New possibilities

I love my job. I adore my colleagues. And I very much like the town I live in--and the fresh year-round produce that comes from living in this part of the country.

But.

There's definitely a lack of opportunities for me to move onward here. The directorships of the campus units I'd like to lead are typically reserved for Senate (tenure-track) faculty members who rotate through the positions in 3-year terms.

Right now I'm classified as a staff member, even though I teach.

I figure I have a few years left in my position, as there's still plenty more I can do in it before the job feels less than challenging.

But a job possibility came to me in the form of an invitation to apply for the directorship of a new teaching center at a public SLAC. The director position is 50%, and it comes with a 50% tenure-track faculty position in the discipline most relevant to the director's Ph.D. and research.

It's also a college where I know some people who are doing awesome work inside the classroom and with technology. (I interact w/them via Twitter and blogs, and I have met them at conferences and even presented with one of them.) It's also a school to which I have a little bit of a personal connection because I was a student there for a semester.

SLAC + teaching center work + position in an American studies/history department + possibility of continuing to teach museum studies + living and working in a town 50 miles from what may be my favorite city = my ideal job.

So of course I applied.

And I was invited to do a phone interview. I had the phone interview yesterday and I think it went really, really well.

It will be two weeks before I find out if I'll be invited to campus for another interview.

I'm crossing my fingers and toes. . .