For a long time I had life on “hardcore” mode. But I just wanted to write this post and share how grateful I am for the good things that have happened in my life in the past year. It feels like the puzzles of my life finally start to fall into place in ways I wasn’t expecting:

  1. I went on the academic job market and successfully secured a tenure-track assistant professor of Marketing position at UT Dallas Jindal School of Management, a place known for its attention to research. I can think of several reasons as to why this offer made me happy:
    1. There are several top-notch research faculty in my department who can become my future co-authors and/or mentors.
    2. Based on my interaction with some staff, people here seem to be more relaxed compared to the tense east-coast vibe I had to put up with in Pittsburgh and CMU. It might be a Texan or southern thing—whatever it is, I like it (as long as people don’t get nosy about my personal life).
    3. The package offered to me was really competitive compared to offers of other schools. I don’t care all that much about money, but this package allows me to finally run my research on my own GPU server. Also, I don’t have to desperately ask advisors to help me with conference costs (I can use my own research fund). And the fact that the department was kind enough to assign me to a nice office (with a window!) shows that they pay attention to people’s needs because I had mentioned to them my preferences for a window office.
    4. Dallas as a city is huge! Don’t even get me started on how great of a place it is for Iranians—there are authentic Persian restaurants and grocery stores in the city, something I couldn’t find in any of my fly-outs to midwestern schools and even in Pittsburgh.
  2. I successfully defended my Ph.D. dissertation:

Finally found some time to write a life update (Part ①/②): I successfully defended my Ph.D. | Behnam Mohammadi

  1. I graduated from the CMU Tepper Ph.D. program in Marketing!
  2. My partner and I have found many beautiful houses in Dallas. It’s good that there are options at reasonable prices. We look forward to renting one of these houses.
  3. I booked a container/pods company in advance and received extra discounts, for a total of about $3,000. In comparison, several traditional moving companies had given me quotes like +$14,000 to which I showed my middle finger (maybe figuratively).
  4. I booked movers in advance. At first I called the recommended mover companies but then I found out they’re just brokers, so I bypassed them and contacted the movers directly, and saved around $50-$80.
  5. I sold many items on Facebook Marketplace.
  6. My partner and I took so many items to Goodwill, Creative Reuse, and my school for other people to use. I also put several items in front of our place with a “Free” note on them, and people picked them up. Whatever remained was either recycled or thrown into trash. Every night I think about the sheer number and volume of extra “stuff” we have gotten rid of one way or another, and it makes me ecstatic!
  7. My partner bought a new car and this thing drivers like butter on wheels! We decided she would first replace her old car and then I buy mine. I spent weeks watching YouTube videos of various vehicles and in the end I decided to go with the 2025 Honda Accord because I like mid-size sedans. Honda’s hybrid seems to be better than Toyota’s—I drove a rented Civic to DC a month ago and had no complaints as it was quite smooth and nice. To think that the Accord is going to be even better makes me so happy!
  8. My partner was worried about finding a new job in Dallas but her current employer agreed to let her remote-work for one semester so she finds a new job there.