Job Updates and Dissertation Progress

The bad: Despite feeling really good about how the phone interview went, Hubby didn't get a campus visit. He was bummed, I was bummed, but moving on. We continue to apply for everything under the sun, and I can't believe how many jobs are open in my home state. Seriously! If I were living in the U.S., I think I'd be a much more attractived candidate to pursue, but I strongly believe that our being halfway around the world is significantly hindering what few good chances we might have had otherwise. At this point, I feel like it's critical that we get back to the U.S. so as to make our job search as potentially successful as possible. While my department back on the main campus is committed to giving recent PhDs one year of funding as postdocs, Hubby's department cannot afford to make such a committment at this time. They basically told him, "You're on the list, but don't count on anything."

The good: I submitted my dissertation manuscript to my advisor this week!! She's going to review it quickly, then I'll have a week to make any minor/cosmetic changes before submitting it to the rest of the committee. While I feel like this is a major accomplishment, part of me is still waiting on someone to pull the rug out from under me and tell me what a fraud I am, that I'm not cut out for academic work, and that there's no way my dissertation is worth defending. I try to ignore that part of me when I can.

We've made peace with the increasing likelihood that we'll be staying in Doha for another year. It's not what we want, especially given some difficulties we've had living in our compound (an entirely different kettle of fish), but we can't return to the U.S. unless both of us are gainfully employed. For now, I grade papers, plan the rest of the semester, and think about a second project while waiting on the diss to return.