult decision), the fact that I was a finalist and had a fair probability of getting an offer led to many difficult conversations with my spouse. I've always been the adventurous type. All things being equal, I'd be happy to move anywhere. However, my spouse was (and is) in a PhD program she couldn't easily move away from; is much more tied to being close to her family; and in many of the countries I interviewed in she would not be even able to work if we moved there (due to visa/immigration restrictions). I honestly don't know what we would have done if I had received one of those offers. I probably would have had to accept the job–but there is a real chance doing so would have taken me thousands of miles away from my spouse. It's a decision I would never want to have to make. Fortunately, somehow, I never had to.
Anyway, these are my experiences on Amanda's topic. What are yours? Have you faced the prospect of moving for a job? How did you make the decision? Are you happy with the decision?
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