Decisions, Decisions

I am about to complain about something that will probably not garner me a lot of sympathy: I have multiple job offers and making a decision is really hard!

Yes, I know. I do realize that this is the academic equivalent of First World Problems. There are starving children in Africa postdocs with no job offers. Of all the problems one could have, this really isn't such a bad one. No matter which decision I make, I will end up with a tenure-track faculty position at an R1 institution (RU/VH in the new Carnegie classification system, which no one on the job search wiki seems to use, but I digress). So really, I'm in a pretty awesome position and I know it.

But despite knowing how lucky I am, making such a huge life decision still makes me feel like my head is going to explode. What if I make the wrong decision? What if I end up hating everyone I work with? What if they all end up hating me? What if I work my ass off and still don't get tenure? Where am I going to have the best luck attracting good grad students? What about all the fringe benefits: which place has the best health insurance, retirement plans, etc. Which climate do I prefer, too hot or too cold? Will the start-up package be enough to cover what I need? The list of questions running through my mind is pretty endless at this point.

To combat my current mental disorganization, I am creating an overly-complicated pro/con spreadsheet, complete with ridiculous colour-coding and a bizarre scheme for awarding points for different factors. I will probably revise the points scheme at least 3 more times before the end of the day tomorrow. I suspect that after spending days rating and calculating, one school will emerge the winner - at which point I will either feel happy or disappointed and will know which place I prefer. I suppose I could just draw a name out of a hat and see how I feel about it to save myself the time and stress, but there's just something about colour-coded spreadsheets I really enjoy.