reposting from Invisible Adjunct - 8/25/04

originally posted to Invisible Adjunct on 8/25/04

I got lucky.

After deciding to seriously explore Plan B, I started doing info interviews with people in a variety of different organizations at all levels of government. And I just happened to luck into a terrific opportunity in a suburban County government that hadn't even occurred to me to consider at first. It was a terrific opportunity because I was working in the County Administrator's office and got to experience a really first-rate organization from the bridge, so to speak. And more importantly, I got to work on a variety of very different projects and interact with people all around the region on different projects.

Two years ago, that position ended (it was an unusual limited-term position) and I again got very lucky, talking my way into managing two federal entitlement grant programs for a suburban city of about 90,000.

I should be clear: the "luck" (in both cases) was that a position that was a good fit came open just when I was looking, and that I had a personal contact in each case that got me a serious look from people doing the hiring.

In both cases, I didn't have experience that was clearly directly relevant, and had to basically talk my way in, based on skills that were transferable. But it wasn't that hard to sell smart people on the idea that a smart person can quickly learn the nuts-and-bolts, and I think the extra dimension of being an intellectually curious, "ideas" person was attractive to my prospective bosses in both cases. My current boss has told me that was really one of the clinching factors when they were weighing hiring me against someone who had more relevant experience.

Remember when I suggested job security was basically demonstrated skills + your network of people who speak well of you? Well, in both my last job and this one I've been paid essentially to dramatically enhance both of those things. And paid well: considerably more than an assistant professor could expect.

In fact, it's almost certain that I couldn't afford to go back to teaching now. One thing that was never clear to me till I left academia is just how poorly paid academics are outside the engineering/science fields. Now I know that a full Professor makes more than I might make even a few years from now (depending on where my career goes), but I'm not too sure the academy is still "making" full Profs in any measurable quantity. And it's far from clear that I would have lasted that long.

But I'm focusing too much on less-important things. The real question is how do I like the world I'm in now, and do I miss academia?