tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4817921986267507782024-03-05T16:54:16.834-08:00Ruminations: Life after AcademiaThis blog was inspired by others who are writing about their transition out of academia or who have already left and feel a positive transformation. After ten years of academic life while pursuing my PhD and teaching in Higher Education in the UK, I too am part of the growing number of post-PhDs who have decided to find happiness outside of the University walls. This blog charts that journey.Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-47378582816384819632015-03-19T17:02:00.000-07:002015-04-02T04:27:16.341-07:00What it might mean when you begin to "put yourself in charge"Uggh, I've been having frequent interrupted sleeping lately - just waking up at various times in the night for no particular reason (or when experiencing hormonal night sweats! yes, they are a big drag) and the latest advice on the net is to gear yourself up early for a night of good sleep by turning off screens- get away from the laptop, tablet, phone and turn off the telly at least an hour before hitting the sack. So, as I sit here at 11.30 pm on the spur of the moment decision to look at my neglected blog, I wonder what I am setting myself up for tonight. Let's see how it goes. I'm going to make this post short in some attempt to have some peace later on.<br />
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I've logged on now, I guess, because my mind has been in a bit of a whirl about what my next moves in life will be. My job is now finished - the final day was last Thursday. I've gone through the expected lengthy questioning about whether I made the right decision to move now before I have something else lined up, have experienced, and am still experiencing aches of guilt that I am not contributing financially to the family income at the moment, and feeling a bit of a sense of loss, if nothing else, of the routine that one has when one pick's oneself up everyday, often through the cold and rain on the bike, to participate in the conflicting world of paid work. If only we didn't invest so much of our identities in this, it may feel easier to move on and forward.<br />
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For the last couple of months I've been confining my job searches to suitable university administration/project work, and as I posted in January (or late December) I was unsuccessful in my last interview - still it was a good experience. Over the last few days I've started to widen the search out of curiosity to see what sorts of things might be possible. Chris Humphrey's postac Jobs On Toast website has been helpful in prompting some of this. But it was an article I came across tonight by Jennifer Polk 'Be vulnerable, be brave' that offered a few words of wisdom and has been sticking with me. Reading it felt like confirmation that my decision to leave the job now was the absolute right thing to do. The more I think about it, the more I realise that this move is my first step in beginning to "put yourself in charge" as Jen writes. Her final words, the internet speak "takeaway" message is this:<br />
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be vulnerable, be brave, and put yourself in charge. Whatever comes of it, at least you'll know you gave it your all, and that you honoured who you really are. You owe yourself that much. I'm rooting for you.</blockquote>
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Thank you Jen, for rooting for the postacs who are making these kind f decisions, but also for people like me, a postac who's already made the transition out of the PhD, adjunct world and into alternative employment (albeit as an 'alt-ac', but still...). I'm just another example of what this working world is now like. Nothing is forever, new challenges are always presenting themselves and forcing us out of our comfort zones. It's hard sometimes to get to the point where we can will ourselves to 'be vulnerable' when it doesn't always instantly reward us or make us feel heroic about its related sense of 'bravery'. But vulnerability is an important, meaningful part of growth and won't do us too much harm. Onward I go. Let's hope that the night ahead is filled with sweet dreams.<br />
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See Jennifer Polk's website; FromPhDtoLife.com<br />
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Apologies for not providing links - too much to manage at this hour. Next step - laptop shut down.Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-73393167598190757772015-02-27T01:22:00.003-08:002015-02-27T01:23:10.824-08:00Starting anew once againJust over a month has past since my last entry and much has happened. In short, I have decided it is time to move on from my current job. There has been lots of ruminating about it, feelings of guilt that I should hang on and just give it a go, that sort of thing, but instinct was telling me, and was confirmed after my consultation about the details of the new role, that it would not be positive to stay. I am obliged to only give four weeks notice but have given them an extra two weeks as nothing else is lined up and I was hoping to finish off some projects, not to mention take up some of the annual leave time that I accrued. Being part-time, that has meant that there haven't been too many full days of work left. The last couple of weeks have been chaotic busy time with what seems like an endless list of tasks and waiting for others to get back to me to complete things. In addition, other mini crisis management things have come up to keep me busy - all of this has just added amounted to an increase of stress levels at the moment that I'm hoping to manager better today on this day off and over the weekend so I can get a better sleep. It's actually probably a combination of knowing the end is near and not knowing what lies ahead that is really accentuating some anxiety. I think once I finish and have some time to just get to grips with this and relax a bit then I'll feel better. Sticking to getting some regular exercise with the running should help - it seems to have a positive effect when the headaches come on and helps promote some relaxation.<br />
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So, it's all starting again for me, the re-thinking and planning ahead for the next steps. I may not have secure work in place for a bit, but I've never really been out for work for extended periods of time in the past. Overall, I'm feeling secure in my decision to leave and positive about the future but this is mixed with some overwhelming thoughts about the potential uncertainty of it all. I thought I may not be spending too much time on this blog but maybe this will change. Watch this space. I'm sure at the very least I'll be posting some short updates every now and then for those of you who may be interested and who may be experiencing similar journeys.Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-31670321517484360642015-01-21T09:21:00.002-08:002015-12-09T10:19:42.024-08:00How fast things can changeIt's quite funny, actually, or should I say ironic, that in my last post I was writing about how fairly good things were at work and that I was in no rush to move on. It was all suiting me just fine. Well, not too long after my colleagues and I were informed that the organisation was making plans for a major restructure which would impact on some people's jobs, whether this would mean changes to their roles or making the phasing out the role to introduce something altogether different. Already the next line area managers were reapplying for roles that were changing from what they had been previously - all of these people were successful and are making new business plans for their areas. I've now discovered that my role will have different responsibilities added to it and I will be line-managed by another person in a different area who has been with the organisation less than a year. The areas I am told that need attention don't exactly thrill me with excitement and the new manager's interests don't seem to coincide with mine very much. This person is nice enough and I have the usual respect for him/her as I would for anyone else in the office, but I guess in all honesty, I'm not overly impressed with some of the approach to what I would have expected were simple decisions about a few things over the last months or so. It may be that my part-time role will now change to full-time. I'm told there is a possibility to consider how this may work in a job-share arrangement if I wanted to continue part-time. It's a guessing game as to how many prospective people may line up to take this possible job share and bring with them a range of skills/interests that I may not have, which could then complement the idea of the job share. All will be explored in more detail in a meeting next week. I'm trying to keep an open mind on this.<br />
