Stirling

Most of you will know about this already, but we thought it would still be helpful to post something about it. We're going to be moving to Stirling in a little under a month.

Why?

Well - in short I've got a new job there. In long, my long term plan is to get a permanent job lecturing and teaching in a computing department, and ideally in Scotland. These don't come up all that much, particularly when counting only places that are interested in the research I do, so when one came up at the University of Stirling a couple of months ago I applied. (I also wasn't sure whether my contract at Loughborough would last beyond the summer at that point) As it turns out, I didn't get the job, but they offered me a 5 year contract doing research. It's with a well-known research group, in an interesting area, where I can grow quite a bit more, and importantly it's in a computing department so I can have chances to get some more teaching experience. From a career perspective it would be quite silly not to take it: most academics I've spoken to, including my supervisor here at Loughborough, agree, though it's a shame to move as I'm quite enjoying the work here and as it turns out some money had become available to extend my contract for a bit (though nothing like 5 years' worth).

Where to?

Here's a link to the house we've rented. It's quite well placed, about halfway between the university and the city centre. It's a really nice house (as most places in Stirling seem to be!) but the downside is that it's going to swallow most of my pay rise. Easy come easy go.

How do we feel?

Very mixed. We're very sad to be leaving our friends and church here, and it is a bit of an unknown for us. At the same time - exciting new job, much closer to family and friends up north. I nearly didn't take the job for several reasons, but in the end we asked for God's peace on the right decision and felt more peaceful about the move , so we're going.

I feel like more should be said, but that's pretty much all there is to it!