Next Please!

For those that have been keeping score you'll be aware that the end of this July will see the completion of my current employment contract. Further work with my current employer is not possible, mostly due to policy, bureaucratic and administrative reasons (You didn't think keeping a Dutch-employed Australian in Germany was easy did you?). So, after a brief consideration of retirement, I've decided to press on in the workforce and am therefore currently engaged in seeking further work. I'd like to say I'm currently engaged in reviewing multiple offers but this hasn't eventuated just yet. There are many factors that go into an employment situation when you are a physicist; a prime consideration is "Who employs physicists anyway?'

The answer to that question is found all over the globe with realistic locations including the UK, the US, elsewhere in Europe and possibly even Australia. As a family we have decided to try to restrict the options to either German- or English-speaking countries. The transition for the children is probably the most demanding and to ask them to change schools, cultures and to leave friends behind is big enough -- let alone a new language where you have little to no idea about anything for the first six months. Most of the children, of course, opt for a return to Australia to once again enjoy a closer association with family, sunshine and brutal sports. In the near future though this doesn't seem all that likely. Ultimately of course it will depend on offered employment or a decided change in career.

One of the big drawbacks at this stage is that we are in a sort of limbo. It's more that we aren't sure where we are going rather than that we are moving. Gaynor has become almost masterful at dealing with this condition -- we've done it numerous times in the past -- but still it's not easy. Of course, this situation also means that those who were thinking of using a relatively cheap base for a tour of Europe should hurry up about it. :D