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This all has prompted lots of pondering and some attempts at how to think about planning my future. I was actually successful in being shortlisted for a challenging interview for a role at the university before Christmas and I was very excited about the prospect of being chosen for something that looked like it was right up my street in terms of transferable of skills and interests. After loads of research and planning for what would be a whole morning of various tasks for the recruitment process I finally decided I had done enough and didn't want to overkill or burn out during a time when I was recovering from a cold that had been dragging on (and then returned over the holiday in a worse state). But sadly all of my good efforts proved not to be enough to convince them to hire me, or indeed the other two shortlisted candidates. I was told no one was offered the job as we didn't quite offer what they were looking for - indeed they were going to rethink this role, what they wanted and how to proceed. I've found this enlightening - the way it was advertised with the usual list of 'essential' criteria and 'desirable' criteria suggested they were remaining flexible, maybe hoping that someone interesting might show up with the potential and evidence of the goods. But I guess 'potential' isn't good enough if the employer wants that person to get in and turn out the goods fast with obvious confidence. This kind of candidate would need 'essential' experience in that field of work and developed skills in 'all' the areas, which I believe is what they hoped to find. I made the brave move afterwards to ask for feedback about everything. Wow, this ended up being quite a deflating experience, more than I was ready for. The list of criticisms seemed endless, aside from the compliment that I was quite likable/approachable, would be good to work with. Hmm, well, as this case shows, you need a lot more than that to secure a good job. But I guess what I have learned is that the aspect of the job that would have actually demanded most of my time, was in fact, when I look closely at my skills and what I 'enjoy' doing professionally, the least attractive part of the role. I hadn't quite realised this important point until afterwards, after I was forced to swallow the feedback. A good friend also reminded me that I shouldn't use this as a case to be too hard on myself. The whole recruitment process relies heavily of a lot of criticism, and especially in an example like this where they didn't hire anyone. As this was the case, they had to show good reasons why they wouldn't hire us. I may have been naive to expect to get more positive feedback after this process. And all of the kind giggling, smiling, positive nodding in the interview, in retrospect, feels like a bit of an unkind joke, a farce. If the interview panel were less cheery and signaled a bit clearer some of their dissatisfaction then maybe the let down would have been easier.<br />
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Still, a good professional learning experience for me for sure. I'm fully aware of the fragility of the workplace at the moment when things can unexpectedly begin to change. It feels good that my application was strong enough to shortlist me, but in future I should be more selective and really think hard about what kind of job I want to commit myself to, and how this would compliment my strengths, not challenge all my weak areas. I also decided I want to stick to part-time hours. Well, that's going to be harder to achieve - it's not going to just slot into place. Funny, that was another thing that came up with this interview. I had phoned and spoke to one of the contacts about whether the full-time spec could be worked into part-time and I was reassured that it was worth applying as they may consider this for the right person. But when I brought this up to the other contact in the interview the prospect seemed surprising to him/her and the other person kept quiet about it. Oh well. Sticking to this whole part-time agenda thing is going to introduce challenges. I'm not sure at all how I'm going to deal with this at the moment. For today, I'm going to just try to remain calm, take things slowly, see what happens at next week's work meeting and take things from there. Wish me luck.Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-69523930129245597422014-09-22T12:59:00.000-07:002014-09-22T12:59:42.310-07:00Is it time to move on from here? Yes, yes, it's been many months now, yet again, since the last post. So long now that this is becoming embarrassing. Some quick updates then from the last post. Our son who just turned 18 in July succeeded in meeting all the of the conditional offer that Cambridge University gave him to study Maths (he actually exceeded the offer by doing better than they expected), so he's off soon to start his first year. In the US they get them in quickly after early September Labor Day, but here most universities start in late September. Cambridge even starts later, this year on the week of October 6th, so time is dragging on. Anyway, he is mega excited, feeling privileged, and we've been trying to hold back from bragging too much that our son has got into the most difficult undergrad course in the country at the most prestigious university! Brag over now - we've also had to admit that we didn't know how smart in Maths he <i>really</i> was because it's not exactly our subject. So there you go. Your kids will surprise you in many ways.<br />
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Also, the lump in breast - no problem. Fluid build up and nothing else. Had other usual tests to check all and all is fine. I shall live another day...<br />
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<b>And now I ask myself this next question: Is it time to move on from here? </b><br />
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Okay, there is a definite pattern that's developed here - the content in this blog has gone down significantly from its earlier days and each new post reveals all the guilt I feel when I finally do get to writing something new. So, I'm going to come clean and admit to myself and readers that it's probably time to start saying goodbye, at least gradually (it feels too difficult to fully let go at this point) to some of my post-ac writing and sharing.<br />
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What I've noticed for a long time is that many of the other high-quality post-ac blogs I've encountered and kept up with, are so much better than me at keeping abreast of the latest post-ac debates and flagging up of the usual resources needed to inspire future post-acs to see their potential futures outside of the ivory walls.This blog has been a wonderful vehicle for me to mull over the academic and post-ac choices I've made. It's been a great place to reflect on how far I've come since the earlier, more frustrating moments when I was unsure of where to turn to make plans for a better working life after contract teaching. From some of the comments I've received it looks like I've offered others useful points for identification. That's the great thing about the post-ac community; we are sure to see bits/chunks of our own stories and feelings in others and that's what keep us together.<br />
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I'm thinking that a fair amount of my post-ac stories have been told now and I'm not entirely sure I can give much more that would interest readers. I have now been in my first permanent post-ac/alt-ac job for just over two years, although my role changed, for the better, after just over one year. The hours are perfect and the nature of the part-time week means I have to be clear about how much I can or can't do in a certain time-frame. The organisation and my line manager seem to value and like me a lot. I have a fair amount of flexibility when I need it. They were particularly helpful and sensitive when my mother died last year and I had to pick up and go to the US two different times. The pay for what I am doing is not so great. The same kind of work would definitely be paid higher somewhere else, and this is what prompts me to keep my eyes always open for other possibilities. It's for that reason that I feel I need to keep reading other post-ac blogs and resources every now and then, so that I can find effective ways to hone in on marketing myself as an employable post-ac who has lots of practical experience and skills to offer. The journey isn't over yet. Having said all of this, I'm not rushing to find something else just yet. Most of the time, my working days are good and I can't complain, so I'm not quite ready to rock my boat at the moment.<br />
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I've mentioned before that I'm also in a place where I'm enjoying my time off away from this laptop. While I'm no elite runner by any means (and I'm pretty slow still), I'm focussing on fitting in running time, which then needs to be arranged around other necessities that seem to get prioritised over the blog. Some of the writing I've wanted to explore, for example some of the difficulties I've had with bereavement and complex family issues from a complex past, are still in a resting place at the moment. I think, at least for now, that the only way I'll be able to give that any serious attention is if I put some of the post-ac writing aside.<br />
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So, it's not quite a firm goodbye just yet, but a 'see you in a while' gesture for now. I can;t quite keep myself away from reading others at the moment when I have a gap of time now and then, but it may be even more time before the next post. In any case, I will let you all know what's happening again at some point in the future.<br />
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Catch you later, sometime, for now!<br />
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<br />Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-81458360931318170042014-01-10T03:18:00.002-08:002014-01-10T03:34:34.124-08:00A New Year and A New EbookI see again how many months have passed since my last post - shame on me! It's a clear sign that I am trying hard to still enjoy time away from the screen, not sit too long (apparently sitting too long is the new smoking in terms of being very bad for your health), and do stuff with my time that doesn't involve thinking about work/career and the now past life of the PhD experience. Unfortunately there have been some other life events that have prevented me from spending time here too - more below.<br />
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It's crucial though that I come back, at least briefly today, to highlight the great news about the recent publication of the post-academic ebook that I and three other amazing post-acs - Kathleen 'Currer Bell' Miller, Julie 'JC' Chmiel, Lauren Whitehead - have been involved in editing.<br />
