It is not an exaggeration to describe the current context in higher education as dystopian. Whether you are already employed in academia, permanently or precariously, or whether you are seeking academic employment, the situation is distressing.

Is it possible to have a satisfying academic career in this context?

If so, how do you do that?

I’m assuming “satisfying” includes the kind of academic work that you find meaningful. The kind of work that made an academic career attractive in the first place, despite this context.

I ask this question because too often people seem to assume that a satisfying career is the result of securing a particular kind of job. Furthermore, even the people with that kind of job seem to be waiting for their employer to structure things differently so they can have the kind of career that they imagined when they decided on this path.

One common response to the frustration is to leave the profession, something I fully support. However, I wouldn’t be doing the work I’m doing if I didn’t think it were still possible to have a satisfying career in higher education.

Creating a career?

You might not think of a career as something you create. I invite you to consider this framing seriously. I suspect it will make a difference to how you think about your goals and approach.

Yes, you need to apply for jobs and be offered them. But you don’t need to cede the *creation* of your career to some vaguely defined [italic]‘other’. In the current context, you need to use the opportunities you have to create the career you want.

The current context is an academic labour market characterised by:

• a small number of relatively secure positions that include both teaching and research,
• small but increasing numbers of relatively secure positions that are focused on teaching, with little or no expectation of research,
• a large number of fixed term positions usually focused on either teaching or research, and
• a large number of casual positions usually focused on teaching and paid either per course or hourly.

The security of those relatively secure positions depends on education policy, employment policy, and the financial stability of the institution in which you are employed.

“Tenure” only exists in some countries (notably USA and Canada), and is under attack. Even where it does exist, “financial exigency” is a legitimate reason to terminate tenured faculty.

Furthermore, the nature of the work, even for those in relatively secure positions, has changed a lot over the last few decades.

You can get the job you’ve been striving for, thinking that it’ll give you the career you want, and still not be satisfied.

What happens if you stop thinking of the relatively secure teaching and research position as a necessary condition for a satisfying career?

This is where *creating* a career comes in.

What elements of an academic career are most important to you?

The first thing that opens up when you shift your perspective to career creation, is the possibility that different people may find different aspects of academia satisfying.

Furthermore, the social, economic, and political changes that have led to the current labour market context have also included

• diversification of higher education institutions,
• widening participation in HE to a broader range of students,
• a wider range of teaching programmes,
• the expansion of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research
• more opportunities for community engaged research and teaching
  and so on

These changes can feel like pressure. The way they are managed in specific institutions is often terrible.

These changes also offer opportunities for those whose interests don’t fit neatly with the things that are valued in traditional jobs or status hierarchies.

There are lots of ways to have an academic career these days. What kind of career would be satisfying *to you*?

There are 3 broad areas to consider: the work itself, security, and money. I’ve suggested some reflection questions for each.

The answers to these questions will differ for everyone. They are *huge* questions. The kinds of questions that might be in the back of your mind forever and never really answered. It’s worth pondering them from time to time.

It’s okay to proceed on the basis of provisional answers. You will learn more about your wants and needs as you consider the options actually available to you.

The Work

What is it about academic work that you find satisfying and even enjoyable?

If teaching is important, what exactly is important about teaching? What are the conditions that make teaching satisfying and even enjoyable?

• Do you have a preference for certain levels?
• Do you prefer certain class sizes or formats?
• Do you get a lot of satisfaction from teaching students from particular backgrounds?
• Is there something about interaction with students?

If you find teaching stressful, be specific about that, too.

Do the same for research.

• How important is it *to you*?
• What conditions make it satisfying?
• What elements of the process do you like best?
• What parts do you find stressful?
• What conditions make it less stressful?

Consider the administrative and service elements, too.

• For example, if you like things to be well organized, are you good at organizing things?
• Do you like making it easier for other people to do their work better by setting up the conditions for that?

Also consider, what has attracted you to academia in the first place? (see also What’s YOUR ideal academic job?)

Think back to your decision to pursue an Masters or PhD.

Why didn’t you go for one of the options offered by corporate or public employers that were recruiting on your campus when you were in the final stages of your undergraduate degree? What was it that made post-graduate study more attractive to you than those options?

Security

How important is (job) security? And what makes you feel secure?

I’ve written before about how security can make it easier to take risks because you are more confident you’ll be able to recover if they don’t go well. However, also consider whether confidence in your own skills and network could give you security beyond what your employment contract offers.

Security might be an individual thing, but it might also come from interdependence and community. Is a particular community important to your sense of security? Do you want to live near extended family, for example?

Security might be a feeling of “home”. Would living in certain places always feel somehow temporary? Do you imagine yourself being able to settle somewhere and build a long term community?

Money

Money and security can be connected, but it is helpful to distentangle them to figure out what you really want. The length of the employment contract isn’t the only issue. Some of the work you find satisfying (and important) is not well paid.

