Offered RA job, not sure I can go through with it (relocation)

[phdilemma]

I've been offered a fixed term RA job. Due to submit my PhD next month. On paper this ideal as I've been SO stressed about finding a job.
However...the post requires me to relocate pretty quickly. As its just for a year, my partner will be staying in our house (own the house, his job is perm, we have a great dog-walking set up for our high maintenance boy etc.), so it'll be just me looking for somewhere to rent.

I should be happy, but I feel awful. We lived apart for the majority of my PhD, and I just don't know if I can do it again, even if it is for a year. I feel uneasy about FT contracts at the best of times, and keep envisaging us being in this same position next year, deciding whether to look for another FT post just so I can stay in academia.

We live in a small northern city with not much going on in my field. I could look for a non-academic job and take a smaller wage, or retrain in a different field and make the move further north where those skills are needed.

Partner is supportive either way, and we're both agreed there's no point us both relocating for my FT post, especially when he has a permanent role.

I'm pretty jaded with academia the moment, I should probably add - treatment of staff, student fees, redundancies etc. It's pretty depressing and I don't know if I could cope with it long term. The PhD has been awful for my mental health too. But then I think, this job is exactly what I SHOULD be doing post-PhD, so why do I want to turn it down?

Has anyone else been in this situation? Should I just suck it up, do the long-distance relationship thing again, go back to living in a shared house/flat because the post is good experience? Friends are split on this; those that have done it see it as 'one of those things' on the road to getting a permanent academic job. Others are shocked that we might be continuing this set up for another year.

I just don't know

All PhDs are hard on mental Health... my poor student passed her viva yesterday but is in floods of tears (not like her)... finally succombed to it all.

How many hours travel from new location to visit your partner?
Do you need the money?
Will you be bored witless at home without this job?
Would you enjoy this job?

I've never had anything but fixed term contracts & I like them, so I can't relate with you there. When not self-employed, DH has only worked in companies with permanent jobs;his colleagues get let go at a moment's notice, seems like. FTC is much more secure than 'permanent'.

It's striking that you don't sound excited about the job itself at all. Are you? If not, I'd say no.

I think the issue here is whether you are going to be able to get through the often quite lengthy post-doc period or whether you want to do that anyway to become a career lecturer/researcher. It took me 6 years to obtain a lectureship, and I was speaking with someone yesterday who got one after 7. Realistically one year unless you churn out a huge amount of publications isn't going to be the only post-doc you need...which is why if you don't want to be away from your partner, it doesn't sound like a good fit. Longer term post-docs (e.g. three years) might work better- or looking outside academia. If it messes with your mental health, and you already dislike it, I'm not sure keeping going is the right direction.

Thanks all.

I'd enjoy the job - it's using some of the expertise I've developed during my PhD and applying to a new area. So same population of study, different health behaviour. I do think I'm finding it hard to get excited about it because of the living situation. I just don't know if living apart is something I want to do again. I know its really common in academia. Maybe I don't want it enough to sacrifice my living situation.

I think @Nearlyalmost50 you're getting to the heart of it...what happens after this one year post? Do I keep on going with FTC posts in the hope of eventually getting something more permanent? If I'm not prepared to do that, I'm not sure how beneficial taking this job would be. I could be looking at other avenues.

Financially, partner has made some funds available to me whether or not I take the job, so if I needed to I can live off those for a bit.

Am I making more of this than I need to because its a first job out of my PhD? It feels like a crossroads moment.

I'm just a couple of years ahead of you and did that. My field is small though, so all of my moves have been international.

I moved for a one year contract straight after my PhD. It didn't go well because I was burnt out. I hated the city and the institute. I can't objectively say if it was actually the place or just the timing. However, it was one of the best institutions in the world for my field and it's done wonderful things for my CV, despite not even publishing while I was there, and has lead on to some prestigious grants. It also paid very well which allowed us to save up so we could get a small mortgage on a flat after the year. That means I got to take 6 months of holiday to recover between later fixed term contracts without unduly stressing DP's salary. It also meant I could take a contract somewhere low paying where I knew I wasn't going to break even because I really fancied the opportunity to live in that country and to work with those people. Doing long distance relationships is always hard, although it does stop out relationship falling into a rut and means we're certain we want to be together. We've also Brexit-proofed ourselves in the process. Conversely, if I quit and got a sensible job, we'd be a lot richer, have better holidays, have pensions, might possibly have finished the renovations (yeah, right) and might have settled down with a baby and a cat. DP would prefer the later, but is very patient about my shit career-life balance.

So I think what I'm saying is that it's probably going to be miserable, but might lead onto future opportunities. Only you can work out what the probability of those opportunities is, and whether that possibility is worth the personal and financial stress now.

Do you think it would be possible to come to an arrangement where you are based at your new institution say 3 days per week and worked from home the other 2 days?

As to the bigger question, I think that, as lekkerkroketje, says, you need to weigh up the probabilities. Realistically, are people recruited to permanent lectureships in your field without several postdocs? Thinking about where you are with publications, etc. are you in a position where you would stand a good chance of being recruited to a permanent job if you waited for a bit for one to come up? What about if you took some time out to work on publications from your PhD?

I had three short-term contracts before getting a permanent job, and one thing I would say is that I found it really difficult to build up my publication record by publishing from my PhD while moving between one year contracts. Depending on how things are in your field and your current publications, there may be some value in not taking this job and instead focussing all your time and attention on writing and submitting articles with the aim of getting some good publications and using those publications to get recruited for a permanent job down the line. In my field, and it may be different in health, there will be a real slow down in permanent recruitment as we head into the REF and recruitment is already becoming increasingly REF-focussed.

My partner and I are both academics and ended up living apart for 6 years at the start of our careers, on both temporary and permanent contracts, including four years living in different countries. I would say that it was undeniably good for our careers, but it was hard on our relationship.

Echoeing PPs: how far away is the new position from where you live now and how necessary is it for you to be at your new institute every day?

I know a lot of fellow RAs who (like me) live 2-3 hours from where they work. We tend to be at our institute a couple of days a week, and work from home the remaining days. I know one or two RAs at other universities who live even further away and who have negotiated various arrangements (e.g. 1 week per fortnight/month at their institute, the remainder at home). This may be difficult if you're in a lab-based role, but if you aren't it is certainly worth asking.

How well positioned are you / will you be in one year's time to apply for a fellowship (British Council, Leverhulme, etc.)? They're crazy competitive, but they can be one way to get a FT position at an institution closer to home.