Job Hunt Stress.
My employer has never offered me commitment, with me being first put on 12 contracts, then 6 month contracts. Generally I only get to find out if it is being extended about 2 to 3 weeks before the closure date.
It's very frsustrating, as I need a bit more stability and with the Tories servere education cuts (I work at a uni researching and teaching) I may find my self out of work, if I'm not carefull.
However, in looking for a new academic job, it seems that every potential employer wants to beat their chest about how academically superior they are. All this has done has left me feeling very inadiquate. :(
I'm finding the job hunt very stressfull and very deflating for my self cofidence, so much so I'm thining I may not be smart enough for my own job. :(
It's very frsustrating, as I need a bit more stability and with the Tories servere education cuts (I work at a uni researching and teaching) I may find my self out of work, if I'm not carefull.
However, in looking for a new academic job, it seems that every potential employer wants to beat their chest about how academically superior they are. All this has done has left me feeling very inadiquate. :(
I'm finding the job hunt very stressfull and very deflating for my self cofidence, so much so I'm thining I may not be smart enough for my own job. :(
Post edited by Scottie_uk on
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There are literally hundreds of thousands of very skilled employees sitting around twiddling thumbs at the moment as there is nothing for them to do in the economy right now. Should you have time, its important to fill the time with something positive so that you can use the time constructively should you become temporarily unemployed.
I've been unemployed for 10 months now and during that time I've been developing an open-source piece of software that I hope one day will become the de-facto standard for certain types of businesses. I may not be salaried, but nothing can stop me working.
Adversity cannot be avoided, defeat is entirely avoidable.
The funding for my current project runs out next July. So I'm not sure if I'll be there next year. I've been doing a lot of looking in the USA also. Its this time of year that US universities do their hiring for next year. So I was looking at maybe applying and emigrating as my wife is from the US.
With the tory cuts I can't see UK universities hiring new staff soon. Just a quick look at the UK academic job market reveals that almost all jobs are temporary, and those few that are permenant are for the uber speciallist with decades of experience.
I'm wondering now if I should forget academia and work in industry.
What is your field of research?
depends on you .. a friend did that.. went back to uni as admin.. out again to commercial world.. then back to academia... the money is better in commercial world for him BUT the stress isn't.. 2 different disciplines
like programming for work, friends used to bodge code together , a lot of cut / paste.. quick at work THEN write the documentation.. at uni, well it was more thought out.
maybe it's recent events that have focused you more on things ? or lack of sleep ? :)
Unemployed in his emperor's holy country for 10 months in these tough times, and as a dirty, hairy barbarian (=foreigner) to boot? Holy crap, I would think Ishihara must be eager to kick you out of his glorious land of green tea and onsens.
Damn 10 months ? How have you survived ? Must have a lot of savings
Could do that for now until you get the job you really want. Just think of this other job as just temporary until that great full time job appears you want. Take an 'industry' type of job until the teaching role appears ? Without sounding like your dad just save up as much as you can during these times and dont blow it on anything silly
Does your wife work ? After her maternity leave can she return to work and you then look after the nipper for a bit ?
Yeah but i thought takapa (i know he currently lives in Japan) was from the UK so i wondered how it worked if you're unemployed in another country as you wont get the same benefits will you ?
Yes that's an option, but she earns much less than me, we will never be hard up, we both ave too much skills and experience for that. I just really hate applying for jobs, and it doesn't help when the employer oversells themselves and because of this potential employers feel they have to do the same. Why cant we both be just honest.
I don't want to get myself in a position where I've oversold myself and cannot not do what's expected of me. I know its common practice for potential employees to oversell themselves in their CV etc and interview, then bluff their way though the job. That's not me. Right now it seems that if you want that plum job then a bullshit is what is needed.
Like you say often the company goes OTT about a job as does the interviewee but you have to play them at the game.
Still frustrating when many bosses seem to take someone on based on 10 minutes of pure BS from the candidate when their CV is often dire. Its like you have to take drama lessons to get through an interview !
Scottie
Have you worked out your commercial worth - the real value that you might bring to a business?
You might be able to be both academic and business.
Perhaps, for instance, having a Dr of CSE as a non-exec director would be useful to a business in Cardiff that wants to embrace local or social responsibility - or to get some consultancy from you.
Perhaps the university would get a longer contract out if they saw you as connected with a potential or existing associate? (ie Principality Building Soc)
I suppose my main point is that since your Phd you have established a status now where your true worth may only be obvious to someone who isn't actively in the market place.
I'd suggest seeing if there are any technical support positions going at your Uni. I know a lot of academics tend to look down on them, but they're still full time jobs, you can keep your hand in with the research and you're not necessarily in a bad position should an academic post come up. Alternatively, I know a guy who's been a researcher for three decades who works part time as a taxi driver, turning to full time at it when there's a funding drought.