“Well paid” is also a relative term. As Tressie McMillan Cottom pointed out many times in blog posts and on social media (that are no longer available online), for people like her, the salaries in many academic jobs are much higher than the salaries or wages of many of the people in the communities they grew up in and still live in.

• What kind of life do you want to have?
• How much money do you need to earn to support this lifestyle you would like to have?

That will give you a money goal, but a career often involves a period where you are earning less as you establish yourself. Some of your options for establishing yourself are unpaid or very badly paid.

• Do you have sources of financial support in an emergency?
• Do you have a partner or (chosen) family who is willing and able to support you?
• Is there something you could do to give you financial security in a pinch?
• Does that backup shift how you feel about taking risks for things you would rather do?

Social mobility (or maintaining a particular socio-economic status) is probably part of your vision here. What are the markers of that for you? What are the financial requirements?

You might consider the difference between surviving and thriving. Surviving is a baseline, and might be necessary as you establish yourself, or after a crisis. It’s okay to want to thrive.

• What does surviving look like? How much do you need for that?
• What does thriving mean to you? How much would you need for that?[/]

You also need to consider the relative priority of each of those things?

No job is going to have everything you want. You will need to compromise on something. However, you get to choose your compromises. (see also Tough decisions: turning down a job offer)

In her post, “Can Ladies Do Deep Work?”, Katherine Firth considers some of these questions of the relationship between money, security, and satisfying and meaningful work. The title signals that she was prompted by reading Cal Newport, but you don’t have to be familiar with his work to find this post thought-provoking in useful ways. She is using “ladies” sarcastically.

Academic work may be more satisfying than the other things you could do for the same amount of money.

Similarly, living in a particular place or near your extended family may be more important than working in a particular type of institution, or even working in academia.

Or, you might be less concerned about pay or job security because you have other sources of income or wealth to supplement your salary. Don’t feel guilty for that. Do recognize the privilege.

It’s also okay if the money *is* important. Surviving might be necessary as you establish yourself or after a crisis. It’s okay if you would like more than an “enough to survive”.

One of my clients from a working class background told me that they’d recently been reminded by someone in their community that they had a *political responsibility* to thrive. Thriving is probably about more than money.

Consider your answers to the questions in all 3 of the previous sections and ask yourself,

What does “thriving” mean to you?

Your priorities might change over time. Heck, like Virginia Woolf, you might have an unexpected financial windfall that moves you into a position where money becomes less important, even temporarily.

You aren’t giving up on ‘forever’ as an option

You can’t guarantee this outcome. But that’s true regardless. There are all kinds of reasons that you don’t get a permanent position after your post-doctoral fellowship, or that you don’t get granted tenure or confirmed in your position. Most of them are out of your control.

This shift in perspective to *creating* a career changes the way you see some of the options.

What if the various types of teaching and research positions available in higher education weren’t stepping stones to something more permanent?

Instead of evaluating a job based on the likelihood it would lead to some other job, what would happen if you evaluated the job based on how likely it was to meet your needs right now, including the need for satisfying work but not limited to that?

Furthermore, if you prioritize the work that you find most meaningful, satisfying, and important and they don’t want to make you permanent, would you even want the permanent job? Do you want to work for the rest of your life having to accept doing work you don’t find satisfying, meaningful, and important?

Take these questions seriously, especially if you also would have to compromise on other things that are important to you, like living in a particular place, or a lifestyle that would require a higher salary.

In Part 2, I’m going to say more about using this framework to guide your choices if you are offered a multi-year post-doctoral research fellowship or a tenure-track job (or equivalent). TL;DR: Knowing that you get to spend 3 to 7 years doing the kind of work that attracted you in the first place is better than never getting to do that work at all.

And you may be wrong about the opportunities for satisfying, meaningful, and important work in other jobs.

You don’t have to do this alone

As I said near the beginning, these are big questions. There is a lot you can do on your own. However, you also should seek support for some or all of this.

If you would like to be part of a supportive community of scholars who are doing meaningful work in the circumstances they find themselves in, the Academic Writing Studio is here for you. Inside you’ll find regular support sessions called Office Hours, as well as specific Writing Clinics for journals and books, plus access to courses and resources. There are also weekly live co-writing groups at a few different times to suit your varied working week. We’re neurodivergent and LGBT+ friendly and welcome academics of all ages, backgrounds and disciplines. We look forward to seeing you there!

For help with some of the bigger questions about what’s important to you, consider a program like Jen Polk’s Career Clarity, even if you don’t want to “change career” or leave academia. Knowing you could find satisfying work outside of academia might also help you set firmer boundaries if you stay.

Money is an emotional issue for most people. I’ve only touched the surface in this post. You might find Bari Tessler’s work helpful for getting clarity around what you really want here.

If you aren’t already subscribed to the newsletter, that’s a good way to get informed when I write more in this series. Subscribe here.

Related Posts:

What an academic career looks like

What’s YOUR ideal academic job?

You aren’t looking for a job for life

Priorities and boundaries in the face of job insecurity

Originally sent to newsletter subscribers Friday 13 September 2024.