Friday, August 10, 2007

Did I ask for your opinion?

At a non-university meeting last night, a man who I have spoken to a total of once ever, and don't really remember, came over to talk to me and we had this intensely irritating conversation.

"Hi, I think we met somewhere. You're studying, aren't you? How's that going?"

"Good, thanks. I've finished my thesis, except for some revisions."

"So have you got a job yet?"

"I'm lecturing at the moment."

"But have you got a position?"

"What do you mean?"

"Is the lecturing just temporary, or is it a long-term position?"

"Oh! No, just temporary, unfortunately. I'll probably be in temporary jobs for a while."

"You need to get a post-doc."

"Well, that would be nice. But there's not much around, and I want to stay in [this city] for the next few years because my husband has a job here in the physics department."

"You will find you have to make sacrifices, if you want to work in academia. You can't just float around and hope to land a job."

"Well, obviously. But I'm hardly floating. Anyway, I haven't even graduated yet. I refuse to worry about things like this until after that."

"It doesn't sound to me like you are very serious about academic work, then. I think you should look for a job outside the ivory tower."

5 Comments:

Dr. Brazen Hussy said...

Wow, he was terribly rude!

wwwmama said...

I hope you said: "Can you please step back? You're projecting all over me."

RageyOne said...

Uh, who asked for your opinion? That was quite rude.

Liz Miller said...

Wow. Just wow.

Anonymous said...

What. an. ASS.

(I know Julep already said this, but really, it's all I got.)