Anyway, I've just got five months funding left myself before its destination dole queue for me too. What's particularly galling is that I thought I'd got a position lined up at Harvard (a short term contract, of course) but that just evaporated in front of my eyes and there's not been a whiff of anything else since. Come January I'll be dusting off the non-academic CV and applying for anything that offers a pay cheque.
You'd mentioned about moving over here yes? You should look at places like Monster dot com just to evaluate the job chances...I'm thinking you'd do very well for that type of job you describe here, lots of private schools here crying out for qualified people.
Then you start the job wondering how you can possibly live up to the hype you created around yourself during the interview, before realising it's a normal job like any other full of normal people, some of whom may sometimes do something genuinely innovative, but mostly they're there just to earn a crust and get on with life like anyone else.
The employer can then congratulate himself on managing to recruit the equivalent of Stephen Hawking's more intelligent and accomplished younger brother, and you get to tell everyone what an innovative and great company you work for, and everyone's happy.
This is how jobs work. I'm sure you'll be absolutely fine!
I'll be applying tonight with more wind in my sails.
Are you sure you've not worked in academia? I'd say you've pretty much got it in a nutshell there.
My problem is that the sort of work I do people expect not to pay for it. I did two large reports for the Local Government Boundary Review in 2002 and the Parliamentary Boundary Review in 2005, and have been approached to do it again for the proposed redistricting due to reducing the size of the House of Commons.
Nobody paid me for the first two, but I did it because it needed doing, and I was being paid for my normal day job anyway. People will expect not to pay me for the next one as well. If I give them the choice of paying me for the work or not paying me and going without, they will chose to go without. Politicians have an inbuilt divine assumption that goods and services shall be provided for free. They still haven't paid me the rent for the campaign office and telephone calls from 1999....
Saved 40% of my net salary for 9 years. I believe in rainy days.
I don't claim any benefits and I think there would be something wrong with the system if someone with a decent amount of savings could claim benefits. Safety nets should be paid for by the fortunate for the less fortunate. I'm lucky to have been quite fortunate in my career. That said, I know many people who are on crazy money and have next to no savings as they spend it on fancy cars and fancy women.
I think everyone goes through that thought process when producing a CV. There is definitely a balance between selling yourself and painting an unrealistic picture of who you are.
I was actually editing my CV today and I realised that the standard conventions often do not work. I have sections describing what I have accomplished as far back as 15 years ago and I realised that many of those accomplishments were accomplished by a very different me. The skills of the past are not the skills of the present.
For example, 15 years ago I programmed C++ quite regularly and implemented a number of projects. But I haven't touched C++ in over 10 years and certainly not kept up to date with the various APIs. So, even though I created some great C++ applications in the past, should I even mention it on my CV?
Cynical? Me?
The rest of it they waste!
Lol :-P
I'm saving up for a three-hundred-some.
I agree but why should those who have spent every penny they earnt and bunged what they didn't have onto a credit card expect everyone elser to bail them out?
In the UK there is now no safety net if you have a mortgage and lose your job, it will be a toss up between eating or paying the mortgage. If you rent, no problems.
Dunno how things are in Japan, but I remember back in England that if you have substantial savings you have to declare them on a JSA application form. If you have lots saved they won't give you dole.
That would be fair enough, but I always thought, what happens if you worked for a company for about 15 years, then the dole said well you have this much saved so no we're not giving you JSA. So basically you have to exhaust your savings whilst looking for another job even though your national insurance contributions build up your right to contribution based Jobseekers allowance. But if you worked for a company for 15 years and didn't have savings you'd be allowed to claim contribution based JSA until your NI stamp ran out and then switch to income based JSA.
I always thought that was a bit ****ed up to be honest.
I mean what happens to your accumulated contributions if you do have too many savings to claim jobseekers? Do they dole out your contributions amongst the jobless charva's who've been on the dole since they were old enough to claim it instead?
I suppose what I'm saying is what business is it of the dole if you have savings or not, especially if you have a right to contribution based Jobseekers Allowance?
They also count all your income, but ignore all your outgoings.
Them: you've got a tenant, so that's income.
Me: Yes, but there's a mortgage on the flat, ie, outgoings, it won't pay enough for me to make any drawings for another ten years, don't you understand the concept of saving for the future? ie it only becomes an income in the future!.
Them: No, sorry, that's an income. We don't care about outgoings.
Your national insurance payments pay for six months' JSA regardless of financial circumstances. As its name says, it's an unemployment insurance policy, that gives you an income for six months. As you said, it's none of the DSS's business what you income or assets are for the first six months. It's a pure insurance payout scheme. Once that runs out, you are in the means-tested social welfare safety net where if you have been prudent enough to have money assets you don't need society to support you. Unfortunately, non-liquid non-money assets are also counted as income. What do they expect me to do, saw off the end of a bedroom and sell it?
I wouldn't ask one of their trained monkeys that on the phone they'd probably say "Yes Mr. Harston that would certainly help!". :lol: