MPLS Division: Already know you want an academic career?
Try out these tools to help you start designing your path
Let’s start by thinking about you:
- What are your reasons for wanting an academic career?
- What is it about doing research that is interesting to you?
- What does doing research bring you?
- What are your motivations for doing research – furthering knowledge? Having an impact? Something else?
Answering these questions will provide some insight into why working in academia matters to you.
Now have a look at the Values and Careers Anchors resources to gain a better understanding of what is important to you in your career.
Your academic role model
- Bring to mind someone you admire who has succeeded in academia
- Why do you admire them?
- What values / principles do they demonstrate in the way they work?
- What do you think is most important to them?
- How do they go about progressing their work and their career?
As well as research and publishing, what else does an academic career involve?
- Teaching
- Conferences
- Collaboration
- Networking
- Admin
- Outreach
- ……what else?
Which of these should you be focusing on and will have the most beneficial impact on the way you want your career to go?
Although there are certain things you must do to succeed in an academic career, there is no one definitive career path.
Those who are most successful design their pathway around the things that are most important to them.
Therefore how will you start to design your career?
What will your first steps be?