Accepted post-doc and have subsequently received offers for full time faculty position - quandary

Question

After my PhD (Mechanical engineering) in 2013, I have been employed as a "visiting assistant professor-TERM" for 2013-2014 at the same university (in the USA). In this time I have been applying for several post-doc and faculty positions all around the world. The following fortuitous situation has now developed:

• I was interviewed for a post doc position at a famed lab in Europe and received a job offer. This job offer is contingent on me getting security clearance for this lab and getting a long term visa. One of the ground rules laid out was I would not accept other post-doc positions.
• Prior to this post-doc interview, I had interviewed for faculty position at US universities. Fortuitously a few weeks after this post-doc job offer, I have been offered full time faculty position at two other universities in the USA.
• Now the reason I did apply for post-doc jobs is that they would help me build my network, publish more and help with an eventual faculty position!
• I am in some moral quandary now: I know that I have given the post-doc PI my word and I will not renege on it. However, the faculty positions are definitely more lucrative and long term.
• I accepted the post-doc job because I was asked to make a decision soon and since I am a foreigner, timing is everything for me and a "job in hand is worth two in the bush" Groans at quotation.

The options (likely and unlikely) that present themselves to me are:

• Unlikely: Postpone the faculty positions to Fall of 2015. I don't think these universities would want to do that.
• Likely: Angle for better pay/better title at the post-doc jobs.

I am hoping that given the experience in this forum, people could throw some light on this situation.

Edit: Advantages and disadvantages of these positions

Advantages and Disadv. of Postdoc:

• (+) Great change of work, reputable lab, exposure to different work culture, deadlines, work pressure, expanding professional network on both sides of atlantic

• (-)1-2 years only, relatively poor pay

Adv. and Disadv. of faculty position

• (+) Faculty position nuf' said. Much Better pay, "long" term

• (-) Will miss out on once in a lifetime post doc at great lab

Answer 1

A job offer which is contingent on a visa and (especially) on a security clearance is not a present job offer but the promise of a future job offer if certain conditions are met. I had a PhD student who wanted to accept such a job, but his security clearance didn't come through in time for him to start the job (note: I'm not saying that he failed his security clearance; it just wasn't resolved in time, even though he started the procedure months in advance). Thank goodness my student was also pursuing other job offers: he is now in a one-year temporary position with the intent to start the aforementioned postdoc next year...still assuming his security clearance comes through.

I am a little confused about the "no other postdoc offers" clause. Surely it cannot be that just by applying for that job you promised not to apply for other postdocs? (Why would anyone apply for a job under those conditions??) And as I understand what you've wrote, you haven't signed any forms or officially accepted anything but only given your word to someone that you intend to take the job. (If you did intend to take this job, then as Ben Webster writes, you certainly should have written back to other jobs that interviewed you and informed them that you are off the market. That was a mistake. I wouldn't beat yourself up about it too much though: none of us gets much experience in these matters from the point of the job applicant. Later we get the rest of our career looking at things from the other side, and "the right thing to do" becomes increasingly clear.)

If you haven't formally accepted the postdoc -- and you can't do so before a security clearance comes through, in my understanding -- and the tenure-track job is much more desirable to you, than I think you are legally 100% in the clear in taking the tenure-track job. Ethically speaking: well, you haven't acted in the best possible way, as mentioned above, and I would not lightly go back on my word to a senior academic who did me a great service....so it shouldn't be a light decision, but in my opinion it would still be understandable and ultimately acceptable if you took the tenure-track job under these circumstances.

It would indeed be a classier move to explore the option of deferring the tenure track job and taking the postdoc for one academic year, or even one semester. Deferring a tenure track offer is quite common in the contemporary academic world: in my department (mathematics, University of Georgia) about half of our recent hires have completed a postdoc and arrived one year later, and recently we had someone start a one-year postdoc at UGA with a tenure-track job waiting for her afterwards (which she did then go on to take). You should understand though that that simply may not be possible for reasons having little or nothing to do with their desire to have you: the decision will probably be made rather on their ability to find personnel to cover your academic responsibilities.

Finally, it may also be a good idea to communicate your thoughts to your putative supervisor. Maybe she will be totally okay with it, and with her blessing your conscience should be pretty clear. Or maybe changing your mind will cause trouble for her in a way that you don't see. Either way it seems respectful to keep her informed.

Answer 2

Maybe I shouldn't start the answer with the judgey part, but if you don't feel like you can accept the faculty positions because of your previous commitment, why the hell didn't you pull your name from consideration the moment you accepted the European job? On my personal list of academic job hunting sins, not withdrawing your name from a position you've decided you can't accept is much worse than declining a postdoc offer for a TT. So, there's really no ethical choice at this point, so you may as well do what's best for you long term.

That said, I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the possibility of starting the TT job with a delay. This is very common in mathematics (my field); I've done it, and I know dozens of other people who have as well. I can imagine reasons it would be harder in mechanical engineering, but it's worth a shot. An important thing to remember as a job candidate is that once you have the offer, the tables are reversed. They've shown their hand, they've made a time, financial and psychic investment in you, and their other candidates are slowly slipping away as they wait for your answer. They really want you to say yes, so a concession like letting you take an initial leave is a small one. After all, they don't even need to pay for it! Universities are very flexible about letting you do things if they don't have to pay for them.

I mean, really they should want you to do this, since you'll come to them better trained, with more fresh ideas, and a wider perspective. So sell it on those grounds, and I bet you'll succeed.

Answer 3

It's an inherent risk when hiring good postdocs that they could get a faculty job offer and leave. Take the faculty job offer and decline the postdoc offer. It's what almost everyone in your position would do.

(Trying to get a year off from the faculty job so you can work at the postdoc job for one year as promised is a very reasonable thing to do first. But I think it's generally a mistake to decline a faculty offer in favor of a postdoc job, unless you are very confident you can get an equal or better faculty offer in the near future.)