An Academic Career- Your Toolkit

Elizabeth WilkinsonUniversity of Manchester Careers Service

© Copyright rests with the authors. Please cite appropriately.

What we’ll cover

• “An Academic Career” - project

• Get you to think about

– Why you want an academic career

– The challenges you’ll have to overcome

• On-line resources available now, and to come

“An Academic Career”

• Project to support academic careers• Workshops – CVs and interviews workshops being

delivered at the University of Manchester

• Academic Careers website– open to all– text, video, downloadable resources– different information for different

audiences (UG/Masters, PhD, post doc)– balance between encouragement and brutal honesty!

Why is it needed?

• Because this is what careers advisers see

• Being really good at research and/or teaching is only the start– only a minority of PhDs make it to academic careers

Starting points

PhD

• Is an academic career for you?

• Have you got what it takes?

• Get on track for an academic career

• Find your next position• Consider the alternatives

Research staff

• Do you want to stay in academia?

• How do you measure up against your peers?

• What are you prepared to invest?

• Find your next position• What are the alternatives?

First question

What attracts you to an academic career?

Second question

What are some of the biggest challenges you will face in becoming an

academic?

How do you stack up against your peers?

Who’s getting published?

Who else is out there?

• University web pages • Biographies of conference presenters• If you don’t get a job you apply for – find out who did & what’s their reputation

On-line resources: www.vitae.ac.uk

www.vitae.ac.uk/policy-practice/200941/Database-of-career-stories.html

Careers for researchers First destinations of PhDs and profiles

Further on-line resources

www.beyondthephd.co.uk– Humanities PhD careers (UK)

http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/ – Science PhD careers (US)

www.jobs.ac.uk – Career development articles (UK)

www.prospects.ac.uk/links/yourphd– PhD careers advice (UK)

Coming soon …

© Copyright rests with the authors. Please cite appropriately.