CCBC called yesterday and made me an offer--it is a pay cut, but only a few hundred dollars a month, not the $1200 I was expecting based on the advertisement. And they bumped me up an entire title, from Instructor, which is where new teachers come in at, to Assistant Professor, and the salary is in the 2nd quartile of that title, not the first. It is a County position as well…
On top of this, JMT offered me a different position yesterday as well--prior to the call from CCBC. My boss wanted to know if I would be interested in being a project manager for our GIS contracts instead of an Analyst.
So what do you think? What would you do if you were me? What questions might you have? I need advice big time. This is a pretty scary decision.
2 comments:
Yikes! There's nothing quite like having to make a potentially life-altering decision, is there?
Questions for both jobs IMO would be about time committments (as project manager, would you have to put in more hours at work? How many courses would you be teaching at CCBC, how much time involved in other aspects of the job--committees, administration, etc.) and potential for advancement. I'd imagine that the JMT job would be much better in that respect--at the college, once you've gotten to full professor, there isn't much else to do unless you want to get into administration. Would the CCBC job be a ten month position? And if so, is there potential for getting summer work? If that's the case, it would leave you with the enviable choice of either taking two months off each year or earning money in addition to your regular salary to make up the difference between what you are earning now and what you would be earning at CCBC. And I'd compare the money not just for salary, but also for benefits--the benefits I get at HCC are amazing. Just getting into the state retirement system makes me want to never quit! Vacation time is the best I've seen anywhere (the college is closed for spring break and Christmas break, then I get an additional four weeks of vacation annually. It's like being European), tuition benefits, county system for health care (lots of option, employer pays a nice chunk of it), plus the usual things like flex accounts and 401(k) options.
Next question (and I'm not sure how you'd ask this) is do you like the people you'd be dealing with, or would you be tearing out your hair every night over the pettiness and infighting and internal politics and crazy external people? I've heard horror stories about some college departments (including one community college in Virginia where a faculty member tried to hire someone to kill another faculty member that he had been dating!), but the faculty here tend to be pretty levelheaded.
The other question I'd have would be about organizational management and job stability. I had such a horrible time at the symphony dealing with poor management, no support for professional development, horrible financial situation, etc. that when I started interviewing for a new job I wanted first of all to make sure that the organization was overseen by a responsible bunch of people (not just internal management, but also the Board of Directors), that there was a system in place for evaluations, training, advancement, raises, etc., and that the organization was in good shape financially and not likely to start firing people randomly. But I'm assuming both JMT and CCBC are good in that respect!
Wow! What a choice. Unlike Sarah I won't give you practical advice - I say go with your gut. What is your most basic instinct in this? If your instincts are completely balanced, I say go for the professor ship. That is what you have been wanting for the past year - you just didn't expect the path to open up so soon...
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