Tag: career advice

Interdisciplinary research. So hot right now… or is it? To be clear – I’m a super fan of interdisciplinary work. I’m happily ‘post-disciplinary’ myself. My PhD was interdisciplinary, and my current job is transdisciplinary. I work with all kinds of research students, from physics to fine art; education to chemistry, I embrace you all! While …continue reading.

I have a large, ever growing, pile of books sent to me by publishers in the hope that I will review them. Smart publishers know that I have an interest in helping you make best use of your (probably limited) book buying budget. I’m even thought to have quite a lot of influence in the …continue reading.

I’m constantly surprised (although I don’t know why) at the ability of a PhD program to trigger a full blown existential crisis. While most of the time the feelings will pass, sometimes the crisis is a good thing – it’s your subconcious speaking and you’d be advised to listen. Last week an ANU student, let’s …continue reading.

If you follow the narratives of the PhD in the mainstream media you can get really depressed. All the reports are so negative on your job prospects. What’s a PhD student to do? Well, some clever people are turning their minds to the problem and this post concerns a new book on the subject. Normally …continue reading.

How do you get an academic job? Much of the advice out there boils down to one statement: “publish early, publish often”. However, after reading Jen’s post last week I think we should approach this advice to ‘just publish’ with caution. Jen’s figures showed clearly that being ‘one dimensional’, i.e. just a researcher or just a teacher, was the surest road to marginal employment. Academics in permanent positions tend to do teaching and research.