Have you ever lived in another country? It’s common practice for researchers to move around either on a short-term or long-term basis. It’s almost embedded into the research culture. However, until you’ve done it yourself, you don’t ever really appreciate the challenges associated with transferring and translating everything from your own country, culture and language […]
Researchers are great at analysis – you scrutinise research papers, you analyse methodologies, you deep-dive into complex data sets, you evaluate conclusions and you use a wide and sophisticated set of tools to achieve all of these analytical activities. But what about you, the researcher? How about your self-analysis? Are you investigating yourself and wondering […]
Guest Blog alert! We don’t hear much from professors when advising on careers, so it’s with great excitement that I introduce my guest writer for this month’s blog – Professor Dale Sanders (former director of a major UK research institute). Much has been written about securing a permanent academic position, not to mention surveys, statistics, podcasts and […]
Originally posted on the University of Glasgow’s ‘Expert Voices‘ as part of their Pathfinder initiative, my June blog is about how you can intentionally direct your career, rather than leaving it to chance. I hope it’s useful for you to find your own career path. Intentional or Incidental ? “I just happened to be in […]
To do a postdoc or not to do a postdoc …. …. That is a question I am asked by many PhD students, whilst postdocs ask me whether they should do another postdoc or leave academia altogether. The answer, as with many career questions, is not straightforward. The facts show that only a very small […]
This could make me lazy ….. I recently discovered ChatGPT, the new AI tool that is set to revolutionise the world as we know it. Whatever you think about it – good, bad, indifferent – it can’t be ignored. As you can imagine, it’s not often that a new technology comes along that quite radically […]
“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Ten words that perhaps make you shudder when you recall them from your childhood. Or, maybe you think about this question quite favourably as you remember your innocent younger self responding with answers such as, “an astronaut”, “a TV star”, “a princess”, “footballer”, etc. In […]
Four words ….. And such a simple statement …. Yet is it so simple? This question gives the recruiter a lot of information about you, so it’s essential to get it right. The question seems innocent enough and is often meant to make you feel more comfortable in the interview situation, but at the same […]
I read a very inspiring post on LinkedIn last week about the significance of not only valuing yourself, but also appreciating the value of others. This made me think about how important it is, in a generally critical academic world, to balance negative critique with positive appreciation. It’s what prompted me to write this blog […]
“Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.” This quotation, attributed to the mathematician, John Allen Paulos, has never been so poignant. We live in turbulent times, and trying to take control of our lives, plan our careers and instil some surety into our futures […]