GOGSoc Episode VI: The GoG, the Bad and the Ugly

It's considered less enjoyable, less intellectual and less flexible than university, which is understandable. Not many people want to jump into vocational training at 18 years-old. Some of the big graduate employers do have school leaver programmes. I worked with a few of them in my last job, and honestly, their lives looked so mundane and narrow for teenagers; it really confirmed for me how much better university is at that age in terms of personal development.

It wasn't all that long ago that one could qualify as a medic without a degree; the same for law, too. Banking is a name for an industry rather than an actual job, although I've been informed that exceptionally few positions in that industry genuinely require a degree, i.e. the knowledge taught during said degree is vital for the industry.

Teaching didn't always require a degree either; in fact one can still teach at a variety of institutions without an actual university degree.

Engineering doesn't either. Apprenticeships used to be very common, and you'll still see many older engineers without degrees. I'm not sure about architecture though.

So, very jobs specifically require a degree, although many do leverage the knowledge taught in them, and there is an increasing trend of employers expecting university to replace certain elements of on-the-job learning.

Off-topic but my Polish flatmate (who gets on my nerves most of the time) is trying her hardest to convince me to move in with her for another year and I'm not impressed. She's telling me I should go freelance to avoid taxes instead of getting a proper job (lol, you can't do that darling…) and that because we've had the same results on the MBTI test we should totally live together. She's doing all this by trying to put me off living by myself (which I really want after 6 years of sharing with people) and by telling me horror stories about living by yourself. Girl, I don't want to have to listen to your 1am tantrums and clean up your mess in the kitchen anymore, I'm not living with you

/rantover

Gawd she sounds a bit of a nightmare. Definitely nice to live on one's own sometimes. I chose to during my 3rd year and I had the best of both worlds- it made it really fun to visit my friends, like a nice treat but then I could go home and have my own space. But, love 'em to bits, I couldn't have stomached actually living with them during that stressful year!

Is this for a PhD next year?

If not, it's very different sharing as young professionals than as students, particularly in London - perhaps something to think about in terms of whether to live with others if you have a job lined up (not with her, of course, but with other friends).

She is, but I don't think she realises it, haha. And yeah, I feel like I need my own space now, and I'll still have my friends around, I just can't be bothered dealing with house drama anymore, really!



The issue (well, issue, there's no real issue, I want just ranting about my flatmate) here is more that she comes up with retarded arguments to convince me to live with her, lol. I'll hopefully have extended my contract comes September and be in a full-time job and I cannot be bothered with her - or anyone for that matters, I've had 6 years of housing drama of all kinds (both as a student and as a young professional), I really want to have my own space and not have to worry about anyone else on top of a job. She's just trying to scare me from living by myself so that I go live with her, clearly not realising she'd be the last person I'd ask…

Hmm, all this persuading and scare-mongering sounds a bit bordering on Single White Female, I'm sure she'll give up eventually though and realise you've made your decision. And it sounds like you're absolutely doing the best thing for you, which is the main thing

I'm kind of in the opposite situation, I am launching in to the whole flatmate situation after the past year of being at home, then with my OH. I'm going to try to be smart in sussing out the psychos and super messy/disrespectful people from the nice, decent, friendly ones. I just hope I am a good judge of character

edit: so far not so good, Mostly only got creepy guys propositioning me their flat for a stupidly low rate, clearly for sex. One of them basically intimated that they have orgies at their place and wanted another 'open-minded' flatmate to join. All I said was 'friendly, respectful, tidy, young professional, non-smoker seeks flatshare with friendly, tidy, respectful, professionals '. Jeez, I didn't even realise that was particularly kinky. Though fortunately, a few friendly normal seem to have replied too in recent days!

I saw an ad in this country for £1/month rent with a 45ish year old guy. The ad said to help out and that females were preferred! Some people are weird...

Aha! That's hilarious. There's nowt as queer as folk! Glad you've found somewhere nice now though

That's a tough one. For one thing, check your contract. Does it allow you to take on other working responsibilities whilst your working at your new institution? If so, then you should be able to do what you want. However, it is important to consider that if your contract has certain hours stipulated in it (e.g. 37 hours/week) and you don't cover them, your boss can use this against you.

A suggestion might be to talk to HR at your new institution. They will be able to determine whether you would be breaking any rules taking the teaching job and it would also give them an advance warning if your boss were not happy with it.

As to how to proceed with the new boss in a way that is "respectful but is still assertive"... Quite honestly, you asked for permission to do something and she said no (or pretty much said no). You are still planning on going ahead and doing what you were going to do anyway. I don't think anything you can say now (from I would use it as a buffer against the change in salary to I think teaching will benefit my long term career) will make her change her mind. I can see her making the argument that other post-docs are not taking time of their job in order to pursue another job in a different institution that does not benefit her department in any way, and they're getting paid the same as you.

If you really want to proceed I would assume that it will be against your boss' wishes (unless you wait for a year and then try to convince her to change her mind). You can tell her "I am an adult, and I think that this will benefit my career, so this is a choice I am making. I thank you for your advice, since I really appreciate it, and if my job here suffers I will consider giving up my teaching, but for now, this is the decision I have taken and I would appreciate it if you could respect it". This seems to me like the nicest way to phrase it but it doesn't mean that she will be happy about it or accept it.

Just out of curiosity, will you be working in a lab at an institute? In my experience (which is very limited I admit), if this is the case your boss can make your life quite difficult and it can be quite hard to get around it, so I would try to not make things too confrontational.

Sorry if what I'm saying isn't very helpful, just wanted to give you my point of view. Hope others can be a bit more optimistic than I am.

Why exactly are they anti you teaching? I'd be quite firm in your position as turning down the contract would be silly IMHO

Thanks for the comments, folks. I still don't have the contract (it's all online, they're processing things like my passport and degree cert atm, fitness to work etc). I was hoping to get permission in my contract (for example, to take it as unpaid leave, or to take half the days as paid leave and the other half unpaid) - it would be eight days teaching total, not to begin until January. I am going to email the new boss again, as I didn't spell out the specifics last time, and see if it seems more palatable to her. I'm also going to offer to start the job two weeks early, to effectively 'give back' those eight days.

I think they don't want me teaching because they think it will be a distraction. That's fair. It's just frustrating because it's only a 15 month contract, they've made promises to extend it after that (but, hey, if it's not written down it's not worth ****) but I need to keep options open. There are four people retiring in my department in the next 24 months, plus the university has been holding back some permanent contracts while they look for a new head of department, so in 2015/16 they will do a shedload of permanent hires and I want to be one of them... From past experience, if you keep 'in' with the department, the eventual job descriptions they put out are more likely to match your field of expertise (rather than being a broad, general search).

That all sounds absolutely sensible - I hope they bend.

Thanks. I understand their point of view, and academia always has to be a balance - they/the funding body want to screw every possible ounce of research output from me; the post-doc has to think about what will do them good in the long term.

I've also gotten allergic to being under someone else's direct control - my PhD supervisor has pretty laissez-faire, and no one here keeps an eye on me - I do what I want, when I want. Maybe the structure will do me good, who knows? It's just a bit of a shock.

There is also (sadly) the commercial aspect to consider. Why should one employer pay you to do research that you will then use to inform work for another employer when those employers are competing in the same market?

I feel dirty for saying it, but the market driven aspects of academia are embedded and not going anywhere...

The power of compromise - a small amount of teaching, after I have settled in, is allowed. Hurrah!

Subbed for September application!