I’ll most likely be away from the internets for a few days as I’m off to Toowoomba tomorrow and will be gone until Wednesday. I have a job interview for a 3 year Lectureship in Politics on Tuesday morning at USQ. It would be nice to get the gig. As many young academics know, the endless cycle of short term contracts and sessional work can get pretty dispiriting. I’m not whinging - because I’m well aware that the amount of money I make is a lot more than many in the community, and I’m privileged in getting to do work I actually enjoy doing. I can often supplement my income with consultancy work and paid writing as well - though the system of being paid on presentation of an invoice with 30 day terms means that there are periods of time where no money at all comes in for a while. Such is the lot of a Howardian entrepreneurial contractor 
But I’d love to get things like paid holidays and sick leave, decent super, and to forget about things like scrambling to find work and not being able to have any time off.
12 Responses to “Trip to Toowoomba”
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Good luck, Mark. Fingers crossed for you.
Best wishes. Check the coolant level in your chariot, that ‘last hill’ before Toowoomba is a test indeed.
Thanks Laura and Peter - I’m getting the bus! I don’t drive.
You still need a bicycle! Good luck Mark.
Test again
That’s better. What I wanted to say was:
Toowoomba eh? Excellent .
Best of luck Mark.
Philip Gomes wrote:
“You still need a bicycle!”
Having attempted to cycle the 600 metre climb to Toowoomba from the plains below, Mark will need to be considerably fitter than I discovered myself to be on that occasion.
Enjoy the interview process. They’ll be lucky to get you.
I may need to move to Qld soon. Apparently, if you’re a serious blogging academic, you’ve gotta have a postcode that starts with 4.
Good luck Mark - you’d be great! And 3 years - that’d be excellent.
I’d love to have an academic appointment - overall, it’s a pretty excellent deal. The best thing is that you have much more freedom than in most other jobs, which is a fine payoff for the smaller salary.
Yes, good luck Mark.
T’wba would be a nice gig - cool weekdays, home to Bris for weekends …
Good luck mark.
My basic rule = no tie in any town less than 100,000 popn.
I went to a conference at Toowoomba Uni years ago. From memory dress code for men was tight short sleeved polyester shirts, tight shorts with belt, long white socks with brown sandals. Hair was a mix of shoulder length with full ned kelly prof quiggin type beard and/ or comb-overs - beards optional.
Hope this helps.
That’s the idea!
Thanks for the fashion advice, fxh. One day’s probably not long enough to grow a beard so I’m glad that they’re optional.