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The title is: Moving On: Essays on the Aftermath of Leaving Academia and it's available now on Amazon at the cheap price of $3.10. You can read more about my leaving academia story there (the only UK based writer), but there's so much more to learn from the other accounts. You will see that I still use my pseudonym 'Jet' as I'm not quite ready to reveal to potential academics I know what I've been up to. But what is quite funny is that after clicking onto the 'Jet' link in Amazon, it appears there is another writer using that name in, I assume, the erotic fiction genre, hee hee. Good luck to this other 'Jet', I hope he/she hits the jackpot like E.L. James did - I don't think post-academic writing will have quite the same impact!<br />
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Back to the ebook....The collection offers a range of rich narratives to inspire many and I hope you'll enjoy reading them as much as we have. You can find it on Amazon <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Moving-Essays-Aftermath-Leaving-Academia-ebook/dp/B00HOH011A/">here</a>. We are hoping to gain as much feedback as possible about the essays so please leave your reviews!<br />
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The end of 2013<br />
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As I indicated above, life threw some emotional challenges my way in October, November and December. My mother's cancer outcome was not good and she was diagnosed at terminal stage in early October. By late October she found an in-patient hospice facility that took good care of her and I dropped all at home and work to spend two weeks back in the USA with her to say my final goodbye. Not long after that before Thanksgiving she died. I then flew back and spent some further time for the funeral and other business. Back home and still jet-lagged I was faced with a quick re-entry into family responsibilities to hop on the train to accompany my 17 year old son to his interview to Cambridge University to study Maths - so, yes, a positive duty but tiring. We were all extremely excited for him and waiting on stand-by to hear the outcome. Soon after, the next day, I was back in the office catching up and finishing off work before a holiday break - yay, University closure meant two whole weeks of paid time off!<br />
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The start of 2014<br />
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Son got his letter from Cambridge this past Saturday morning and they've given him an offer to study there - another big hurrah with loads of hugs and celebrations. It is a conditional offer, which in the UK is common and how they do things. He's got to get two A stars and one A and high grades on two separate Maths exam papers for Cambridge called the 'STEP' exam. If he doesn't come up with the goods he may not get in so pressure is still on. He's quite confident and for a while has been telling us that he wants to work in the future as an academic and spend his life absorbed in abstract Math theories. So some flashing lights have been coming up for me and hubby and we are trying to encourage him to keep an open mind and just look at other opportunities later as well - after all he's only 17! Time will tell, but one thing we are both concerned about is that his love of the subject will turn into unhealthy obsession that may lead to depression if disappointment arrives, which at some point, is inevitable. He will have to find his own way through this - a reminder that parental worries don't cease after they get to this age.<br />
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So it was good news for the start of the new year. Now it's back to work and soon to review details over my new role which I am looking forward to as it will have more focus and will be less dispersed than what I have been doing. I've also spent this week catching up with writing up some of the research (in an alt-ac capacity) I carried out last term but which has been hugely interrupted - not helped by having to go to the US. Being part-time also stretched out the time to complete things. I am hoping to wrap it up soon and share it in a good way which I hope will help establish some of what I will be doing in my new role.<br />
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I wasn't going to mention this last bit but somehow feel a bit compelled (as none of my personal friends or family are reading this!), even though it probably won't amount to anything. I have seen the doctor about an usual breast lump the other day and am waiting for the hospital referral to come through for further tests. It's unusual because its not like the fibroadenomas I had when I was 30ish and things change when your 50 plus. Won't say more about that but the issue of 'cancer' has been so prominent in my mother's family that it's hard not to think of it that way, although breast cancer is not common in the family. So there's a little silly projecting business happening in the brain now but not too bad. I'm also an optimist generally and think even it there is cancer then breast cancers have better outcomes than others. Hey, let's face it, as you get older these things are just inevitable at some point or another unless you're just lucky and have unusually good genes that keep you going strong til 99 or 100! Being a practical sort of person, a lot of what I'm imagining is being grumpy because it would all interfere with work and family life, which I just don;t have time for - and it would really mess up my running schedule! So, that's that part of my latest story there in a nutshell. More to come later I guess, when I can report that all is fine!<br />
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In conclusion for today I will say to all you post-acs or potential post-acs, keep looking forward to better things, visualise them happening and a version of this vision will materialise in some form or another. And have a look at the new ebook for mulling over and inspiration. I know if I were reading the essays for the first time as a potential academic leaver, they would probably give me the extra edge I would need to call up my 'inner bitch' (I am quoting directly from Ruth Field's book on running called 'Run Fat Bitch Run' and no, she is not being mean about 'fat' women, she is using the term ironically and explains this in the book) and get myself on the road to 'moving on' from academia. Enjoy the book and good luck to all of you with your various life journeys in 2014.<br />
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<br />Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-58211251654993646632013-09-15T10:03:00.005-07:002013-09-15T10:03:52.127-07:00One year laterOh, offline life does keep me busy and when I'm not busy with a list of to do tasks I'm relishing in taking a step back and looking after myself. This has included, over several months (close to one year now), taking up jogging. I hesitated for a long time to call my pace 'jogging' or anything close to 'running' when it felt like such a slow slog. But after sticking with it since around last October/November and later getting excited about my discovery of things like the Map My Run internet site which allows me to find out my mileage and pace without using an app, I've learned that I'm a bit faster than an old shuffler and I feel better for it too. Not long after my fiftieth birthday I started some singing lessons and made a point to get out and listen to more live music with my husband (he gave me the lessons as a birthday present) and this has been great. My summer has been very busy. I spent an extended time from the end of July back in the US where my parents live in my attempt to catch up with my mother who has been ill - this was combined with my giving in to my daughter's wishes to have a longer holiday time this year. All in all it was four weeks, which for me is far too long to be trying to find things to do to keep a 13 year old content. Too many details to go into here. (My husband and son left after 2 weeks - smart move, yes.) It was useful in many ways though, I guess. I did spend needed time with my mother and caught up with a dear old school friend who took me and my daughter in for week. It was a great opportunity to reconnect with her and at the same time it all felt so easy, like we'd never been apart. We even organised an evening with two other high-school friends who were still the sweetest of people and I felt all warm and cosy for along time after.<br />
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So at the end of August I had a couple of days to recover and the next week was back in work with an onslaught on too many things to sort out, it felt like. It's a busy time with university term time at our place starting a week earlier this year and lots of prep to do. I've also had a meeting about my work one year into the job. We've had some restructuring of sorts going on and just before leaving for vacation I was consulted about my manager's ideas of the direction he wanted to take our department in. He was keen to work with me in a way that would enable me to use more of the skills I had developed from my PhD training and experience and asked if I was interested in developing my role with this in mind and so on. I won't go into too much detail because I don't want to reveal my role but it's just the kind of thing I would have been interested in applying for a year ago. It's a lateral move, so to speak, not a pay increase, but certainly looks better on paper if I decide to move on at some point. I wouldn't anticipate doing that for a while if all stays well (the idea of having to apply for work and all of the stress that goes with it is too much to consider!), but you never know. <br />
