Travelwise, I mean! I've seen a two-hour a week teaching job at a good university in my subject for students studying part time in the evening. It's well-paid, however it's in London which is not exactly close. the train journey would be an hour and a half after a drive to the station. Even after train fares I would still make more in a day than I do for any other jobs I have. Is it worth going for for the experience and to get known at this uni as of a full-time job came up it would definitely be worth it.

Hi PamW,

If you calculate the three hours commuting plus the two hours teaching, you're working five hours per day. If the amount they're offering (minus train fare) seems acceptable to you for five hours of your time, you should probably go for it.

The positive side of a long train commute is that you can get a lot of your own reading and writing done (assuming your seat partner isn't too chatty ;-)). Initially, it may seem tiring, especially during the winter months, but at least you don't have to go into town every day. Sounds like it could be a great opportunity!

Hi Pam,

I do a similar trek for my job and it does get me down a bit but I can be doing it three days per week, once a week should be ok, you'll get used to it. Plus being in anoher city - or a just in a city, not sure where you're based - during your week can be a lot of fun, especially somewhere excititng like London. You can get much of your marking and prep stuff done on the train, certainly reading, planing seminars and even some of the work for writing lectures can happen on the train. I find it's a good way to allocate time which is seperate to home life. I've never managed PhD'ing on the train though, takes too much concentration. Sounds like a great opportunity and as if you might enjoy it very much. I always love teaching in good departments student interaction makes all the difference. Good luck!!

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double post soz!

I commute a few times a month for various reasons and I find my time on trains (and sometimes planes) is perfect for redrafting. Print out your work like an article printout (two pages on one sheet of paper), get the red pen out, and go for it. I find I focus really easily that way and the time flies.

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If you want to pursue an academic career I wouldn't underestimate the value of having high quality teaching experience on your cv, if you think the journey is do-able. Even if you already have some teaching experence, it won't hurt to have more at a different institution. Even if you did not much more than break even, the cv value could mean it was worth it alone. And it sounds like you will earn some money anyway after the travelling costs.

yeah, as long as you get more money than you pay out on the fair. Especially if its only a few days a week. I used to do a 1hr 40 min journey to get to my uni where I did my PhD and teaching alongside it, so its totally doable. I could never work on the train though - london ALWAYS gives me a migrain so I had to sleep on the way home, and I get dizzy working on the way there, so used to just read fiction books.

Definitely if you can make enough to make it worthwhile it'll be good experience and you might get a permanent job as you say when one becomes available as you know a lot of depts like to recruit from people known to them! It'll give you a crucial foot in the door - the lucky break that so many of us need!

Good luck (up)