In my last post, I proposed that you are likely only interested in a subset of all the academic jobs that are advertised in your field (no matter how sparse or plentiful those jobs may be).

If this is a new way of looking at your academic career, it might be unsettling. You might be thinking,

Isn’t narrowing my job search going to make it harder to get a job?

Isn’t it being arrogant to assume that I could have my ideal job?

or even

My supervisor has given me completely different advice. One of you must be wrong.

If it makes you feel any better, I won’t be insulted if you think I’m wrong and decide to dismiss my view as crazy. It won’t be the first time that’s happened.

But you might want to at least think about my perspective and see what happens.

First, an academic job search isn’t that different from any other job search

No matter what kind of career you want (or think you want), you need to learn about the culture of that field, learn about the different kinds of organizations you could pursue that career in, demonstrate relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities through a range of qualifications and previous experiences, and go through a selection process.

In doing that career research, you should be seeking advice and help from a range of people.

• academic advisors, especially those who know your work well
• specialist career counsellors, especially those with experience of working with people with your background
• people that have similar educational or employment backgrounds
• people working in the kinds of jobs you think you might like to secure
• people who might know people in those other categories (and could introduce you to them)

Your PhD supervisor and career advice

Your PhD supervisor fits into several of those categories. They have a similar educational background. They know your work well. They work in a job you think you might like to secure. And they know other people with similar educational and employment backgrounds who work in similar jobs.

As such, the advice of your supervisor should not be dismissed or treated lightly. They are going to be particularly helpful in terms of the culture of your discipline and in connecting you to other people within your discipline. They will be able to advise on what kinds of publications are more highly regarded, how departments in your discipline are typically organized in terms of teaching, etc.

However, your supervisor also works in a particular kind of academic institution. Anyone who supervises doctoral students is working in a more research intensive institution, values research as an important part of their career, and is participating in the creation of a new generation of researchers.

If your primary motivation for an academic career is research, you are interested in teaching primarily within your area of specialization or close to it, and you want to teach graduate level courses, the advice of your supervisor is going to be very important. They have the kind of career you want. They probably know a lot of other people in similar institutions. And their own career will be enhanced if you, their student, secures this kind of career.

However, if you are primarily motivated by a desire to teach. If you don’t care whether you teach graduate level courses or not. If you enjoy teaching broader courses as well as specialized courses. If you are interested in pedagogy and want to be able to innovate in teaching and learning. … you are going to need additional sources of information and advice.

Your doctoral supervisor may still be supportive and helpful. But if they aren’t, don’t worry. Their primary role (in relation to you) is to supervise your doctoral research, advise you on the quality of that research, and ensure that you submit an acceptable dissertation. If they do not share your values about teaching or don’t know much about working in a primarily undergraduate institution, you can get that advice somewhere else.

Learning more about different kinds of academic jobs

The first thing you probably need to do is find some people from whom you can learn more about other kinds of academic jobs. People who work in different kinds of institutions.

Just because someone works in an institution that is not research intensive, doesn’t mean they don’t do research or maintain some scholarly activity. This means that you might meet people at academic conferences in your field who work in the kinds of institutions you are considering.

You can also look for conferences that are more likely to attract certain types of academics. For example, if you are interested in innovations in teaching and learning, you might attend conferences focused specifically on that.

You can also ask people you know or meet whether they can introduce you to other people that might help you get a better picture of what working in a particular kind of institution (or even particular institution) is like.

Fellow students may have studied in one of those institutions as an undergraduate and have a good relationship with a former professor. Professors you know may have friends or colleagues working in other kinds of institutions.

Friends who are not in academia may have useful contacts. If they have a degree, they might have kept in touch with a professor who they could introduce you to. And you have no idea who their sister’s husband’s best friend is until you ask.

At this stage you aren’t looking for a job.

You are trying to learn more about the kinds of jobs you might like and be good at.

Informal discussions can yield all kinds of information about what the job and the institution is like. Remember that the person you are speaking to may have different desires and values. If they hate their job, listen carefully to what they hate. Those things might be exactly what you would like about it. Also, different institutions have their own organizational cultures and quirks, even if they are the same type of institution.

You are also trying to find out what people in those kinds of institutions are looking for in a job candidate. What experience do they want people to have? What annoys them about some of the applications they receive? What kinds of people tend to work out well? What kinds of people seem to have found it hard to succeed in their institution?

If you aren’t sure how to do this kind of information interview or to network in this way, there is excellent advice in the book What Color Is Your Parachute? Most public libraries have several editions of this book and you don’t need the most recent edition.

No one can decide what kind of job is going to suit you except you.

It would be nice to be able to consult an authority and have them tell you “this is what you should do”.

Many people will provide advice in that form. With authority. And as a statement of how things are done.

This is your career. It is you who will spend however many years working in this job. And you are a unique combination of values, desires, knowledge, skills, experiences, etc. You are not exactly like any of the people from whom you seek advice.

But you are an intelligent person, with good research skills. Start by asking some questions.