Career Change

So for almost a year now I've been enrolled in a master's program through the Philosophy dept at the same time as the PhD though HPS. I had the opportunity to apply for a teaching position with philosophy this semester but I was already booked to teach my own undergrad class in HPS, so I didn't. But then yesterday I got an unsolicited offer to lead the discussion sections for an ethics class in the fall semester (September – December) this year. Again this time I'm already scheduled to teach my HPS class (for the third time) but for some reason the specific offer got me thinking that I should consider it.

I had a meeting with my committee yesterday afternoon and so I asked them, just at the end, what they thought of the idea. They both immediately yelled, "Take it!" I continued speaking, saying how I had already made a commitment to teach in this dept and they said again, "Take it!" Apparently HPS is very happy whenever anyone gets work somewhere else because it means they'll be able to offer my position to someone else who needs it. The only hurdle was that my class has been advertised because it's about Darwin and the university has been running a "Themester" for his bicentennary/sesquicentennary. But I derived no benefit from it being advertised like that and the Director of Graduate Studies was certain that they'd find a replacement.

In one way this other job might seem like a demotion - leading discussion instead of lecturing. But in every other way it'll be better. It will be a good career move to get a little experience teaching something different in another dept, particularly philosophy (I like to teach both philosophical and historical classes but had I done the Darwin class again it would just be more history, when it's philosophy experience I need more of). It will be about the same number of hours work but it'll be less stressful. And it pays about 25% more! In fact, I might even be earning a little more than Cindy next semester!