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This all meant that he was very positive about the way the past year has gone, happy to have me on board still and looking forward to working more closely with me on new ideas. It's all good for me. I can see that this kind of role means that ideas and projects take a while to grow and the benefits are often not noticed for some time. That felt frustrating to me at the start and being part-time means that I take even longer to get through things sometimes, but I've got better at accepting this and won't allow myself to work over my contracted hours. It's all looking good for the future at the moment. I have no regrets in taking this job. It's not perfect and some things can grate on my nerves, but this can be the case in any work context. More and more of the time, I appreciate what I have in life and like to look at the whole of things. I am happy to be in good health at the moment (two years ago I wouldn't have imagined I could have continually jogged for a 3 and 1/2 mile stretch in one go and then done it again for 3 times a week over the course of almost a year. I've surprised myself when I've made it up to almost 5 miles, so can see that I am capable of more than I have given myself credit for. I'm happy to be doing this at 50 and hope with time that all things, work, home and more, will continue to fall in place.<br />
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<br />Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-2845497182566649012013-03-15T03:30:00.002-07:002013-03-15T03:31:02.384-07:00Accepting 'good enough' mothering, 'good enough' academic work, and the 'good enough' alt-ac careerQuite a few things have been happening in my offline world that have halted the time I've had to read others' blogs or to write for my own. In short, my mother who lives in the US and who was a long-term smoker has finally been diagnosed with lung-cancer. There is a close family history on her side of this condition and her smoking parents and siblings did not do well out of it. Unfortunately, the addiction was too difficult for her to kick over the years. In spite of the deaths in the family with lung cancer she couldn't give up soon enough. There also seems to be some question for her oncologist, over the stage of this cancer as it is apparent in both lungs, but with biopsy indicating two different kinds of cancer. She looked forward to her first chemotherapy treatment, hoping it would begin to do its work, but a few days later she became very, very unwell. Making a long story very short here, she ended up having a bad allergic reaction to the drug and almost died at several moments in the time that she was in ICU. So, my time has been taken up with many phone calls to the US, talking with my sister, Dad and a close cousin (the son of my mother's sister who also died of lung-related condition after she had a lung removed years ago to treat her lung cancer).<br />
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I am 49 now, 50 in June, and my mother has only just turned 68. These days that's considered on the younger side of older age. She was a teenage mother when she had my sister and me and life hasn't been easy for her. But she worked hard and later in life got her high school diploma and then finished nursing school, the respectable occupation in the US for many working-class women like her. It's hard not to project into the next few or several months, but what I'm hoping is that she can enjoy this spring and summer and reflect on her life with some good memories and have a sense of satisfaction that she made the right decisions about how she wanted to live.<br />
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Looking at other things in my life at the moment, I'll say that I've had some emotional challenges with my thirteen year old daughter that are actually so intense and personal that I think I will need to keep silent about the details. But going through some of my worries around her right now, while also worrying about my mother, makes me wonder how indeed my young, working-class mother ever survived at the time when my older sister was putting her through emotional hell during a time when my young Dad would have been completely unsupportive and mostly absent. Mom always told me that she tried her personal best at the mothering job and that was all she could do. This is where I see the value in D.W.Winnicott's assessment of 'good enough' mothering. I can be pretty hard on myself, always looking at the areas where I'm lacking as a mother. In reality, I'm sure what I've been doing is 'good enough'.<br />
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So how does all of this tie in with the post-ac side of things in my life now? In this midst of all of this personal stuff, about a week and a half ago, I received an email from a local academic contact where I used to work, who passed on a message from another academic in my field. This academic apparently, she said, wanted to get in touch with me about contributing to a collection that he was editing. Could I please get in touch? It was quite a strange experience reading this email. I re-read it several times, feeling a bit of a physical change at the same time. I felt a bit like my heart was racing faster with a sense of excitement at one moment yet also I felt a bit sickish in the next moment. I didn't know what to do with it all. A large part of me felt honoured that this person had read my work and thought me worthy of contributing when there are so many other choices out there to consider. My mind wandered and I questioned what I might write about and I then had visions of myself on my days off work getting books out of the library and sitting in my office and mulling over the ideas. I wondered if there was some older material I could salvage. I even saw myself meeting this academic and others at a conference having a laugh and going out for a meal afterwards to talk over new and exciting ideas in the discipline.<br />
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Well, I have to confess this flight of fancy didn't last very long. The reality soon hit me and I asked myself if I could realistically manage such a feat, and even if I could manage this after being out of the game for this long, would I actually enjoy it enough and find value in the exercise. The quick and short answer was, 'No'. I felt relieved that it didn't take too long to get my head out of this temporary haze and see that there was nothing in it for me. I assured myself that I needed to keep my new alt-ac head clear of all of this and look forward in another direction.<br />
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My next challenge was whether I should be 'polite' and respond to this academic and come clean. I felt if he had taken the time to enquire about me that I should at least, respectfully, respond. Being me then and knowing my tendency to complicate or over-think everything I do (it seems sometimes), I wrote a considered response that, I guess, tried to capture some of what it has been like to have to 'leave academia'. In short, I summarised that I had to exit the field at a time of major cuts in Arts and Humanities, and knowing that I did not have the flexibility of my younger post-PhD contemporaries to apply for posts across the country or beyond, etc.<br />
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I received a nice and respectful reply. While it left me feeling a little embarrassed I guess I felt this academic was a useful outlet for my 'coming out' of academia. He sympathised with my position and shared that he was struck with the academic situation now in which three recent colleagues from his department were made redundant. He saw less and less support from higher education institutions and understood completely why some academics were finding other alternatives.<br />
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I was embarrassed because he revealed that my contact person who passed on the message to me, actually got the story wrong. He didn't want to contact me to contribute a chapter at all. He wanted to get my author's permission to use an extended quotation/passage from a piece I wrote as he is intending to write about it in a new book he will publish in a few months' time. He attached the chapter for me to read to check that the context was acceptable and offered to send me a copy of the book when published. At that point I experienced another range of feelings. Wow, my work was applauded by him, referenced in the same page as other long-standing pros in the field. Over the last few months I was reminded that others had referenced my work as well. In some ways, I confess, I felt, yet again, that sense of failure of not doing more worthy work beyond this point. But again, this feeling didn't last too long. There is a huge part of me that is pleased I left the field at this stage before reaching an over-exhausted state of collapse. I've left a small mark and that's that. Indeed, I guess it feels like this mark is 'good enough' for me, personally - I've done the best I could for what I and my circumstances are capable of.<br />
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I will confess that I experience various emotions around my current alt-ac job at the moment. I am heading the start of what I see is a nice little research project at the moment. I've put an academic research proposal forward to one of the faculties in the university for ethics' approval (and received approval) and I'm excited about the later prospects and outcomes. There are other aspects of the work that I'd rather do without and some things that come up regularly can be quite irritating. This is the normal state of affairs for any job though, and I think if I can keep this at the forefront of my mind, then this work will be absolutely just fine, another example of something in my life that is 'good enough'.Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-17104005632966653452013-02-22T04:46:00.001-08:002013-02-22T04:51:18.126-08:00My experience of postgraduate studies, illness and recoveryIn my last post I mentioned I'll be trying to put a bit more much needed writing time into my ebook contribution for the <a href="http://howtoleaveacademia.com/">How To Leave Academia</a> project. On top of having to deal with a couple of intense domestic crises at the moment, this leaves little time for my blog.<br />
