Because I'm A Proud One.

[Joe Wordsworth]

I got invited to work in an associate professorship teaching Attic Greek in the Northwest for a year out of the blue, this week. I'm so not going to take it, and am a little annoyed by it...

It'd be like being a very good writer and someone saying "hey, you can write really well... how about you write product manuals for our tractor company!". Fucker, stick that offer up your @$#*.

 

[pop_54]

Wow you any good at tractor manuals Joe, we're having a bit of trouble with the injectors on our old Fordson dextra

I know the feeling well mate, been there, offered insulting contracts and commissions and had to say shove it pal. Bet you feel better for a rant though.

 

[minsue]

Joe, how can you be disappointed by a job offer? Even if it's not one you want and even if you decline, jobs are tough to come by for many at the moment. Declining is fine, but for christ's sake, man, don't bitch about getting an offer!

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

Joe, how can you be disappointed by a job offer? Even if it's not one you want and even if you decline, jobs are tough to come by for many at the moment. Declining is fine, but for christ's sake, man, don't bitch about getting an offer!

It's an academic field thing...

Imagine you're listed in a great big directory for, say, Physics. And you're extremely talented at Physics. You've spent your time and money and life and sensibility becoming the best of the brightest physicists out there. You've even published and won awards, spoken at conferences for your Physics research.

And some college out there jumps up and says "Hey, you're really good at math, right? We've got an algebra class that needs teachin'"

You want to scream. Because beside your name in the damn directory is "Physics", and they don't seem to have any respect for that.

I'm a goddamn Logician. It's not a made-up term... it's not a funky-kewl title I gave myself (and man, do I have hate for people that do that "Oh, well, I consider myself a _____"--fuck them). It's something with backing, with accomplishment, it was worked for and awarded by the scholarly community. And they go "Oh, you know Ancient Greek? Come here and teach that"--it's career suicide. They didn't seem to bother doing their research on me. Hell, I'm not even that good at Greek anymore.

Wow.

That was pent up.

 

[minsue]

It's an academic field thing...

Imagine you're listed in a great big directory for, say, Physics. And you're extremely talented at Physics. You've spent your time and money and life and sensibility becoming the best of the brightest physicists out there. You've even published and won awards, spoken at conferences for your Physics research.

And some college out there jumps up and says "Hey, you're really good at math, right? We've got an algebra class that needs teachin'"

You want to scream. Because beside your name in the damn directory is "Physics", and they don't seem to have any respect for that.

I'm a goddamn Logician. It's not a made-up term... it's not a funky-kewl title I gave myself (and man, do I have hate for people that do that "Oh, well, I consider myself a _____"--fuck them). It's something with backing, with accomplishment, it was worked for and awarded by the scholarly community. And they go "Oh, you know Ancient Greek? Come here and teach that"--it's career suicide. They didn't seem to bother doing their research on me. Hell, I'm not even that good at Greek anymore.

Wow.

That was pent up.

I can understand the career suicide thing, but you may want to look at it this way:

They need someone to teach Ancient Greek. Someone pipes up, "Hey, that guy Joe can teach Ancient Greek. Make him an offer!"

Really, I can understand the frustration in not getting an offer you're hoping for. I just have a bit of trouble with getting angry at being offered a job you don't want. Hell, I've only ever had one job offered to me. Every other I've had to claw my way into and fight for it (and often fight to keep it ). Yes, the rest of the world is different than that of academia. At the moment, it seems like a piss poor way to prepare one for the outside world, eh?

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

I can understand the career suicide thing, but you may want to look at it this way:

They need someone to teach Ancient Greek. Someone pipes up, "Hey, that guy Joe can teach Ancient Greek. Make him an offer!"

Really, I can understand the frustration in not getting an offer you're hoping for. I just have a bit of trouble with getting angry at being offered a job you don't want. Hell, I've only ever had one job offered to me. Every other I've had to claw my way into and fight for it (and often fight to keep it ). Yes, the rest of the world is different than that of academia. At the moment, it seems like a piss poor way to prepare one for the outside world, eh?

I agree. Learning how to be a scholar isn't adequate training for the real world--s'why I bought and sold my second company by the age of 23. Business? Now /that/ is hands on, real world training that one just can't get in school.

 

[Huckleman2000]

I agree. Learning how to be a scholar isn't adequate training for the real world--s'why I bought and sold my second company by the age of 23. Business? Now /that/ is hands on, real world training that one just can't get in school.

