The observant among my two readers might have noticed the name of this blog has changed. While in a sense I'm still learning and doing research, I'm no longer teaching as part of my job. So a name change seemed only appropriate.
As for teaching, that was the one aspect of my previous job that I was going to miss. However, as it turns out, I will be speaking at two conferences already in September, iOSDevUK in Aberystwyth, and BrightonSEO in, erm, Brighton. And unlike academic conferences, the organiser actually pays you to speak (in the form of accommodation/travel, or both).
One big worry when freelancing is that there won't be any work available. However, after 6 weeks I have pretty much had the opposite experience (though it might be a bit early to draw any conclusions yet). I'm currently working at a Birmingham start-up, Whisk, improving their linguistic analysis. It turns out, there is quite a demand for linguistic analysis 'in the wild' world of business. At the moment I'm doing about 8hrs a day of research, and no teaching or admin. Compared to the past years at the university, this seems like paradise. And of course, no pressure to produce publications no-one will read.
But as with the fairy-story paradise, it remains to be seen whether I will get chucked out at some point, when I have to do a boring contract to pay the bills. Or sit at home waiting for a phone call from a recruiter. At the moment though I'm optimistic that this will not happen anytime soon.
Stay tuned...
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As u mentioned me in the post, just thought i'd suggest 'beyond the ivory tower' - you're not excluded, you're going further...
ReplyDeleteYou're going to do great and lots of opportunities will come your way - I'm looking forward to hearing abut them!
:-)
Delving into memory
ReplyDeleteEscape into the past
Plunge into the ocean
Descending fast
Sinking like a pebble
Down among the weeds
Into the abyss
Deep aquamarine
Safe inside my diving bell
Down here I go looking for pearls
Trawling the seabed
Down here where the octopus lurks
I've come to tell her some secrets
Cutting the ties
Take up the slack
Sever the line
There's no way back
Go with the flow
Swim with the tide
In the undertow
On the ocean wide
Safe inside my diving bell