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I've decided then for today to leave my readers with this link to a recent piece I've added to the How To Leave Academia website. If you've followed my blog you might recall some references to my experience of Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. Luckily, I'm feeling pretty good at the moment, like there isn't much of an MS reminder anywhere with the exception of some usual numbness that happens in strange places (like my tongue or lips!), or the occasional spasms. Taking daily injections is a pretty obvious reminder too, but hey, they seem to be working a treat so I can't complain. Thank you, once again, UK National Health Service - where would some of us be without you?<br />
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Anyway, this piece looks back at the earlier days of my postgrad studies, some of the craziness involved in aiming for academic perfection, and the eventual signs and 'attack' of Multiple Sclerosis that stopped me in my tracks. I hope it's a useful narrative for some readers who might be trying to figure out the sort of things that I've been working on for while - like what exactly is it that makes us happy, or at least content, and how can we break away from some of the things in our lives that just drag us down? The piece is called: <a href="http://howtoleaveacademia.com/2013/01/jets-story-of-illness-diagnosis-and-the-long-road-to-recovery/">Jet's story of illness, diagnosis and the long road to recovery</a>.<br />
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Happy reading - all comments welcome here or over there!Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-61050447224922630482013-02-20T05:32:00.001-08:002013-02-20T11:56:47.152-08:00A good read with Long Leggety Beasties and other things that fill my postacademic free time<div class="tr_bq">
It seems the frequency of my blog posts has been in decline since I started my new-ish postac job back in August/September. This isn't unusual for lots of postac bloggers. For many, once they've got to a positive point in their lives after leaving academia perhaps they find there is less to ponder or worry about. I'm not quite sure I'm totally at that point yet. I'm working part-time and I love the fact that I have time to catch up with myself a bit. But I'm also finding that this catching up means I have less time and sometimes less enthusiasm to get going in front of the computer to read other blogs and then write on my own blog. Some of this is a good sign. And then sometimes I feel a little sense of loss there.</div>
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One of the things I'm trying to fit into my evenings is a bit of good fiction reading. I have come across a wonderful local Southwest UK author and blogger, Alienora Taylor, who has published her first ebook: Long Leggety Beasties. The story focuses on the secondary school English teacher Geraldine's (Gerri) first person narration of her experiences in her first teaching job in a small village in Cornwall. I've had my own (shortish) stint of state secondary school teaching when I lived in London and thought I'd find some common ground here. While the story feels different from mine there are many connections that I've found lots of pleasure in recognising. I'm still only just over half-way through the novel but my experience so far has been full of giggles and page-turning excitement about where this Gerri may take me next.<br />
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One of the things I'm enjoying is Taylor's absolute love of playful language, which her believable English teacher narrator captures so well. At no point does the witty writing style ever seem out of place from what the reader would expect from Gerri's voice. Without trying to give away too much, my other main pleasure are the moments of Gerri's wonderful confessions of alcoholic weakness where the cupboard that holds the gin and tonic is just too irresistible. Consider this long passage, Gerri's tale after she's had an English teacher's lesson from hell from her beloved fifth year bottom set class:<br />
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Soon after this, my flat fell through - both literally and metaphorically. It was a top floor flat and I'd long been fascinated by the promise of an attic apparently lurking above my bed. There was a trapdoor. Under normal circumstances, I would have left well alone. In recent days, however, I had become rather too familiar with the soothing qualities of alcohol. </blockquote>
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So there I was, sloshing back the gin and crunching cashew nuts - an absolute MUST with any self-respecting G and T - when a sudden devilish thought tickled my mind. Explore the attic. It seemed so obvious at the time. My inner rebel was calling to me stridently. Naturally enough, I had no ladder, so had to improvise: the chest of drawers and a chair seemed to do the trick. </blockquote>
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Up I went, pushed open the trap door, hoisted myself into the attic, tripped and fell through the bedroom ceiling. If I'd had any sense, I would have phone my landlady, claimed a tragic accident and the day could have possibly been saved.</blockquote>
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But no: I was at that stage of drunkenness where bizarre ideas positively stream over one. Thus, the next logical step was for me to mend the hole - she'd never notice - with Sellotape. </blockquote>
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I sat on the bed and surveyed the damage. The hole was bigger than it seemed at impact; it seemed to stretch for acres. I picked up the pieces and, with neck-cracking obstinacy, rammed them back into place, using yards of tape in the process. </blockquote>
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The only positive thing I could say about the finished result was that you could no longer see straight into the attic.</blockquote>
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Gerri's love of G and T lead to another scene in which she gets completely off of her head, strips off to then don a 50 pence charity shop bargain of a black lacey dress and heads over to the nearby field where a group of builders/all brothers, are living in a caravan. Curious about catching sight of the one on which she's developed a distant crush, she stumbles around peering in the windows only to be spotted by another.<br />
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The rest you will have to read yourself! And this joy of a first novel is now available as a free download, so what can you lose?<br />
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Have a look here for the free download and enjoy! <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Long-leggety-beasties-ebook/dp/B00A0XPUGG">Long Leggety Beasties</a>, by Alienora Taylor.<br />
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<b>And one more thing...</b></h2>
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I've mentioned in some previous posts my involvement with a new postacademic website <a href="http://howtoleaveacademia.com/">How to Leave Academia</a> and upcoming postac ebook project that involves fellow bloggers Lauren, Currer and JC. </div>
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We are all going to be working on developing our own contributions for the ebook, so I'll be putting some time and energy into my text. For the time being if you haven't done so already then have a good look at how the website is coming along and feel free to add your own two cents or become a guest author!</div>
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<br />Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-65226530563746270072013-01-18T03:36:00.003-08:002013-01-18T03:36:50.341-08:00Why US students choose the UK for postgrad studyI've had the pleasure of discovering a great blog resource recently called <a href="http://theprofessorisin.com/">The Professor Is In</a>. It's created by Dr. Karen Kelsky, a post-academic from the US who decided to leave academia even when she has a successful career with tenure. I love finding blogs like this because they provide an honest narrative of why people initially aspired to the academic life, and what they learned about its realities after investing so much of themselves in it. The thing that also makes Dr. Kelsky's blog a great resource is the author's willingness to offer realistic career advice for post-acs as well as solid advice young academics just starting out. She's aiming to train postgrads in career preparation in a way that she never experienced when she finished her PhD. She is clear at the start that she is not in the business of creating illusions that there is a fruitful and abundant academic job market out there for new post-PhDs, but she does claim that she can offer strong advice about how to be competitive in these conditions if you are convinced you want to give it your best shot. On the other end, she offers some great thoughts about what it means to quit academia and doesn't stop at warning those potential grad students to rethink their move before getting themselves into major debt when signing up after they are encouraged by their undergraduate mentors.<br />
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After reading one of her great 'Guest' postings <a href="http://theprofessorisin.com/2012/03/22/dont-go-to-graduate-school-an-inadvertant-guest-post/">Don't go to graduate school</a> shared by a tenured friend of hers, I spent some time thinking about why bright spark US graduates might be so keen on packing their bags and flying over here to the UK to take postgraduate MA, MSc courses and PhDs. The post is really an exchange between Karen and her friend, who tells the story about one of her talented undergrad students in English who has finished his/her degree and is passionate about becoming an academic. The student has applied to an MA grad programme in a prestigious university in the northeast and has not secured any funding, but is so stuck on pursuing this dream that they are willing to pay the 45,000 dollar a year tuition fee and go into massive debt to prove their commitment. The student letter/email to the professor is a kind of expression of intent with the hope that the professor will praise him/her, encourage their academic interests and open their arms as a welcome into the life of academia. The prof's response, however, is something unexpected. We don't know what the student's final decision was after that, but at least he/she can't say they weren't warned.<br />
