the flexibility that wasn't

When I thought about pursuing an academic career I was excited by the flexibility it seemed to provide: flexible course schedules, being able to work on research whenever was best for me, flexibility in the kinds of classes I would teach, flexibility in choosing the research I would pursue....  But this flexibility comes at the expense of lots of rigidity.

I have very little flexibility in choosing where I will live, for instance.  In any given year, there are at most 30 jobs that fit my specific area in economics.  And nearly all of these jobs are in locations that I find unpalatable.  I also have very little flexibility in who I work with.  Most departments hire junior faculty who stay in the department until they retire, and some faculty don't retire.

Sure, there are other jobs that have limited flexibility in terms of location and coworkers, but I cannot think of many that are as inflexible as the academy.  And most jobs in other industries are in or near urban areas.  There are gobs of universities and colleges in the proverbial middle of nowhere.  For an urbanophile like me, that's quite a sacrifice.

In most other jobs, when people want something else, they can go on the market and within a couple months or years, find a new opportunity to pursue.  In academia, that's not an easy task.  I shake my head at the realization that it took me so long so see how my super-flexible job isn't really flexible at all.