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Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Motivation & accomplishment in your writing practice Given how hard it is for most academics to find time to work on their writing, and how difficult it is to know how long some stages of the process will take, I advocate establishing a regular writing practice and trusting […]
Read More »impostor syndrome
Confidence Tricks
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Confidence Tricks Everyone struggles with confidence at least some of the time. While confidence can’t be overly reliant on external validation, negative feedback is always difficult, and it’s tough to maintain your confidence when external validation is slow in coming. Confidence also depends on things you don’t have complete […]
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Managing long term projects
Academic work involves long projects. Of the five Lesser known lessons from academia Daniel McCormack discusses, three are about the difficulties of long projects. (He goes into some detail about each of these. I encourage you to read what he has to say in addition to my thoughts.) I want to focus on the aspects of academia that […]
Read More »Are you letting fear drive your decisions?
Higher education is undergoing massive changes. The values that underpin the institutions to which you are committed are contested at all levels, from department meetings to institutional strategies to government policies to public debates. People’s livelihoods are at stake. The whole sector is facing increasing casualization. Even those with tenure, and thus a relatively secure […]
Read More »On valuing your work
I came across a blog post by an artist that resonated with things I know academics also experience. I’d like to share it with you. The post is Artist’s Statement — Part Two at The Pale Rook. In it the author talks about her own recent experience of being mentored and her own experience of […]
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Priorities or, why being a straight A student isn’t necessarily a good thing
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Why being a straight A student isn’t necessarily a good thing I bet you were a straight A student. You got lots of praise for being a straight A student. You’ve lived your life thinking being a straight A student is a good thing. It’s not. It encourages all […]
Read More »What are you scared of?
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. Getting into your program is no mean feat.) And yet the job often feels […]
Read More »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. She granted her the things she needed and Cinderella stepped up. Being your amazing […]
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Take guilt off your to-do list
Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide · Take guilt off your to do list This is the third post in a short series about guilt. You may also be interested in Stop feeling guilty, and More about guilt. As I was writing the post on making difficult choices another important aspect of this discussion about guilt […]
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