job update!

I have a new blog look! Like it? Six months after the wedding, I also finally changed the counter that Jack helped me set up, the "x days until the wedding." Since we got married, it has said "We're married! Until the wedding!" which made no sense. :-)

Update! Extra extra, read all about it! Steve has a semi-official job offer and I have a job interview. Unfortunately, they aren't in the same city, but we are working on that...

A week ago, Steve's current place of employment (where he has a post-doc) offered him a promotion to research associate. He had applied for this job and had an interview scheduled for the end of January, but they were getting time pressure from another applicant. They decided to offer Steve the job first (even without interviewing!) and told him he had a week to decide. This is great, but sent me into a frenzy to have a week to find a semi-definite post-doc possibility for me here, for once I finish the diss.

I had already spoken to a couple faculty members at Temple about post-doc potentials, so I went into high gear trying to assess whether these are really positions I am interested in, and exploring the research projects I would do if I worked with these people. This involved a day trip to NYC on Tuesday to see a children's museum there -- the person I'm considering most helped design an exhibit there, and she is interested in conducting some studies addressing how children learn in a playful environment versus a more structured one. She is very interested in children's informal learning through play, which is something I would be interested in too. It is related enough to my current research, but different enough that it would expand my experiences. (Incidentally, it is Kathy I am considering working with, one of the authors of this book, which looks eye catching from the title!) We also discussed doing some studies on how parents and children (probably 2 years and up) use gestures as symbolic, as aids to verbal communication. This is a really great possibility, and although there are several funding possibilties if I worked with her, there isn't one guaranteed source, so it would be something I would have to work on.

My other post-doc option is at Vanderbilt, working with the same 2 researchers who I applied to work with for graduate school there 5 years ago -- Georgene and Meg. (It is interesting to think about how DIFFERENT my life would be if I had gone there for grad school instead of PSU -- I never would have met Steve! Crazy to think about.) They have a university fellowship that would fund me for 2 years there. Even though I had just sent in my application last week, I told them about the time pressure and they hurried it along. A week later, they've invited me for an interview and job talk about my research, which will be the week of February 5. Whew! All of this has been really head-spinningly fast. Steve is also looking for things at Vanderbilt, other post-doc positions in psychology, motor control and cognitive neuroscience.

As it turns out, there isn't so much time pressure for Steve now (for complicated reasons I won't go into), which is great! Obviously, if his place had needed an answer by today, I wouldn't have had time to go to Vanderbilt for an interview and really consider that as an option. We would have had to choose between a definite thing (Steve's offer in Philly, my maybe-but-needs-funding thing here) and an uncertain thing (my still-to-interview-for at Vanderbilt, and Steve's only hypothetical possibilities there now). With more time, I can go on the interview, continue to explore funding possibilities at Temple, and Steve can continue to look for something at Vanderbilt too.

I've also decided that I will likely take until December to finish the dissertation and other graduate school related stuff. Lynn and I have several papers that we need to write and submit for publication, and the best time to do that is NOW, before I move on to the next thing. It can get pretty hellish to move on to a job when one still has lingering grad school things to tie up, and if I aimed to start a post-doc in August, I would likely have those things hanging over my head. I'd like to avoid that if possible! Also, especially if I do the Temple thing, I'd have to secure funding somehow, which would take time -- both time to write a grant and also time for it to get approved/funded (or link my proposed projects to an existing grant).

We should know by the middle of February where we will be for the next few years. Both places have their appeal for different reasons, and in only a week we have looked at it from more angles I can count. I have also changed on an hourly basis which one I think is the best option...so it is tough! I am sure after a few more weeks of this, we will be glad to get it settled. Cross your fingers for us with our first adventure into the "two-body problem" of academic jobs!