Crime might pay a wee bit ...

Hurray!
I have finally managed to put my foot in the door, no - make that toe in the door! - of the crime world! I started the new year feeling miserable and thinking I would never get a job in this area and I decided I was just going to apply for all and sundry that came along...

So, three job applications and one phd submission later.. two of the three jobs want to interview me and the phd people loved my idea! (Or at least, I thought they did, more on that later!)

Before I even had time to go along for interviews though, another possible job came along... I was offered an opportunity to work one day per week as a research assistant at the university where I teach (also once a week, for a very small fee!). I ummed and ahhhed and decided to only go along to one of the two interviews, after which I decided I'd much rather be an RA than a Database Manager so I pulled out of the application process for job number 2.

That left me with an eight month RA position, once a week... and a possible interest in my phd.

My phd proposal is based upon the dissertation I wrote for my Masters degree. It centres around a comparative study of experiences of crime and victimisation. It's not something I'm HUGELY passionate about, but I did think it would be a really interesting option and would be a worthwhile piece of research ...

So a university comes along and says, yes, we love your proposal and would like to put it forward for our Vice Chancellors award. Are you interested?
Me: Yes
Them: Mind if we tweak it a little first?
Me: Depends what area is being tweaked!
Fastforward to a telephone conversation with one of the lecturers who "really likes" my idea but suggests "How about an ethnographic study of one school"...
Me: Umm, yes. OK.

48 hours later...

Me: Umm, actually no.

I really really really would LOVE to do a phd, but I really want to do it in an area I'M interested in. An ethnographic study of school children's opinions of crime just made me want to cringe. I just don't think it would engage me or interest me enough for THREE whole years....
I wanted to do a comparative study. There are so few out there.
Maybe I am aiming too high. But ultimately, I don't want to do an ethnographic study.

So I pulled out.

Then I thought, oh god, what have I done? What if this is my one opportunity to do a phd and I've turned it down (although of course the funding was not guaranteed, I would have had to be shortlisted, etc, etc)??

Hubby was very supportive. And encouraging. And sensible:
It would've meant me moving to another city - or driving 2 hours one-way two to three days per week if I'd got it. It would've been in an area I wasn't enthralled with. It wouldn't have been RIGHT. For me.

So I took hubby's comments on board and here I go again....

Still working part-time as an RA, at least for the next eight months... and still teaching one afternoon per week, for the next three months...

And of course still a secretary...

But we're getting there... slowly.. but getting there

GG