Start early and prepare early: looking for academic posts during your PhD study

Written by Dr Yuwei Xu, Lecturer in Children and Family Studies, University of Portsmouth (yuwei.xu@port.ac.uk)

This blog piece is based on my personal experiences and only offers some broad ideas regarding how to prepare for academic job applications during your PhD. You might have heard many people saying that looking for a permanent lectureship during or right after your PhD can be difficult. However, it is never impossible. I got my current lecturer position (permanent) in July 2016, when I was still in my third year of PhD study and half way through completing a first draft of the dissertation. There are many things that I feel are important for me to get this job, and I would like to share the main aspects:

1. Start the ball rolling as early as you can

Assumingly, the majority of those who do their PhDs in humanities and social sciences wish to pursue a career in academia (or at least are considering it) like myself. If so, it would be best to start browsing for relevant jobs as soon as you start your PhD or as early as you can thereafter. You may want to sign up for a newsletter with for example, jobs.ac.uk in the UK (and find out other websites where you can find academic posts in the countries you plan to work http://www.ucl.ac.uk/researchcareers/resources/overseasacademia.htm). The purpose of doing this is to familiarize yourself with the job market and in particular, to know about the expected criteria for a lectureship (or other academic/research positions). You need to pay particular attention to the personal specifications of a post, where a list of essential and desirable criteria can be found.

You will thus be able to know what boxes can already be ticked, as well as what you need to work towards during your PhD study. The earlier you realise this, the more time you will have to work on meeting the criteria.

2. No harm to give it a try

At some point, you might also come across posts that you have met the essential criteria (i.e. research assistants/associates/teaching posts that do not require a completed PhD). There is no harm for you to apply for some of those, so that you start to get a sense of how to write job applications. If you are lucky, you might also be invited to interviews, giving you valuable experiences and practices. I started to apply for posts (usually research assistants or teaching positions) from the end of my first year and have been offered 3 interviews by my second year. I was offered none of them, but the experiences helped me to be become more confident in and familiarized with such interviews. I feel this is really useful for an international applicant who are not familiar with the system and whose first language is not English. I know that PhD study itself can be busy and if you do not really want a job in your first or second year, you only need to spend minimum time filling the forms and preparing for the interviews. I didn’t even ask for any proofreading or support from others, as it’s just ‘trails’ for me.

3. Take advantage of your university’s career services

Maybe an easy way to start your job hunting, whether you are at an early trail stage or are seriously looking for jobs, is to visit your university’s career services. Usually, there will be tailored support specifically for PGR students looking for academic jobs. I didn’t know about this until my third year, but they helped me significantly when I got my current job. You will be signposted to a variety of websites, receive advise on how to write your applications/CVs/covering letters, conduct mock interviews with experienced staff members and be given technical suggestions, and last but not least, get emotional and mental support when suffering a tough period of rejections and pressures.

4. Find yourself an experienced and trusted academic friend

When I applied for my current job, I was also lucky enough to have support from two of my academic friends. One is my colleague whom I worked with as student representatives for a research association. She got her lectureship two years before me and has already completed her PhD when she started her job. She offered to proofread my application and gave me useful suggestions. The other is a senior I met via LinkedIn, with whom I share research interests. We chatted around and have built up a good academic relationship. He happened to be a person who normally sits on those interview panels (at a different university), and therefore gave me important information and suggestions from an insider’s perspective. My supervisors also helped with my preparation for the presentations. Thus, if you really cannot find anyone else, your supervisor(s) can at least be of some help.

5. Gain yourself as much teaching/presentation experiences as you can

Usually, an essential criteria for lectureship is that you will have teaching experience in higher education. For many people this could be gained by taking on Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) roles in your department. If such opportunities are limited (as it was in my department), then you might want to seek other chances. For me, I had experience working in a Chinese university for one academic term before I started my PhD. I also did one-off guest lectures at two UK universities (one on my research topic and one for pre-sessional language course). Sometimes teaching beyond higher education might also help. I volunteered for British Red Cross and taught humanitarian education at a local secondary school in Glasgow for a while. All has helped to gain me knowledge about education systems in the UK, at different levels.

As many presentations as possible at national and international conferences are also important. As a non-native English speaker, I wouldn’t be able to speak confidently and fluently in front a large group of audiences, if without my various presentations at conferences – you get challenged and criticized, and then become more confident.

6. Publication, network, and more

Lastly, other things you might want to consider include for example publications. You might not have published any articles during your PhD, but sometimes any working papers or those under review would be sufficient. The employer(s) would want to know that you have the potential to publish. Network can also be useful, and my tips for establishing academic networks are again attending conferences and special interest groups. You don’t need to have a massive network, but one or a few established networks that you can collaborate in the long term.

All in all, every effort you make counts, within or outside the higher education sector. It’s key to know what you want and what your potential employers want; work towards them strategically and prepare early; seek support from others and support others as much as you can; and in the end, ‘sell’ yourself with confidence in your applications and interviews.

I hope this piece work at least signposts to some directions at what you can do. If you need further discussions, I am happy to be contacted via yuwei.xu@port.ac.uk.