Where to next? Honolulu, Pretoria, Windhoek, or Atlanta?

As most of my readers know I am up to my eyeballs in dissertation fun and to top it off I am also actively looking for a job in Public Health. I have no urge to join the troop of homo sapiens sapiens called animus adjunct professorus for the greater good of Anthropology. My time as a TA and lecturer gave me an appreciation for working in the real world. Grading 85 blue books full of wonderful prose such as: “Like, Cultural Anthropology is about the study of cultures and old peoples [sic]” (note: a true direct quote from a communications major *shudder*) made me want to reach for a bottle of whiskey to kill the pain! Okay, so back to the original point: I’m in the middle of dissertation fun and excitement AND also trying to find a job. Here are the qualities that I want from my next job (in no particular order) :

1) Intellectually challenging;
2) Pays decently (i.e. NO to "the IRS and Social Security will suck your blood dry” contract positions);
3) Benefits (see # 2);
4) Is not part of an organization that actively proselytizes its religious beliefs;
5) Involves some cool travel;
6) Decent colleagues (this is a BIGGIE!);
7) Involves some front-line public health work and not just endless meetings and paper shuffling;
8) Does not involve a life-long commitment to said job or employer

The last bullet is important to me because I want flexibility at this point in my life to finish my dissertation; save some money; and do a post-bac med school program, not to mention have a social life and some fun! Over the last few months I’ve had a series of interviews for different positions and have applied for several others yet all to no avail. The ego is pretty sore at this point but as I’ve learned from the humbling experience that is the crucible of hell (a.k.a. grad school in Boston) that you have to pick your ego (and your ass) up off the floor, dust it off, and go pimp yourself to the next organization. Tonight I spent nearly 5 hours working on a federal application for a Public Health Analyst post for the CDC’s Global AIDS Program based in Pretoria, South Africa. I swear they wanted every weenie bit of info from me (and the post involves getting a security clearance…joy) and half of the damn supplemental questions were mind numbingly redundant. They also have similar posts coming up for Windhoek, Namibia and Gaborone, Botswana, so I will also apply for those puppies…hopefully the questions are similar in nature so I don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Such is the joy of the never ending job application. The next question is: Am I ready to go overseas again? Yes, is the answer but this time I will only go if I’m part of an organization and have some field support (not to mention decent pay and vacation time). Going overseas (or in this case back to sub-Saharan Africa) would let me save some $$$ and give me some more badly needed international health experience. I’ve looked at positions in South America and Asia but most of them require several years experience in the specific region plus local language skills (I have Spanish but no hablo Bahasa Indonesian or Vietnamese). As for jobs in the USA I wouldn’t mind working for CARE in Atlanta or PATH or the Gates Foundation in Seattle but these jobs seem to require knowing several insiders + having 10-15 years experience under your belt. It sucks but such is life.

As for the Hawaii part of this title my sister-in-law’s mum has offered me her apartment (again) in Honolulu at the end of this month for two weeks just for some peace and quiet to write. I’m craving a beach (my last dose of beach was at Muizenburg near Cape Town). Maybe I’ll just stay in Hawaii, hook up with some surfing dude, and open a bar called “The Anthronomad”….surfs up!!!!!!