What are the chances?

I work in a lab, and have a contract position that (so they tell me) goes until the end of July next year. It was a bit tentative back in April and May when they didn’t know quite how the budget was going to go. People are breathing easier, but said the same thing will happen next year. My sense is that we will all sink or swim together. Cutting us contractors won’t solve their money problems. I think.

I like what I do and am grateful to have a job in these difficult economic times. There aren’t many drawbacks. One big one, though, is that there’s nowhere to move in terms of responsibility. In my position, I won’t supervise anyone, I likely won’t move up a pay grade, and I’ll also likely always be a contractor instead of a “real” employee.

There are a couple of things that my education and experience would qualify me to do. As anyone who has read my ramblings for a while knows, I really would like to secure a full time teaching position at a community college. I’d also like to work with plants again (my degree is in Botany), and work doing the population genetics stuff with native plants like I did in school.

What are the chances that openings for both of these jobs would be announced this week? Pretty slim, I would guess, but in the last couple of days, the Denver Botanic Garden has announced a position that would involve research and conservation. Also, another campus (about 45 minutes – 1 hour away) of the community college I taught at last school year is hiring a full time General Biology instructor.

Wow. I don’t want to commute, and I don’t want to move, but by golly, I want to know if I’d qualify enough for these positions to at least get an interview. So I’ll apply and we’ll see what happens.