Entry tags:
Employment insecurity
For around a decade I worked for Aetion. The dot-com crash left the US economy in a poor state but I found that I could keep the business alive by applying for grants to perform research and development for the US military who, especially after 9/11, still had money to spend. Over the following years for most of the grants we were awarded I wrote the proposal, led the project and wrote the reports. In later years a couple of other important grants were largely thanks to a now-retired colleague whose contribution as a fellow principal investigator was invaluable. However, as our greater successes were in military intelligence, it was hard to leverage that work into winning other projects because we were mostly not able to talk about them for security reasons. The grant review process was noisy: the chances of award seemed to me to have little to do with the quality of the proposal I had written. For separate personal reasons I had a breakdown and was less productive for a period. And, eventually, the music stopped. Fortunately, I had seen that coming and arranged to live near Boston before I was made redundant; Aetion won no further work.
There were plenty of computing jobs around the Boston area, especially in Cambridge which for me was a short bicycle ride away. However, in my mid-thirties I found that my age was already counting significantly against me: in describing me employers put scare quotes around
Now I find myself in Scotland. I believe that it was a good move from the point of view of making university affordable for my children. The vacancy at the University of Dundee was a lucky find: after an interview in which I presented on the selection of spare parts for sets of aircraft being moved to other military bases, I do useful work on microscopy software with good people in a nice city. However, from a personal point of view, the situation is uncomfortably precarious. My team is funded by a series of fixed-term grant proposals. The funding decisions do not always make sense and in these austere times money is tight even without the complications of leaving the EU or the UK. I want to stay within range of Perth because both my children are settled at Perth High School and at this stage in their education I ought not be moving them around. But, there aren't many jobs in this area: Perth and Dundee are tiny in comparison with the previous cities I've lived near: Columbus, OH; Providence, RI; Boston, MA. A few weeks ago I went to a party thrown by one colleague who had been made redundant from my team and this month we lose another: each performed a useful role that funders did not value. (Indeed, I have picked up some of the former's work.) My contract is not permanent. I pray that our group leader continues to be so good at the hard work of winning funding but I wish it were more secure: I dare not consider buying a house here in case the music stops again. If I do have to look for work then I may well be in my mid-forties and living near far fewer employers with a recent work history rather less impressive than the previous.
These issues were weighing upon me last winter too;![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
gerald_duck pointed out that telecommuting might be viable and indeed I am more productive in working from home than I am from an open-plan office; also, that currency of skills may matter more than age. The thoughts about the above are back in my head though so maybe writing them out in this new entry will palliate them while I focus on other issues.
There were plenty of computing jobs around the Boston area, especially in Cambridge which for me was a short bicycle ride away. However, in my mid-thirties I found that my age was already counting significantly against me: in describing me employers put scare quotes around
experiencedand feared that I would not easily take instruction from those who, in experience, were considerably my junior. I also found military research projects closed to me through my not having, nor wanting, higher security clearance. I did manage to find work but more suiting a new graduate than a creative well-rounded professional with a good track record.
Now I find myself in Scotland. I believe that it was a good move from the point of view of making university affordable for my children. The vacancy at the University of Dundee was a lucky find: after an interview in which I presented on the selection of spare parts for sets of aircraft being moved to other military bases, I do useful work on microscopy software with good people in a nice city. However, from a personal point of view, the situation is uncomfortably precarious. My team is funded by a series of fixed-term grant proposals. The funding decisions do not always make sense and in these austere times money is tight even without the complications of leaving the EU or the UK. I want to stay within range of Perth because both my children are settled at Perth High School and at this stage in their education I ought not be moving them around. But, there aren't many jobs in this area: Perth and Dundee are tiny in comparison with the previous cities I've lived near: Columbus, OH; Providence, RI; Boston, MA. A few weeks ago I went to a party thrown by one colleague who had been made redundant from my team and this month we lose another: each performed a useful role that funders did not value. (Indeed, I have picked up some of the former's work.) My contract is not permanent. I pray that our group leader continues to be so good at the hard work of winning funding but I wish it were more secure: I dare not consider buying a house here in case the music stops again. If I do have to look for work then I may well be in my mid-forties and living near far fewer employers with a recent work history rather less impressive than the previous.
These issues were weighing upon me last winter too;
gerald_duck pointed out that telecommuting might be viable and indeed I am more productive in working from home than I am from an open-plan office; also, that currency of skills may matter more than age. The thoughts about the above are back in my head though so maybe writing them out in this new entry will palliate them while I focus on other issues.