This whole job-search thing is tough. It's challenging to decide the type of job I want to do. I have the luxury of not being too concerned about the salary, which leaves me as an educated individual with a particular skill set who wants to get paid something for doing high-value work that makes me feel good about getting up in the morning. This ought to be a non-profit's dream. But that supposes a perfect world in which non-profits have the time to look for opportunities, in which they are relatively well funded and well run. The same should be true for governmental organizations, though I'm not sure working for a government entity would always make me feel good - depends on the entity. And I'm more than slightly concerned about governance, which is funny - usually one discusses these questions vis-a-vis development - countries taking large sums of money to improve the plight of their people. But I think the question stands, just as it stands at a corporation - I've watched Ford Motor Company offering buyouts, encouraging what must effectively be the cream of the crop to leave - I'm sure that's not what they were aiming for, but that's very often the effect. The same could very easily be true for governmental organizations that pay significantly lower wages than the private institutions they compete with. Of course, the lower wage issue exists everywhere, but I feel it particularly acute where I'm headed.
Regardless, I'm going to have to head back to the job boards with a renewed sense of purpose. I may take up a friend's idea and adjunct - teaching Economics for a while is relatively appealing. But in the end I have no PhD, and I'm fairly certain I have decided I don't want one - the question would have to be profoundly interesting for me to want to spend five years answering it. I'm not saying it won't happen, merely that I'm leaning away from it for the moment. Ask me again another day.