Because I got married while I was still doing my doctorate, I’ve never really considered finding a job for two people as something unusual. A pain, yes; but just something that we had to work out. Kate’s forté is in the technical side of things, so she tends to worm her way into a lab managerial role (if not position) while I do the eternal postdoc thing. This makes Kate far more employable than me, actually, but she still insists on doing school hours and making me work (for money. The Pawns are hard work, for no money) the full day.
It used to work quite well (as long as we weren’t actually working _together_), and now, after several years working at different places, we’re back under the same roof. Gratifyingly, we have been able to collaborate on a piece of work and still talk to each other in the evenings. I’ll publish the results from this collaboration when we have them (and no, we’re not pregnant).
Related to this, FSP has some tips for couples being interviewed for faculty positions:
Don’t tell cute stories about each other, including revealing affectionate nicknames and embarrassing childhood episodes. Professors, especially those on search committees, prefer not to know any of this until after an interviewee becomes an actual colleague. Then we definitely want to know.
and I suspect that the ‘two jobs for the price of one’ imperative is actually rather common.
Do people here have experiences of 2-job hunting they’d like to share? Is your partner/spouse in the same trade, and if not, does it make things easier or more difficult? What are your experiences of finding jobs for you both in another country? (Our own experience was perhaps unusual.) Did your interviewing institute reimburse two travel claims? Arrange for childcare?
And what about other professions entirely? The cynic in me says that non-academic professions actually pay a living wage so that both halves of a couple don’t actually have to work, but that’s possibly unhelpful.
First of all, great post!
This looks to me like a future post for me somewhere down the road.
My girlfriend and I have concluded the same degree, we are both Biological Engineers (well, I’m a few classes short of concluding my Master’s) and we discuss this very much.
The idea of moving abroad (we’re in Portugal) and starting a life together and finding a job for both of us is somewhat a sweet and sour notion.
Like yourself, I feel the urge to continue with the academic path while she is very much more inclined to the industrial biotech/chemical side.
Although I can’t really tell stories now, I’m sure that in the future I’ll be able to provide one related to yours :)
Hello Ricardo
Thanks! I shall watch your career with interest. . .
/Darth Vader
A few years ago I had to find a post-doc job in the Netherlands to follow my then partner, but I never alluded to this fact during the interviews I had. Perhaps I’m paranoid, but I felt that revealing that I was following someone would (a) undermine any air of independence I might want to transmit, and (b) make it seem as if I didn’t want the job for the job’s sake.
Jennifer, great points there. Hadn’t really thought about it that way…
Heh, that is interesting. When I talked myself into the current position, I think that saying I was bringing a lab mangler along with me actually worked in my favour.
I have no doubt it works in the dominant person’s favor (i.e. the person making the initial move, usually the man): in fact, it probably increases his power. After all, a personality strong enough to entice someone else to make a life-changing move on his behalf, especially one that would enhance his own career, as you would have been seen to have done bringing along your own technical support, must be assertive and bold in others’ eyes. It is more problematic for the follower, usually the woman, who I suspect will always come across as weak, whether it’s true or not.
Mmm. Although in Kate’s case, I’m convinced that she’s more employable than I am.
And in fact, I’m the one making the life-changing move – Kate’s moving closer to home.