So many academics complain about not having enough time for research. This can be incredibly frustrating, especially if you have research that you really want to be doing. Often, we focus on how to manage non-research tasks to make more time for research. But maybe thinking about how you use your research time might be helpful, […]
Read More »An example of an academic career
It’s easy to imagine that an academic career is simple. You get a tenure-track position in a department. You teach. You do research. You sit on some committees. You get promoted. It is also easy to get discouraged at the conservatism of academic cultures. To see the difficulties for interdisciplinary scholars. The struggles of humanities […]
Read More »Write Early, Write Often
An excellent post about writing, especially for those with heavy teaching and family commitments. She offers 4 rules: Write Early, Write Often | jliedl.ca.
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Prove Them Right
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Prove them right This post by Charlie Gilkey applies to a lot of academics: Prove Them Right. What about all the people who said you could do it? The people who always saw more in you than you ever saw in yourself. The ones who caught you when you […]
Read More »Getting started using Prezi
In the last post, Melonie Fullick gave a review of Prezi based on her experience of using it for her recent conference presentation. Here are Melonie’s thoughts on the process of learning to use Prezi, along with useful links to help. Prezi is a presentation editor that runs entirely online, rather than as software on […]
Read More »Presentations, articles, and writing to think
Shortly after Congress, Melonie Fullick shared a copy of her presentation. She’d used a new online presentation software called Prezi and I was intrigued with the possibilities. I asked her to write about it for us. In addition to the different visual possibilities and the general need to make presentations less dull, I think there […]
Read More »Why you get hired
What will you contribute to the success of the organization?
This is the primary question every person or committee who has ever hired anyone is trying to answer.
As with any other writing you do, audience matters. The people doing the hiring are the audience for your job application materials. They need to be written in such a way that they can find the information they need to answer this question.
Read More »Yes, you have career options
An article on Embedded Sociologist from the American Sociological Association, inspires some thoughts on the value of organizing scholars working outside academe within scholarly associations. Links to other such groups are encouraged in the comments.
Read More »From Conference Presentation to Journal Article
A conference presentation is an important stage in the development of your research. It allows you to get feedback, helps you refine your arguments, and begins to build an audience for your work. Now comes the hard part: actually sitting down to turn that excellent first draft into something good enough to submit to a journal. […]
Read More »You aren’t looking for a job for life
You are not behind. You haven’t wasted your time. It’s easy to think that you made a mistake somewhere along the line. Studying for a PhD was a wrong turn. Most people have their career figured out by the time they are 30. You should have learned these career research skills when you were younger. […]
Read More »Networking 101
You know networking is important but the thought of it makes you want to shudder. Or worse. It sounds so instrumental. And fake. And like it involves talking to people you don’t know. Out of the blue. If you’re an introvert, it’s even worse. Reassurance It shouldn’t be instrumental, even if the relationships you build […]
Read More »Job hunting in times of change
It’s not just that the labour market is awful right now. Higher education is changing More students. Less public funding per student. Major shifts in the balance of public and private funding, even in public institutions. Stable or declining numbers of full-time, permanent faculty positions (what gets called “tenured” and “tenure track” in North America). […]
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