The TwoBody Problem

1
The Two-Body Problem

• Alex Aiken

2
History

• Grad school in 80s
• Computer science
• Met my other body there

3
Job Searches

• 88 IBM Almaden
• 93 Stanford Berkeley
• 03 Stanford

4
The Basics

• Easiest Getting one job.
• But not necessarily easy.
• Harder Getting two jobs.
• Hardest Any additional constraints.
• Two jobs of a particular kind.
• Two jobs in a particular geographical area.

5
Flexibility

• Perfect solutions are unlikely
• At least at first
• The best opportunity may not come along for years
• Or ever
• Patience!
• Dont assume your first search is your last

6
A Big Question

• How important is the relationship?
• Is it more important than career?
• How much do you need to see of each other?
• Different people have different answers
• Leads to different approaches

7
One Approach

• Living together is more important than the job
• Compromise on job location if necessary
• Still requires two jobs near each other
• Much more likely in an area that is
• A major academic center
• A major industry center

8
Plausible Solutions
9
Another Approach

• The long distance commute
• Jobs in different places
• Visit on weekends, holidays, sabbaticals, etc.
• Requires effort to maintain in the long term
• Lots of time on the road/in the air
• Difficult to fully participate in life of s.o.
  and job
• But often not too bad for a few years
• And think of the frequent flyer miles!

10
Two Jobs at the Same Place

• Universities
• In two different departments
• Departments are not set up to coordinate hiring
• In one department
• Two slots is a lot!
• Sometimes a package deal is attractive
• May be more difficult if both people are in the
  same subarea
• Industry
• Easier to hire two people
• Expect places to be most interested in one of you
  
• A fact of life
• Some people dont want to work at the same place
  . . .

11
Think About the Long Term

• First job may not be last
• Opportunities to improve situation may arise
• Two-body problem often generalizes to an N-body
  problem
• Kids, schools, etc.