Time spent on applications

I was thinking about how stressful the job search has been, and I remember the industry search being far less stressful.  During my industry job search I had already finished my dissertation and was just touching up my defense slides.  So I got to wake up, work on applications, not worry about traveling for interviews, with any schedule I wanted.  The past few months I've been putting in my usual 40-70 hours a week at my job, and working on my application materials (research statement, teaching philosophy, cover letter, CV) in my time off at home.  This includes trying to spend time with my wonderfully supportive spouse, my cute dog, keeping my body fit, house duties, etc.  And this has sucked!

I feel like I'm going to be at a competitive disadvantage to my PhD sisters and brothers because, from what I've seen post-docs do, they have more time than I do, since they work on their faculty applications while in their current jobs. Those PIs out there: don't kid yourselves. They're doing it. In industry, you would be fired instantly for working on your apps for your next job while on the clock in your current job. So, this means they've had far more time than me to develop ideas, write then up, and even try it in the lab. I'm hoping that my experience on the translational medicine side (after all, my products have to into people quickly if we're going to make a profit) will offset any weaknesses in my application, such as no preliminary data. If I got that data in my current lab, I would be fired in an instant. 

When I look at total time on my application materials, it's around 80 hours. This is spaced over a couple months, but I can't help but think about how much better the application could have been if I had more time to fine tune the documents and collect some data to support my hypotheses. Looking at my post-doc friends, they all still have the grad school experience (freedom, work hours, interesting work, relaxed work environment) and they could be better positioning themselves for faculty jobs than me. My salary might be almost 4x their's, but if it ultimately leads to the demise of my academic dreams, then what's the point. But that's totally a first-world issue. Unless I was a working in Zambia, then it'd be a third-world issue.