The Meandering Continues, Part 1

Today is New Year's Day, 2011. It's probably the most humble New Year's for me in a very long time. Sure, in 2010, I finished what I set out to do: get a PhD. But I haven't actually graduated, yet (that will be in July). My thesis was officially submitted and sent to the examiners just before Xmas. I'm very glad to have that done. However, the university experience in Australia was a real let-down. I absolutely would not recommend going to Australia as a student.

The additional aspect of this humble new year is the period of unemployment I'm going through. I honestly do not know how I got the mistaken impression I would land a post-doc soon after I completed the PhD. Neither my supervisors nor anyone else mentioned this detail. The reality is there are far more PhD graduates than post-doc jobs, so it may take me a year or more until I am actually employed as a scientist. I can't help but think of the people who may fall through the cracks and never get that first post-doc job. What a waste of time it was for those people to work towards a PhD, not to mention the loss of their talents to society.

I am glad we chose to go to Canada, rather than back to the States. Michelle and Chloe are already covered under the national healthcare here (whereas in the States, we'd be losing $700/month of our income to pay for family health insurance). It is actually better, financially, for me to be unemployed here in Canada than to have a McJob in the States while paying such extortionate rates for some crappy health insurance plan.

Another stroke of fortune is Michelle being able to sponsor me for permanent residency, since she is a Canadian citizen. The application itself only requires criminal background checks and a medical check for me. This is a stark contrast to the Australian PR application, which is extremely complicated and chock full of gotchas so the government there can take your $2700 application fee and still deny you PR.

I've got lots more to say as life takes this new turn, but it will take a bit for me to gather my thoughts. More to come...