The Early Career Blog

Dr Steve Joy Many of the early career academics whom I’ve met over the years have talked, some almost wistfully, about a desire for more collaboration in their professional lives. Perhaps, in some cases, this was a strategically motivated wish – after all, there’s grant money to be won for interdisciplinary & inter-institutional projects – but I think that, for most, the desire was authentic. Yet I have frequently encountered the perception that, in the flooded academic job market, there isn’t room for too much collaboration. Amassing individual successes to go on the CV is what it’s about; selfish need must always trump collegial spirit – at least until one has snared that elusive permanent post. It’s difficult to see how to square these two sets of needs & wants – the collaborative versus the competitive impulses, or, put rather more cynically, optimism versus realism. But one thing which strikes to me is that we often struggle to be honest with ourselves about whether we ...

Dr Steve Joy This piece also appeared on the Guardian Higher Education Network . ***** Applications to academic jobs are notoriously convoluted, particularly to posts which combine teaching and research. Typically the CV will be one document among a groaning dossier that might well comprise a cover letter, a research statement, a teaching statement, sample courses or syllabi, and even (on occasion) a diversity statement. Where do you start? And with so many elements to worry about, how important is the CV? The answer is that it is very important. Many selection committee members say that the first document they look at is the CV. It shows that you're fundamentally eligible to do the advertised job, and it offers a run-down of your career to date. It's the scaffolding on to which the selectors can hang all of the other information contained elsewhere in your application. Yet, for a host of varied reasons, many people persist in writing truly awful CVs. What follows is my...

Dr Steve Joy ‘You need to love what you do, so seek out projects that challenge you and make you excited to go to work!’ This post is based on the results of project I co-conducted with Dr Sharon Saunders from Cambridge’s Researcher Development Programme . We asked academics & PIs to answer, in no more than one sentence, the question, “What advice would you give to a postdoc looking to make it in academia?” The rationale for the project came from the various national & Cambridge-specific evidence which has consistently shown that the advice most wanted by those aspiring to make it in academia is – quelle surprise – from those who have already made it themselves. Yet a wide range of factors mean that, in reality, it can be difficult to access advice from outside one’s own immediate group & hence to hear a multiplicity of viewpoints. The intention was never that individual sentences should stand alone – as one respondent put it (with a not-so-subtle hint of sarcasm)...