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The wonderful twist to this scenario is that this prof tells it like it is and advises the student not to take the MA course, especially if it's unfunded, but even if funded, warns the student that this is not the way to go either, especially with worsening academic employment prospects that are not showing any sign of improvement. She stresses to this bright young star that he/she has a lot going for them and there are so many other avenues he/she can choose to exploit their talents while not breaking the bank. Yay for her for playing it straight, and yay for the student if they take seriously the advice.<br />
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I am reminded then about the perverse business of these elite US higher institutions that can charge whatever they like to allow their perspective students the 'privilege' of studying there. In the UK students have been up in arms and protesting in the streets when Higher Education institutions here went public with their intentions to raise yearly undergrad fees from 3,000 pounds a year to between 6,000-9,000 annually (home students costs) for their three-year undergrad degrees. For graduate MA or MSc courses, home students will be expecting to pay around 6,000 a year full-time or 13,000-14,000 pounds if international. These estimates are based on my scan of an equivalent 'elite' UK university (they are called 'Russell Group' universities here because they are the older institutions). Other non-Russell Group universities will often charge on the lower end of that spectrum but some go higher. At this point in British history these public institutions cannot simply charge whatever they want, and we don't have the large culture of private university options like in the US. They've been forced to raise fees because of less government funding and they've taken advantage of aiming for the higher fee demand, but that's the threshold at the moment. They're not allowed to go higher.<br />
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So for those talented US undergrads hoping for a future in academia they can see the benefits of studying here in the UK. Laying out 13,500 pounds for an MA converts, at current rates, to 21,567.60 dollars (to be exact), a massive savings of over 20,000 (using the northeast ivy league example above) if they are convinced they should go in this direction. For many of us post-acs who have been there, however, and who have suffered the debts of undergrad education in the US (myself included - I moved to the UK after finishing my US undergrad degree), and then accrued more postgrad debts, we wouldn't want to repeat the experience. Enough is enough, I say.<br />
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In my current alt-ac work, I encounter many international postgrads, a good percentage of them from the US, taking wonderfully intellectually fulfilling postgrad degrees. I am happy for them if they've been able to put a middle finger up to the US and have found a way to get off a bit cheaper for a quality postgrad education. But I want to also have long and extended conversations with them about how higher education institutions in the US and here now, who are rubbing their hands together in excitement at the prospect of taking in the postgrad student, and even better if they are a nice international money-maker. I want to remind them that years ago when my UK friends were undergrads the government paid their full education costs and even gave them extra stipends for living expenses. Of course, in those days higher education in the UK was even more elitist with a very small percentage of mainly privileged middle-class young people attending. With increasing widening participation there has been a large increase in those achieving degrees here. This is a great thing for sure, but any increasing fees will not help a lot of prospective students achieve their educational potential if they are faced with years of debt. Getting out in the streets across the UK to protest hasn't solved the problem but it it has increased student awareness and given students a strong voice and presence here that was potentially waning before fee increases.<br />
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So while the UK might offer some attraction for prospective US postgrads (and undergrads too, especially as they will be on a degree programme here for only three, and not four years), I want to signal to these prospects that there must be another way to reward your intellectual curiosity. Unfortunately, with unemployment so high at this time of world recession, there is no easy solution, and many are choosing postgrad courses as a way of buying more time before they have to compete in the job market. And with the extra MA/MSc they will see themselves as being one step ahead of others, I guess. But they are also a few steps behind financially and will have the added pressure of seeking employment in highly paid private, commercial sectors in the hope that they can pay their student loans quicker. Many will find they are working 13 hour days in a career they are unhappy with and are simply looking forward to that one big annual holiday where they can bask in the sun and recharge until they are back in the rat race again. My advice to these postgrad want-to-bes is to take a long, hard time to think about this. It's hard when you're young in your twenties to imagine where you may be when you are forty when you might have regrets about your choices. Think hard about the core of things that help make you happy. And if confused about whether you should sacrifice financial stability for the love of your academic subject, read many of the well-considered post-ac stories in the post-ac blogging community.<br />
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That final word, of course, leads me to plug again, the collective post-ac website that I am jointly editing with Currer, J.C. and Lauren, called <a href="http://howtoleaveacademia.com/">How To Leave Academia</a>. This is the newest post-ac resource that can guide you in the right direction if you are pondering what to do about academia. As time goes on, readers here might see that I'm posting less - that's because I'm busy with the demands of work and family, and there are times when I really need to go offline! But I will also have to choose to allocate some well-spent time over there. Some of posts here may be repeated there too - why not. Have a look and think about contributing somewhere to share your experiences.<br />
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<br />Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-82620605256257892192013-01-16T03:21:00.001-08:002013-01-16T03:21:05.890-08:00Where have we been and where are we now?Well, it's now the middle of January and many of us are trying hard to keep up the momentum around our new year's resolutions. Often at this time of year we are also looking back at the past twelve months and asking ourselves we have achieved and how do we want to move forward. So, with the title of David Bowie's new single in mind, 'Where are we now?', I would like to look briefly at where I was last January and where I am now. If you're a follower of this blog you can expect that I'll probably take this as an opportunity to expand and look further back into the past, but I'll try hard not to wander. My aim is to keep this post brief-ish!<br />
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Last January I was employed in a short-term academic research project as a Research Assistant. It was a funny time for me. The post was advertised the summer before at the same time when I was still considering how I might be able to leave academia. I was coming to the end of another academic year Lecturing contract and was prepared to have another summer of unemployment. I guess I was pretty much buying time last summer with the teaching year. When I wasn't teaching I was working on some research ideas, developing a paper from a conference to help build up my CV, and thinking about using my other time to experiment with other forms of writing. I enjoyed the experimental writing exercise but felt resentful with the research paper - I was doing all of this on unpaid time and my 'passion' for the subject was waining. Where would it take me, I asked myself. Was all of this effort worth it? I was hoping that the extra time over the summer could liberate me a bit from some of the stuck and indecisive feelings I was having. Basically, I was keeping my eyes out for employment prospects in the university but in other non-academic, administrative or project areas. Every week and month that went by (from April time) reconfirmed that those prospects were low. As I hadn't come up with any other solutions I resigned myself to just carry on with the expectation that I would take the plunge and turn down contract teaching offers for the next academic year. I would be unemployed then but at least I wouldn't be tied down to the contract and could have more flexibility in my job hunting, and I guess, my soul searching.<br />
