Thank you @mountainwashere. You know the proverb, when there are budget cuts, last in, first out. Well, I wasn't even in yet when the official position I was going to take was cancelled after huge cuts had been decided in French public research. I even had an office being set for me by my future colleagues and a million francs accepted to buy the tools I needed for my research (A high pressure high temperature press).
So after my PhD in France and some post doc research in Japan, the next step never happened, and I became like many other promising young researchers: looking for a job to get money and put food on the table. I turned to the industry...
After a decade, bored and disheartened by the hypocrisy and lack of vision of this sector, I left and created my own company. Best decision ever: now I am doing multiple activities that used to be hobbies and it is working very well. And now, there is Steemit that just added itself to the list of fun activities ;-)!
No plan to return... If I was offered a position, I would not settle for less than research director in order for me to carry out the research projects I want, and decide of the research directions , have a team, and mentor / guide a bunch of PhD students. Unfortunately, the French research system is really not the most flexible for this kind of thing, haha! So this will most probably never happen!
Ahh, that's too bad. Happy you're doing something you love now instead, though!