I originally published this post in November 2010 and reran it in November 2011. It’s that time of year. No matter what you celebrate (if anything) you are going to be invited to parties. Many of these parties will involve talking to people you don’t know very well — the husband of your department chair, […]
Read More »Career Planning
The cardinal rule of time travel
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · The cardinal rule of time travel Last week I talked about how helpful my Magnificent Metaphorical Time Machine is. Travelling forward in time can help you see the outcome you want, without worrying about the messy and difficult process of actually getting there. However, there is a cardinal […]
Read More »Getting the most from conferences
Are you going to a large disciplinary conference? Are you worried about your conference presentation? Or excited about meeting up with colleagues you don’t see in person very often? Is this your first time? Are you unsure about what it’ll be like? What to wear? Who to talk to? How your presentation will go? Don’t […]
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Guilt is complicated
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Guilt is complicated This is the 2nd post in a short series about guilt. You may also be interested in Stop feeling guilty, and Take guilt off your to do list. To further complicate the guilt thing… let me throw in that much of it for me stems […]
Read More »Does it matter for tenure whether you’ve published from the PhD?
Recently, I received this query: Hi Jo, I’ve been trying to publish my dissertation for a while now since completing it 7 years ago. The manuscript has been rejected twice and reviewers have noted that the data is too dated. My question is should I keep trying or just let it go? I am applying […]
Read More »Tough decisions: turning down a job offer
Sometimes I help clients decide whether to turn down a job. Yes, that’s right. Even in this tough labour market some of my clients are deciding not to take jobs. These aren’t easy choices to make. I’ve written before about how you are not desperate. That post focused on applying for the right jobs. What […]
Read More »Proactive professional development
Under no circumstances should you wait around for someone to notice what a good fit you would be for a particular role/position/committee and sponsor you out of the goodness of their heart.
The people with the power and influence to do that are very busy. They aren’t spending a lot of time looking around for hidden gems. Prepare your case and go to them.
Read More »Facing the unknown
The unknown can be overwhelming. You are about to finish whatever educational program you are in right now. Or, you are really unhappy with the job you have. Or, you can see that the company you work for is likely to lay people off or even go out of business. The problem is you have […]
Read More »Actively managing your career
The problems identified around leadership/management seem to be twofold: there are good people who are not moving into those roles/positions there are people in those roles/positions who are not doing the kind of job we’d like them to be The piece from the HBR blog and the parody of it highlight one contributor to this […]
Read More »Are negative images preventing good people from applying?
This post is not based on research. This is me thinking aloud about some of the issues I brought up in recent posts on management and leadership. I invite you to think aloud with me in the comments. Research is important. People are doing research (maybe not exactly in our sector but there is research […]
Read More »Don’t you worry it’ll be a waste of time?
One of the participants in a workshop about post-PhD careers asked the question in the title. We were talking about not knowing what jobs might suit us and the value of taking short-term contracts or taking jobs to try them out, knowing that we could move on in a year or two to something else. […]
Read More »What is required for management/leadership
Continuing with the difficult thoughts. Someone I follow on Twitter said this: “is it possible to “manage” well something you don’t fundamentally understand or know how to do yourself? I doubt it.” I’m not attributing it because it’s not about them. This is a really common sentiment. I’ll pair it with a statement a colleague […]
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