I don't know if this is going to be any consolation, but I feel your pain

I don't have the academic credentials, but I've had a fairly high-visibility position at a top research/consulting firm, and I think the net in the job market has been negative. The atmosphere at the firm was very academic, and I wound up there as a result of an acquisition. With my practical background, I'm surprised I lasted there as long as I did, but I never made the "tenure track" sort of relationships that would have saved my ass. Instead, I got canned by a wunderkind that came in high and tight, and lasted only a year after me. Being right, plus a nickel, is worth about $0.05, I guess.

If you've truly got FU space in your life, be thankful for that. Talent will out with patience.

 

[English Lady]

Joe, knowing you I certainly get where your coming from, just look at it this way:you're so damn good at so many different things you're getting offered a job in something that isn't your field. I mean that's damn impressive love. So well done...and congrats for getting out all that pent up stuff too. Now breath, say thanks but no thanks and carry on doing a million things at once

 

[neonlyte]

I understand what you feel. Never taken a job where I've been headhunted, the headhunters always have the wrong slant on your ambition and their clients aspiration.

The only job I turned down that I actually wanted was a prestigious appointment to head up the management team of an arts organisation, I was on a short list of three and it had been made clear that I was the favoured candidate. Prior to announcing the appointment the three candidates were invited to dine with Lord... the Chairman of said arts organisation. I declined. I'm fucked if I'm going to be judged suitable for a job just because I know which knife is the fucking fish knife or assessed by my social skills across a dining table.

Still mad about it after twenty years.

 

[oggbashan]

I know the feeling well.

I was a junior manager, doing well at my job with a great team. The company was just starting with computers (it was a LONG time ago) and insisted that all its junior managers took tests to see if they were compatible with the then-defined needs for computer people.

Many of my colleagues deliberately failed the test because they saw computers as a dead-end job, which it was at that time. I was too young to see failing any test as a sensible career move. I did my best and came top of the list.

Instead of developing as a manager I was made a programmer, systems analyst and systems manager. Oh yes, they gave me a staff of 25 young ladies who were the input clerks.

The young ladies taught me a lot about management and I got out of computers and back into normal management as soon as I could.

Twenty years later I was a senior manager. Someone looked in my personnel file and found that I had had 'the best aptitude' for computers out of several hundred. They had a new computer unit that needed managing so...

They gave me some more pay, added the computer unit to my responsibilities with its staff of bright young managers. Together we made the unit efficient and profitable, selling resources and building systems for other parts of the organisation. Then somehow a film and video unit needed managing. Its parent organisation had moved on and didn't need it. 'It's modern technology' someone said. 'Who is responsible for modern technology and makes money from it?' - The answer was the real life name of Og.

What did I know about film and video? Nothing. I got their team and my computer team working together and apart from their normal documentary and publicity work we made training films, and sold them. Training films meant interaction with training units so the powers that be noticed that I and my people were working well with training so...

They added two training schools and 200 apprentices.

All that started from being sidetracked into a computing job I didn't want.

Later I had to retire with a damaged back. I couldn't do the travelling that went with my job.

I applied for a senior management job at City Hall. I got it and then found they didn't want the job done. They wanted the appearance of management, not the reality. I was pissed off and told them so. They treated me like grit in the system, which I was, and tried to find me a real job. They noticed that I knew something about computers so...

They put me in their new computing unit. I used their computers to introduce the management changes they had first hired me to do. I altered their management accounting system so that the impact of management decisions were open and very visible in money terms. That shook the whole structure so...

They tried to fire me, not for incompetence, but for doing the job that had first hired me to do. They decided that since I had made such a 'good job' (I could hear their teeth grinding) of their accounting system, I was no longer needed so I was redundant.

Unfortunately they hadn't read my resume carefully enough. Apart from all the other things I done, I had been responsible for personnel management and negotiation with trades unions. I had defended 14 cases of unfair dismissal so...

When they tried to dismiss me unfairly I produced chapter and verse of all the things they had done wrong. I used their computer system to produce the information of what their rules were, what employment law on the matter was, case law on similar situations, and threatened to sue their ass.

So...

They bought me off. I became a secondhand bookdealer and used my computer to write stories for literotica.

But...

I am still the grit in their system, representing the community, and challenging their decision making processes, using the accounting system I designed to prove that their politicial masters are being fed bullshit.

Revenge is sweet. But I had to twist the system and many people's tails to get out of the sidelining that started early in my career. Resisting Attic Greek is a good idea.

Og