1. Academic careers: Navigating the post-PhD years
Dr Charlotte mathieson
@cemathieson

2. Overview What is an academic job and what are employers looking for?
What does a typical post-PhD career path look like?
What are the challenges you might encounter?

3. What is an academic job? Permanent full-time lectureships
Postdoctoral fellowships (Leverhulme, British Academy)/ research position on project
Fixed-term lectureships (1-2 years)
Teaching fellowships
Academic-related jobs e.g. public engagement, research support
Hourly-paid teaching

4. What are employers looking for?
Research
- publications: articles, chapters; monograph —> REF submission
- grants & funding: small PG awards & bursaries; conference funding; research funding
- conference presentations
Teaching
- Experience at UG/ MA level; supervision (BA/MA/PhD)
- seminars, lectures, assessment; content/ course design
Administration
- committees e.g. department groups, subject associations
- conference/ symposium organisation, reading groups, etc

5. Characteristics of early career paths
There is no typical path
A period of precarity is common, and increasingly longer
Multiple, short-term contracts across institutions (simultaneously/successively) typical
Most jobs teaching-focused; Research-focused roles eg fellowships harder to come by

6. My early career path 2007-10: PhD, University of Warwick (viva 2011)
Jan 2011 – Oct 2012: hourly-paid teaching, marking, invigilation,
academic writing, 1-1 tuition, short term research fellowship,
research assistant, work on University ECR projects, freelance proofreading, etc…
Oct 2012 – Sept 2013: 0.6 FTE project fellow Institute of Advanced Study, University of Warwick
Sept 2013 – Sept 2015: 2 years further in IAS post, full-time
Sept 2015 – July 2016: 10-month teaching fellowship, Newcastle University
August 2016 – present: Lecturer in English Literature, University of Surrey

7. Challenges of early career paths:
Time – for research and career development; work-life balance
Money – living costs, funding for conferences
Uncertainty of precarity – impact on planning academic (and personal) life
Balancing competing demands of long-term goals vs short-term needs

8. Challenges of early career paths:
Feeling adrift: no consistent supervisor/ mentor
Relocation: costly, time-consuming, (re)building networks
Rejection, rejection, rejection…
Mental health and wellbeing

9. Overcoming challenges: academic strategies
Take control of what you can: have a plan
Publications to write, conferences to attend, jobs to apply for
Make it flexible and accommodating – revise and readjust regularly
Prioritise and strategise – CV gaps
Keep the long-term in sight

10. Overcoming challenges: academic strategies
Stay affiliated: Library card, institution title for job apps
Build up support networks:
Peer support
Online networks
Mentors: mentors to help strategise and give direction

11. Overcoming challenges: job applications
Be flexible; recognise the benefits of “alternative” paths: skills and experience gained
Always go for the job: “internal” candidates are not always certainties
interview experience is always valuable
Be selective
Help and get help from others (peers/more experienced)
Have a rejection strategy

12. Overcoming challenges; stay informed
Read HE news, blogs etc
Understand key contexts e.g. REF/TEF
Talk to others about experience at interview & go to dept. presentations, read job adverts

13. Overcoming challenges: personal strategies
Look after yourself: exercise, eat well
Have down-time, socialise: make time for family and friends
Pursue other interests and hobbies
Seek professional help – counselling/ mental health services

14. Key messages Take control of the things you can
Look after yourself and others
Rejection: it’s not just you and it isn’t personal
Be realistic: it’s tough, but have hope

15. c. mathieson@surrey. ac. uk @cemathieson www. charlottemathieson
@cemathieson