What kind of academic are you? A ridiculously simplified version of academic life By Dr Cathal O’Siochru

The types The Shepherd The Dreamer The Ringmaster The Guide The shepherd – looks after people The explorer – researching, discovering The guide – shares the excitement The ringmaster – bureaucrat The dreamer – hiding from the world The Guide The Explorer

Careers The shepherd – Learning Support, Student Services The explorer – Research Postdoc, Reader, Professor The guide – Teaching Postdoc, Principle Lecturer The ringmaster – HoY, HoD, QAA, Registrar, Senior Management The dreamer – Education Entrepreneur A few of these are slightly off the beaten track as far as traditional academic careers go. Early on you don’t always think of these as where you might end up and yet a surprising number of academics do. Did they plan it that way, some possibly but many didn’t. Just because they didn’t doesn’t mean you can’t think or even plan for one of these. Some you choose some choose you, the longer you stay in this game the harder it is to sustain the dreamer role and the harder becomes to avoid the ringmaster role

Your least preferred type and that first academic job NOT the shepherd – How much pastoral care will you be expected to do? NOT the explorer – Are you expected to publish or gain funding on an annual basis? NOT the guide – How many hours teaching each week? NOT the ringmaster – What sort of admin support is on offer? NOT the dreamer – How well established is the course/department and their goals? NOT the shepherd – How many office hours, do they have an open office policy Not the explorer – Do they expect to include you in the REF Not the guide – What’s the face to face hours like, how about blended hours, marking time, do they offer sabbaticals The ringmaster – Do they expect you to follow up on non-attendance, coordinate other staff (team teach), are you expected to be at your desk each day The dreamer – Are they seeking to reinvent their course, will they be looking to you to head up a new course which hasn’t run before

Motivations: Why do they matter? 5/11 Motivations: Why do they matter? Predictive power Knowing why people do what they do enables us to predict for how long are they likely to continue to do it and how will they react to setbacks? For example… why do people volunteer to work with AIDS sufferers? (Omoto & Snyder, 1995) Either selfless, selfish or mixed motives The mixed motives volunteers lasted the longest What does this teach us? There needs to be something in it for you A narrow basis for motivation leaves you vulnerable Omoto& Snyder found people who endorse self-oriented reasons volunteered for longer. Synder explained this by saying the self-less motives weren’t enough to keep you going in the face of the tough realities of dealing with aids, self-interest keeps you going longer. Of the three on the previous page Ken is the most self-less in his reasons but he probably won’t last as long as the others who are more self-oriented. A narrow basis for motivation leaves you vulnerable, what does that mean?

Your worst day The shepherd – you can’t save them all The explorer – everything else gets in the way of research The guide – all they want is a good mark The ringmaster – no-one listened, disaster happened and you still got the blame The dreamer – reality bites If you’ve put all your motivational eggs in one basket how are you going to respond when events land on that basked like a 10 tonne elephant? The shepherd – you do your damnedest and the student doesn’t do the tiny thing they need to do to save themselves The explorer – you face criticism for the research you haven’t been given time to do The guide – you design a course with style and grace, the students learn a lot but the NSS feedback is full of gripes about the assignment The ringmaster – you are lumbered with a policy from above that is doomed from the start, but either you can’t say that or if you do they say it’s your execution of the plan and not the plan itself Reality bites – it could be when you meet with your first mortgage advisor, when you meet your friend that you haven’t seen in a while, when they hire or promote someone much younger over you. We all face all of these slings and arrows of outrageous fortune but when it hits you where you live if can cause something of an existential crisis, it’s the thing that defines you the failure or injustice strikes as your identity.

And finally Repeat after me I’m sorry, but I’m not that kind of doctor