One of the things you love about academic work is the flexibility and the autonomy. You don’t have to be in the office at 9 a.m. every morning. You don’t even have to be in the office every day. In theory you could take Wednesday off to go for a nice long hike and then work […]
Read More »Self-Confidence
Posts in this category discuss self-confidence and the practices that build and maintain your confidence.
Confidence must come from within
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Confidence must come from within It’s easy to think that external validation will help build your confidence. Getting that paper accepted. Getting that grant. Having someone more established in your field cite your work or compliment you on it. It won’t. Like Groucho Marx, who famously would not want […]
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There will always be things you don’t know
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · There will always be things you don’t know You are an intelligent person. You have successfully completed an advanced degree, secured a position, maybe even already have tenure. You may have won competitive scholarships along the way. (If you are still doing your PhD, you have still accomplished much. […]
Read More »Stop diminishing your accomplishments
Whether it is in the weekly e-mail that clients send me, in tweets, or in casual conversations I’ve been noticing that academics seem to diminish their accomplishments. “I’ve had a slow week.” “I only marked 2 essays.” “I only wrote [insert number here] words today.” “I only read 10 articles this week.” Negative talk demotivates By […]
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What would your Fairy Godmother help you do?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · What would your Fairy Godmother help you do? Cinderella didn’t think she was good enough to marry a prince. She certainly couldn’t have asked for all the things she needed to go to the ball. Her fairy godmother just knew she was more amazing than her current circumstances suggested. […]
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Do you over-explain?
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Do you overexplain? When you say “no” to a request, do you offer an explanation? Do you have your full schedule posted on your office door? Is your electronic Calendar publicly visible with all the details of your meetings? Do you also find it hard to say no? Do […]
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Confidence in the face of criticism
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Confidence in the face of criticism I received a request via Twitter DM. Have u any tips on academic speaking eg @ q & a time @ conferences. How can I gain confidence and speak with conviction in the face of criticism? As it happens I do have thoughts […]
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Permission to do the scholarly work you want to do
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Permission to do the scholarly work you want to do Are you telling yourself that you should be doing something that you really don’t think is valuable? Are there gremlins telling you that the work you want to be doing isn’t really scholarly? Or that it’s unfashionable (“No one […]
Read More »Are you valuing your time?
It is really easy to overvalue tasks that other people ask you to do or see you doing. And to undervalue the tasks you do alone. Writing happens alone. Sometimes it doesn’t even look like work, especially when you have to do a lot of thinking. It takes a long time to get a product […]
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Are you waiting for permission?
One of the attractions of an academic career is the autonomy it affords. That means no one is going to give you permission. Or, perhaps more accurately, they already have.
Trusting your judgement is hard. You risk criticism. Disapproval. Perhaps even attack. Even though criticism is an inevitable part of academic life, many academics struggle with it.
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A class provides structure
Now that so much information is available on the internet, this question arises more and more frequently. Why go to university? Why pay all that money to learn things you could learn on your own using resources available on the internet and in public libraries. Couldn’t you just do this stuff yourself? Perhaps with the […]
Read More »Are you letting gremlins ruin your job?
No one will fund that research. Find a sexier topic. One there’s a bit of buzz about. And make it something useful. You’re really behind the times. There’s all kinds of educational technology out there. Why aren’t you using it? Get innovative. Update that course. No one reads academic journals. What are you even bothering […]
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