Job update / Advice troll

Disclaimer: I realize my position is, in many respects, enviable, and I really have nothing to whine about.

On Monday, Erik @ HMS surprised me with a phone call. It seems that they couldn't decide between me and another final candidate, and so they decided to try hiring us both. He didn't have a formal offer yet, but said he was "90 percent sure" everything would go through on his end.

ICG (the comfy and MINT-like group elsewhere at Harvard) made its official offer yesterday, and has since sent me two emails and one phone call (at 8 pm this evening) begging me to join them. I told them I'm in the mulling-over phase. That I'm doing this at all feels weird enough, especially after a weekend where I successfully psyched myself up about joining them.

I called Erik at HMS with the news. He said today that they're clear for the double-hiring (it would actually involve me joining right away and the other person showing up a few months later) and unless my references all go insane before HR calls them, I can expect an offer shortly.

So what's on the table:

• Both groups are offering the same salary. Both have said they can have as flexible work schedules as I might need.


• Both places would let me use my iBook as my main machine. ICG has wireless. I... don't recall if the HMS place does. I'll ask.


• ICG is in a somewhat stuffy, recast Victorian. HMS is in modern (if not very pretty) research buildings.


• ICG is in Harvard Square, a vibrant place full of interesting stuff, including lots of good & different foodie and coffee places. HMS is in Longwood, which doesn't have much of anything except lots of hospitals.


• Harvard square is a 20-minute walk from my house, or a 10-minute (if that) subway ride from Davis Square. Longwood is a 45-minute commute or more, mostly on the subway, but involving a T line changeover.


• The ICG people I met are bright, friendly, mostly young people. I didn't get a chance to really meet any HMS people beyond the four who interviewed me, but they seem to be the same sorts. (Well, they'd have to be.) Of course, the HMS job involves much closer mixing with the "customers" (the researchers), sharing the same facilities. One person at the interview asked if I thought I could deal with snooty ivory-tower types... heh.


• The work at ICG would be further explorations into areas I'm already pretty comfortable in: write software to help store information in a more effective way, and to help people do their information-related jobs better. I could perform this job with no problem and maintain high interest, so long as they kept throwing new stuff at me. The HMS job, on the other hand, involves using familiar tools to delve deep into raw science, like nothing I've ever done before. Well, it's all still just dealing with data that the researchers generate, but on the grand scheme it's still reverse-engineering the human body (at the chemical scale), with the goal of finding disease treatments. I have great interest in this, on both selfish and altruistic levels.

I decided to tell Erik that I was leaning in his group's direction. It seems to me that the last item in that list would makes the HMS job win. But... I still wonder if, given the book, I should take the job that may be more laid-back, with a shorter commute and a shallower learning curve.

Then again, if the book starts to fall behind, well... I can just accept a co-author once again. I don't think I'd mind losing the magical sole-byline on the front cover. Chuck has made it clear to me that this is malleable, if needs be. I'm just interested in making a good book... I'm far too lazy to think or act like a glory hog.

Hum hum hum. Anyway. I need to do something final before the weekend.