The job I didn't get (aka my briefcase obsession)

Hello everyone! Would you mind allowing me to vent a bit?

I really wanted to get a job upgrade. Contrary to most professors, who generally hate the prospect, I really wanted to become department chair. There isn't a big payoff that comes with it in my university, so it wasn't the financial benefit that I was after. I just think I could be good at it, because I am very organized and I like administrative work. Or maybe it is just that I have been going through a sort of a research hiatus since my sabbatical, and I needed a change. Four years of administration fit the bill, and would have allowed me to put my research brain in the sand a bit and not wonder why I have not come up with a great research question that needs answers (by me, obviously).

I did not get the job. My colleague, the one whom I pushed to get hired and in doing so destroyed my political credibility inside the department, got it. I am really happy for him. I am sure that things will be better, and that coming to work will become pleasant again as soon as the current guy leaves.

I just cannot stop thinking about the briefcase I was planning to get for the new job (this one or this one, in case you were wondering).


Photo: Kate Middleton leaving for her Canada Tour in a Smythe blazer and Mulberry's Polly push-lock bag (via Fashion Fashist).