Applying for jobs and scheduling interviews????

NorTracNY · Sep 23, 2016

check said:
Well, there are about 1500 of us permanent front-line "worker bees", and another 5500 or so support staff, all serving about 53,000 customers. And the turnover amongst the full-time faculty is so low because no one wants to leave, and no one wants us to leave. (We all spent so much time and effort getting hired and ensuring the right "match" that there really is no good reason to leave.) And, by the way, each of us are on probation for anywhere from 3 to 6 years before the employer decides whether to keep us or not, so by that time both sides are pretty satisfied with the employer-employee relationship.

Have you guessed it yet? We are a University.

dickfoster was correct then. You have a job where there are not pressures that are placed on individuals in industry. Even if the University head wanted you gone, could it be done in less than 30 minutes?

rox · Sep 23, 2016

I have always thought that most paid positions fall into these five broad categories-

Academia
Military
Government
Benevolent Services (Charities, Church Work)
Industry/Construction & Services

Each of these 5 broad based Groups are very much different from the others.
If I had to pick one, I would say that Academia is most unlike all others and principally because of the difficulty in measuring the success of individuals employed in that field. Often times the training and inspiration they provide to students is not realized until the student moves on outside of the academic setting.

In lower levels of academia how do you measure a teacher when his/her students come from very difficult home situations vs another teacher who teaches in an upscale suburban area? See the measurements are very difficult. And inspiring students is actually unmeasurable and the results may not emerge until many many years later. Every great painter was once a student who had a teacher. Measurments in Academia are very difficult.

I recently listened to this radio show on National Public Radio called 3 miles. Two schools just 3 miles apart, and one student named Melanie
Three Miles | This American Life

ultrarunner · Sep 23, 2016

NorTracNY said:
dickfoster was correct then. You have a job where there are not pressures that are placed on individuals in industry. Even if the University head wanted you gone, could it be done in less than 30 minutes?

Only if you said something politically incorrect...