caleyjag

I couldn't agree more with this. My field (lasers and microscopy) seems very much a case of 'who you know', at least in terms of postdocs and bridging the gap to tenure track - I am other fields are similar.

retzie

Not just who you know, but how everybody else is connected. Does your advisor have a feud with someone? Does somebody owe your advisor a favour? Did the group in your field get dibs on the seminar room this year, so some other research group gets first hiring preference?

I could deal with 'only the best get jobs'; unfortunately, the reality is a quagmire

AdobePinon

Yep. I made an early decision not to go down the academic route. Took a while for some of those around me to accept that decision, but zero regrets on my part.

retzie

My relationship with various people changed indelibly when I opted out of research. I think there is a certain suspension of disbelief needed to exist in that world, so when people leave, they get shut out pretty definitively. Like you, I don't regret it one jot, but it was not an easy transition.

I'm still on the teaching side of things, which is less high-pressure (and also significantly more ramshackle). I made a bid to escape academia last year, which went pretty badly and ended in my return because I need to eat! Apparently I have painted myself into a corner, career-wise. And there I was thinking I could always leave...

AdobePinon

My journey has taken a while. After grad school I taught undergraduates for a time while I fixed my immigration status. I found out that perhaps nothing typecasts you as quickly as teaching. Got a non-academic postdoc for a while with higher salary than I was making teaching, so I ended up staying in research for about 10 years outside of the academic path. I could have stayed on that path, but I got kind of disillusioned with the state of scientific research in this country, so I took an opportunity to move to an engineering position where my scientific background is more valued than before.

There is a certain irony to the fact that everyone in science thinks they're going to end up in academia, yet can't do the math that passes in front of their eyes every day.

Skadi

I found much of New England to be very similar to the UK in many ways. Many aspects of Boston seemed like a British city. It was still too "American" for me though

Steve_

They don't do a car ferry though which is what gets on my nerves.

But anyway yes, Seattle is damp and overcast so should appeal to anyone stupid enough to want to live in Britain.

scrubbedexpat091

While not from Seattle and it goes to Sidney, WA state ferries does have a route from WA to the Island that take cars, they sell tickets for cars on it anyhow...

dbd33

I find Victoria to be "British" in the sense that it's like a geriatric version of Reading. One may as well move to Appalachia because the slag and decay there is like that in Wales.

I think Madison WI is both quite British and quite pleasant and it's a day trip from Illinois (well northern Illinois anyway).

Bob

Portland, Maine?

It's cheaper than Boston, by a fair bit but close enough in the car or train and has public transport around town.

Would realistically still need a car to get around further than town and it's more practical in winter. Same for Boston though.

Steve_

Huh? When was the last time you were in Victoria?

dbd33

14 months ago. Perhaps the aged population from that time has since keeled over and been replaced by a newer, livelier crowd of septuagenarians. I doubt it though, Victoria had very much the feel of Eastbourne with the look of a new town, Reading, Baskingstoke, somewhere undistinguished like that.

Galveston, now I think of it, had much the same vibe as Southend or Canvey Island. We stayed in a run down hotel on a pier over mudflats, we met some yobs in a bar and chugged lager and smoked spliffs with them. That was a kind of British-ish experience though not one to everyone's taste.

scrubbedexpat091

Victoria land of old people and politicians...lol

Anash

I have travelled to and stayed in many states and cities in the USA (Michigan, Ohio, Florida, California, Washington, Delaware, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Nevada, Massachusetts, Maine). I am not sure what you are looking for in precise terms. But Boston never felt like USA to me. It felt more like England...I won't try to define my 'feelings' over that matter. It just felt like that. Period.

scrubbedexpat091

Boston would make sense since it was a major city back in the day the English were controlling the US.

By the time you get out west, there was little if any English influence, and places like California were Spanish territory so the old architecture and missions reflect their style. But the city's out west even when the Spanish controlled it were far from being an important city like Boston was.

I am not sure if the British ever step footed in California.