LogFAQs > #964156594

foolm0r0n posted...

Just noticed this too - this is kind of a fallacy. It's taken you 3 years to get to the point where you can get full-time job offers regularly. That's why you have 2 in your lap right now. It won't take you 3 more years to get another.

Thanks, I hope (and honestly think) you're right. I did recently receive a teaching award that's given to 4-5 part timers a year. It seems to have raised my stock somewhat and may be partly responsible for this sudden surge of good fortune.

colliding posted...

Keep in mind that full-time lecturer jobs are usually 3 year contracts anyway, so in three years you could re-evaluate.

That's generally true, but the community college position actually allows for academic tenure after five years. That's the one major advantage it has over the university job (that and free parking lol). The university job would be a three year contract with no chance of tenure, but that's still far more security than an average gig. In the nine years that I've kept up with this school, I've never heard of a lecturer losing their job. For what it's worth, here are the advantages of the uni position:

+ Significantly higher pay (approx. 40%)
+ Probably less workload overall (four courses taught per semester vs five with the cc)
+ Better commute
+ I'm already familiar with and really like the school/faculty/community

colliding posted...

Also, everyone is saying Option 3, which makes sense up until the "reneg" part. You really shouldn't sign a contract and then break it. If you accept the position with the CC, they'll expect you to sign a contract soon. Once you sign that document, it is extremely bad form to not take it or take a different position. I think Academia is slightly different from other jobs in this way.

Thank you for the valuable input. I chatted with my favorite prof today (one who's essentially served as my advisor throughout grad school and parts of my professional/academic career). She basically supported Option 3 while also advocating for more transparency than I had considered - rather than accept the community college position outright, she encouraged me to call the cc chair and tell him that I'm currently in the application/interview process for other positions (without divulging too much info) and would like to wait on those final results before making a decision.

This was the common practice when she was getting her PhD and juggling different opportunities/timelines. Since neither position is set to start until mid-August, I wouldn't be putting the community college in much of a time-bind. While it's likely that they'll play hardball and try to squeeze me into a quick decision, I find it very unlikely that they'll rescind my offer outright if I'm honest with them at the onset.