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So this research project appeared through my institution at just the right time. I was still half in the state of mind that I might have some kind of future in academia so I committed myself to doing the research for this field of study (it was outside of my comfort zone but still within Arts and Humanities). I interviewed well and got the job. It was interesting enough and I got my head down to do some good work, but it didn't excite me enough to want to invest myself in academia again. It was an interesting testing ground for me. When I took the job I thought, this might be my turn-around moment; it can lead to all sorts of wonderful prospects. There was an opportunity to bid for more funding with my manager and the team to extend the project's prospects, but I decided at that stage of the discussion to pull back. That was when I continued to look seriously for more non-academic career possibilities. It was also around that time that I discovered all of these other post-academics on the net blogging and sharing their experiences.<br />
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So a few more months passed and more applications were sent out in alt-academics areas. For that moment at least, I decided to pursue non-teaching/research possibilities in UK Higher Education and accepted the fact that I might have to take up short-term contracts to get started. My current job was advertised in June. I spent a lot of time working on the personal statement and later preparation for a demanding, full-day interview process. And then I was offered the job. I breathed a long sigh of relief that my efforts had finally paid off and someone out there recognised some of my potential. For those of you who are are experiencing the frustration of the post-academic transition and are exhausted from the process, take comfort that there is hope and a good outcome will surface. It just might end up taking longer than you imagine when you start out.<br />
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This time of January, new year reflection though always leads me to an emotional place where I contemplate where I have been with my chronic health condition, Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis, and where I am now, which is in a very good place, although I have to make sure I am good to myself so that I won't suffer another relapse. I have mentioned in my last two posts that I have joined up with three other post-academic bloggers, Currer, J.C. and Lauren to begin a new Post-academic resource website called <a href="http://howtoleaveacademia.com/">How To Leave Academia</a>. This is where I have recently written about how my health suffered when I was in the middle of my PhD studies and had to take a long leave of absence from my research project. It was that time when I had my MS diagnosis. It was an incredibly difficult but rewarding time as it also forced me to think hard about how I wanted to proceed with my career aspirations while also managing a serious health condition when I had two young school-aged children and a husband who was often away on work-related trips. I won't revisit that story now but you can visit our How To Leave Academia site <a href="http://howtoleaveacademia.com/2013/01/jets-story-of-illness-diagnosis-and-the-long-road-to-recovery/">here</a> and find it. You can also find other accounts from Lauren, Currer and J.C. about how they managed their intense emotions, anxiety and depression when transitioning out of academia. The common threads across all of our stories illustrate that stresses around academia when studying or when leaving can take a serious toll on the body and can lead to depression. The authors' different means of coping are all worth a read. We are always looking for contributors to the site to share their resources and stories around leaving academia so take a look, comment and feel free to get in touch.<br />
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<br />Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-30073712954594103302013-01-11T00:54:00.001-08:002013-01-11T00:54:04.340-08:00New Year, New beginnings and a New Postacademic Web Resource Well, the holidays over here for this post-academic in the UK were in my view just a perfect recipe to initiate a process of Doctor Who-like regeneration before the start of the new year (apologies for US readers not familiar with this classic and popular British TV reference!). After a very busy beginning in my new-ish Alt-ac job in September, by December 21st I was ready for the solid two week break that coincided with the university closure. And with everyone there slowing down by December 17th and getting into party spirits I felt like I couldn't have found a better place to work. The official break came and my family and I stayed based here with the plan of meeting friends over party drinks, dinner parties, brunches, country walks and attending a local, low-key New Year's Eve party. I found plenty of time to eat and be merry and balanced that with loads of extra sleep, some healthy cooking as well as adding some exercise. Aside from the addition of my husband's bad cold toward the end of the mix, (that he's now passed on to me I think) I can safely state that this holiday hit the top near the perfection scale.<br />
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Back to work on January 7th this week has been a nice, slow introduction back into the real world. Making an earnest attempt to get into things in full flow on Tuesday I found myself to be the first one in at 8.30 am sharp and got a start on attacking my 'To Do' list. I've been at this place a few months now and still find I am gob-smacked when reminded of how much my co-workers are committed to achieving the work/life balance. Most appear to leave the office to get the most out of their lunch hour and many take advantage of flexi-time. On Tuesday at around 4.45 I found myself deep into reading an article that I needed to review for some research I am planning (Yes, I am now getting a chance to use to my research skills and am in the process of getting ideas together for the proposal). This colleague came in sometime after me in the morning and noticed I was the one who opened up. So there I was just working about fifteen minutes over my scheduled, full working day and he said something like, 'Shouldn't you be getting out of here by now? Haven't you done enough for one day?' Well, I admit I was actually speechless and didn't know how to respond. But I did think afterwards, hey, he's right. My contract of employment is pretty clear about what is expected. There may be times when I'll have to get involved in an evening event (and I can then take time off in lieu) but I'm part-time which means certain things/projects will take me a longer time to get through. It's nice to be reminded that enough is enough. I've done my bit for the time being and it's time to get out and think about something else. A very happy start to the new year if I can keep myself in this realistic frame of mind. I advise all others working hard to keep up with the pace of the rat race to do the same. You'll find major benefits to your health and well-being for sure!<br />
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<b>The new Postacademic Website 'How to Leave Academia' is now live!</b><br />
While my brain's been moving at a snail's pace after this festive season, my post-academic peers thousands of miles away in the US came up with this amazing idea to get started on developing a website full of stories and resources for those who want to leave academia. When they asked if any others wanted to join I was keen to get in on the action, expecting that such projects can take some time to develop. Well, I was certainly proved wrong! In no time at all, these amazingly energetic and productive postacs have designed the site and got significant content up before I could say Happy New Year. I've finally managed to add something the other day on my day off, but all the praise for efforts goes to Lauren, Currer and JC and another webdesign contributor for the overall planning, design and content management of this project. As I see this collective work coming together in such a top quality professional manner in such a short space of time, I can see that US academia has really missed out an opportunity to exploit such talents. Their loss for sure.<br />
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I've mentioned the call for papers and contributions in my last post and will add the link here for those who want to have a look at <a href="http://howtoleaveacademia.com/">How To Leave Academia</a>. It's ongoing with lots of potential to add news ideas so if you're a postacademic who's had some experience of leaving that you'd like to share, we'd like to hear form you. If you're thinking about leaving and don't know where to start or are in emotional turmoil about the prospect then this is a place where you will see that you are not alone. Hope to see some of you over there soon!Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-7015046141176158692012-12-24T09:07:00.003-08:002012-12-26T02:48:24.104-08:00Post-academic Call for Papers and more<span id="internal-source-marker_0.434489862062037"></span><br />
