A few weeks ago, New History Lab welcomed two external
speakers who gave some great tips and advice about building a career after
postgraduate study. George Turner, currently working as a freelance researcher,
talked about careers in the non-academic sector. He highlighted the importance
of flexibility in how you can mobilise the transferrable
skills acquired through postgraduate study and the importance of developing
and maintaining networks of friends and colleagues across different sectors. In
terms of deciding which career path to follow, George also recommended to think
less about what sector to pursue, and to think more about what work
you would like to spend your days doing. As postgraduate students in the
arts and humanities, many of our Labbers will probably enjoy reading, digesting
information, writing, finding out new things, or figuring out a solution to a
gap in knowledge about a particular issue. So perhaps this is a really creative
way to decide on a role rather than a
sector. Research-orientated
roles exist within many sectors, as George’s own career path as a
researcher through the worlds of documentary film-making, party politics,
thinktanks, and journalism revealed. You might also look for research roles
within the publishing, heritage, PR, and other sectors.
These ideas about building networks and thinking creatively
about how to make the most of your research skills also chimed with the themes
covered by the second speaker, Catherine Armstrong, who joined us from
Manchester Metropolitan University to talk about academic careers. As is
unavoidable these days, Catherine spent some time reflecting on the challenges of the
academic job market. For recent PhD graduates and early career scholars, the
transition is not easy, and it is often about piecing together a portfolio
of expertise and experience through casual teaching contracts, temporary
research positions, and short-term administrative roles. During this period, trying
to keep up on the conference circuit, make progress with research and
publications, and fill out endless job applications can become very daunting. But
Catherine had some great suggestions for making the most of the time as a PhD
student, and as an early career scholar in search of that elusive lectureship
position. She talked about how you can treat academic conferences as mini-job
interviews, where you aim to make yourself known to more senior colleagues in
your field. These colleagues will probably end up reading one of your letters
of application, and it will help if they are already familiar with your work
and skills.
Also, while the importance of building a publication record
is clearly a key factor in making yourself competitive for an academic
position, many university hiring committees will be increasingly interested in
your teaching
expertise. Many universities are increasingly focused on improving the “student
experience,” as their reputations and strength depend on good NSS (National
Student Survey) scores and undergraduate recruitment. As postdoctoral research
fellowships in the arts and humanities can be even harder to come by than a
permanent lectureship these days, your first decent position in academia will
probably be a temporary teaching fellowship or temporary lectureship. In these
capacities, departments will want to know that you can run your own modules, do
lectures as well as take seminars, handle a heavy teaching load, contribute to
the organisation of the department, and follow departmental policies regarding
assessment and feedback. Lots of these temporary teaching positions are filled
late in the academic year, so you will also be expected to do all this at very
short notice! Finally, Catherine highlighted the changing nature of research
and research-related funding in higher education at the moment. It’s important
to think about things like third-stream
income, the REF,
and the impact
agenda, which departments will expect you to be thinking about. Will your
research have the capacity to build partnerships with non-academic
organisations, have a broad impact on public discourse, and achieve
international recognition? Remember that almost everyone applying for these
jobs will have a PhD – departments will want to know what your plans are beyond
the PhD, and the extent to which you’ve considered these issues surrounding
research impact and funding in making those plans. Catherine has written about
all these issues on her blog at jobs.ac.uk, so check out the links for more
tips!
