New Job in Leicester
Thursday August 28, 2008
Over the last few months, I have been doing the rounds of job applications and interviews – always a curious experience. For the past few years I have been teaching in philosophy at Staffordshire University, as well as doing various other bits and pieces of freelance work. My university teaching at Staffordshire was, however, only on a temporary contract, and so I’ve been looking for something a little more long-term.
It is a strange business applying for jobs. The more time I spent with application forms (I have come to profoundly dislike Word document application forms that look swish but that behave strangely whenever you press the tab key, or that refuse to let you use italics, or that exert other forms of petty tyranny over the poor struggling applicant), with interviews, with presentations and so on, the more I was afflicted by a growing sense of unreality, a kind of distance from myself and from the stuff of my life, so that after two or three interviews I could not help feeling that I was slowly turning myself into some kind of product or commodity. And, as all readers of Heidegger will know, that is – whatever the advocates of ‘personal branding’ might say – not something to be encouraged or relished. Which is why, incidentally, Heidegger never issued a range of quality T-shirts bearing his image and some of his snappier quotes. But what do you expect in an age when recruitment departments call themselves departments of ‘human resources’, a term that I always find curiously chilling?
Anyway, the upshot of all of this is that I’m very excited to have got myself a new job, teaching creative writing at De Montfort University in Leicester, a city that boasts at least five vegetarian restaurants, the finest Jain temple in the United Kingdom, at least one pretty good second-hand bookshop, and a somewhat uncharismatic cheese (pictured above) that comes in both red and white varieties. For the while, then, I can leave thoughts of Word application forms and such things to one side. The move from a philosophy department to an English department is, I think, going to be a welcome one, in part because at heart I am probably more of a writer who attempts to write philosophy and fiction than I am a philosopher who happens to write stories and novels. The job is part-time, so I’ll be teaching down there for roughly half the week, and will be up in Leeds for the rest of the time. So I’ll be posting to this blog whilst on the move over the coming months, using my new toy, a little Advent netbook running Ubuntu. I’m starting on the first of September, and looking forward to getting my teeth into the new role. I’ll let you all know how the first few days go.
Image: Piotr Kuczynski / Wikimedia Commons
#4 · ramon sanchez
30 August 2008
good luck in your new job.I only just finished lucretius (thank you for that ;pure genius)because I was given’ making up the mind’ by chris frith………..this is a book anyone who sits or has an interest in mindfulness will find interesting .If you havn’t read it I think its up your street.This is a research scientist who shows that our concious ego minds are contructs of the brain.(i always knew my mind was tricky! dont work too hard ramon(:
#5 · Dave H
1 September 2008
Congratulations on the new job, Will. If I had the financial resources, I’d hire you just to sit around, think about life, and write a blog every day… Best of luck,
Dave
#7 · PeterAtLarge
2 September 2008
Congratulations on the appointment. Just take care not to get buried—as academics do over here—in the departmental politics and petty rivalries! I quit academia cold turkey some twenty years ago, and miss the teaching part—but not the rest of it. Good luck, and much happiness in the new job!
#8 · Steph Eldridge
2 November 2008
That’s my dream job! If a post comes up there – let me know. Trying to get out of secondary eductaion!
Good blog.
#1 · ck
28 August 2008
Congratulations! I’ll be looking forward to hearing how things go!