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What’s YOUR ideal academic job?

Posted on October 1, 2019 by Jo VanEvery 1 Comment

When you are looking for an academic job it is hard to imagine that you could get one and be unhappy, even miserable. And yet, I’ve met unhappy academics.

An academic career incorporates a wide range of activities and uses a lot of different skills. Even those who love it, and are successful, love different things about it, or excel at different aspects.

It is important to determine what is important to you. Your actual job may never match your ideal exactly, but knowing what your ideal looks like enables you to choose better compromises.

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A painted sign that reads NO on a red background that appears to be the side of a building

Academic citizenship & getting better at saying no

Posted on March 6, 2019 by Jo VanEvery

Jo VanEvery, Academic Career Guide ยท Academic citizenship & getting better at saying no There are a lot of tasks that when done well, no one even notices. They are essential to the smooth running of your department, institution, and scholarly association, and yet they are often invisible. Even if doing the actual tasks gets […]

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Proactive professional development

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Jo VanEvery Leave a Comment

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.

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Volunteer before you’re drafted

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Jo VanEvery Leave a Comment

If your level of frustration with your working hours is more about what you are doing in them than how many of them you are working, how do you increase the proportion of your time spent doing things that are meaningful? Try this suggestion from the #femlead Twitter chat. (Which sadly doesn’t happen any more.) […]

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Writing about difficult topics

Posted on November 9, 2011 by Jo VanEvery 3 Comments

I’m scared to start writing because I don’t know where to stop or how to break it up into manageable chunks (manageable for you to read as much as for me to write; you are busy; you don’t need a monograph from me).

Here are some of the issues I’m mulling over. I’m going to try to write about them.

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A person rests their feet on a desk next to a pile of papers and notebooks.

Permission to refuse service/admin requests

Posted on February 9, 2011 by Jo VanEvery 3 Comments

One difference between an academic career and other forms of employment is that you are often left to manage your workload yourself. The basics are decided by someone else, but you are always “free” to take on more.

Saying “no” is hard. Are you saying yes just to avoid the discomfort?

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