Ryder,
I am not sure about prospects for moving up the income ladder. He says he does but I, for one, don't trust a soul in the private sector.
He had 11 years with his company and exemplary performance all the way through, yet they still found it OK to lay him off without any remorse.
The current company refused to negotiate salary, they did not even budge on their offer and also did not help with any relocation costs. But we had no choice. In this market, we are supposed to "kiss their feet" for giving us a job, any job.
So given the start, I am certainly not inclined to believe they will soon make him "king of the castle" if he "works hard". He has worked very hard and very well in the past - and the result was quite disgusting, as far as I am concerned. (Speaking of which, I don't think there is a more over-rated, over-used and over-abused expression in the English-speaking world than "working hard" ).
No, he can't switch jobs easily. He is very specialized, also quite highly-skilled (but so what?) and this is exactly why we could not afford to wait in GA for another opportunity to come up for him. This would have allowed me to keep my full-time job here but this ended up not being an option.
He knew he had to take this offer, come H or high water.
Yes, I am a professor too - one who had a good job in the South but also one who does not have 1000 publications on her CV to compete with 1000 candidates per full-time, tenure-track opening in the Boston area - most of whom have degrees from prestigious universities minus the diapers I have had to deal with in the past 4 years. So in all honesty, I don't have hopes for a full-time job in MA. The best I can look forward to is some online adjuncting with my current university or in the future, some other universities that offer online courses.
Better yet, we are thinking about finding a way to slowly transition to an online/telecommuting arrangement from my home country in a couple of years or so. The cost of living there is lower and we have a house paid off. That would be a major step ahead, for starters. We are not sure though to what extent this dream is realistic.
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