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">It's been a busy several months for many in the post-academic blogging community. We've either been right in the middle of academic labour frenzy keeping up with the demands of teaching, research and the imperative to publish, while wondering simultaneously if this is in fact the career path we are happy with and want to keep on pursuing - or we've been rewriting our resume/cv, waiting for invitations to interview, or settling into our new post-ac work lives. That dilemma, 'Should I continue or not' is what has led many to conduct Google searches using phrases like, 'Is there life after academia?', 'Is academia where I really want to be?', 'Academic redundancy', 'Transitioning from academic to non-academic life', 'Career choices outside of academia', and so on. When I discovered the many prolific post-academic bloggers out there writing about experiences and anxieties that were so close to my own story, I discovered a new-found comfort and support system that encouraged me to keep on with my career search out of academia and into something that was much more manageable. </span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: normal; white-space: pre-wrap;">And now the time has come to move forward. A few other post-academic bloggers such as Currer from <a href="http://what%20a%20way%20to%20begin%20thinking%20about%20the%20new%20year./">Project Reinvention</a>, Lauren from <a href="http://mamanervosa.com/">Mama Nervosa</a>, JC <a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.co.uk/">From Grad School to Happiness</a></span><b id="internal-source-marker_0.434489862062037" style="font-weight: normal;"></b></div>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.434489862062037" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">, and I have made the decision to pull our collective efforts together (thanks Currer and Lauren for the prompt) and create a website and ebook full of resources, advice and personal stories about the experience of leaving the Ivory Tower. We know this project will be much more successful and richer if it includes a breadth of contributions from others who have made the transition or are in the middle of working through the plethora of conflicting feelings they have about leaving academia. </span></b></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Our website will include:</span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Practical Peer-to-peer advice for leaving academia on every topic from emotional issues to having to get food stamps to building up your resume/cv.</span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Our ebook of essays will include:</span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">A wide range of personal stories of leaving academia. </span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">We invite all those who have thought about leaving for one reason or another or more. We welcome a fully international scope of contributors. While we can see there are lots of post-ac bloggers from the US, we've spotted a few from Canada, the UK, Australia and beyond. We would love you to join us over here and get a sense of the common ground we share or can learn from each other across national boundaries. Feel free to start a topic. See below for details about the ebook. The website will be less structured. We intend it to be a 'One Stop Shop' for links and posts on all of the questions we ask ourselves when contemplating how to quit. Get in touch if you have an idea. Once we receive content (and have help setting up the site) it will go live.</span></div>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.434489862062037"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">What a way to begin thinking about starting 2013. Keep reading and find out more about how you can get involved.</span></b></div>
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<b id="internal-source-marker_0.434489862062037"><i><b id="internal-source-marker_0.434489862062037"><span style="font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Moving On: Personal Stories of Leaving Academia (tentatively titled)</span></b></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Have you left academia? Or are you currently in the process of leaving? Share your story!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br class="kix-line-break" />As post-academic bloggers, we know firsthand that there is a desire for stories that explore more than just the career aspects of leaving the ivory tower. People want to know how, when, and why you quit; emotional issues related to quitting; and examples of post-academic success. We envision this book as a source of advice and support for readers who have quit graduate school before getting their Ph.D., people leaving academia even after they have finished their degrees, and people who are adjuncting or working in academia who are looking to leave. Many stories of the post-academic transition have been told on personal blogs and websites, including our blogs and web site </span><a href="http://www.howtoleaveacademia.com/" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 16px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">www.howtoleaveacademia.com</span></a><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (forthcoming), but this is the first collection has been organized to speak directly to people’s experiences leaving academia.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We’re looking for thoughtful, personal pieces (non-fiction or creative non-fiction) that tell a story or develop a theme related to the process of quitting academia. Like any good paper, the essay should have a core thesis or concept that you’re exploring through your writing. We prefer submissions that are relatively jargon-free and more casual in writing style. Your essay can be any length, with a general goal of 5-10 pages double spaced (but we’ll consider shorter or longer!). </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you have poetry, art, or other (digitized) creative work that explores these themes, we’d be interested in that, too.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This collection will focus primarily on what happened </span><span style="font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">after</span><span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> you quit; thus, we are not interested in treatises about the failures of grad school or the problems in higher education. You’re welcome to explore the reasons and circumstances under which you left, but please continue the narrative forward from there. You can be as anonymous as you like, although please include enough detail that the reader can be drawn into your story. We invite you to explore the messiness, difficulty, and contradictions in the quitting process. Not every story has a happy ending, and that’s OK. We encourage submissions on any of these topics,</span><span style="font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> as well as proposals for essays that explore any gaps between them:</span><br />
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<li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">How, when, and why you left academia: hopes/expectations versus realities in grad school, specific incidents/anecdotes, the job market, what you wish you’d known.</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Emotional dimensions of leaving -- loss or changes of identity, “deprogramming” from academic thought, relationship difficulties and transformations, isolation, mental/physical health issues, joys and new discoveries, family issues, etc.</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Career Transitions: Teaching stories, writing stories, stories of how you discovered a new vocation/path.</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Alt-Ac Careers, Adjuncting -- Life on campus when you’re not a prof or student, changes in relationships with “the academy.”</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Success Stories: how quitting changed your life for the better, how happy you are, how glad you are to be gone.</span></li>
<li dir="ltr" style="font-size: 16px; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Failure stories: screwing up, falling down, awful jobs, bad experiences, floundering, despair.</span></li>
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<span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you want to share a simpler or more straightforward story of your post-academic journey, please consider submitting to the website (email Lauren or Currer at the addresses below and specify that your submission is for the website). </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Timeline:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">250 word abstracts due: Feb 1st</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Goal of getting back to accepted folks mid-February </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Final essays due: April 1st</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Goal of publication by graduation in May 2013! :)</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Email submissions with “E-Book Submission” in the subject line to Lauren at </span><a href="mailto:lauren.nervosa@gmail.com" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">l</span><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">auren.nervosa@gmail.com</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> or Currer at </span><a href="mailto:projectreinvention12@gmail.com" style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="background-color: white; color: black; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">projectreinvention12@gmail.com</span></a><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: underline; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Feb 1 2013.</span><span style="font-size: 15px; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span>Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-5286371907842485652012-12-02T13:03:00.001-08:002012-12-02T13:03:14.270-08:00Alt-ac Update The other day when I was reading around some of the other post-academic blogs I was reminded of my less-frequent posting. Unsurprisingly, this has happened more since I've started my alt-ac job in September. Aside from having pretty busy hours there three days a week, I'm finding that my two days off have been filled with multiple, boring domestic tasks, car issues that need addressing, and a variety of doctor, hospital, dentist or orthodontist appointments. Some of them are my own regular visits and others are related to my children, so no, I don't have adult braces, but my daughter has them.<div>
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When I started this part-time job I imagined I'd have all this freedom to get more exercise, then lounge, catch up on sleep with mid-day naps (after all the exercise), read lots of fun novels, have lunch with long-lost friends, and spend loads of time writing for the blog. Well, I've been managing a bit of some of those things here and there, but lately in the main, the hours have disappeared with necessary duties like the list above (recently I've more fun trying to organise persistent plumbing problems/leaks, boiler breakdown). Some of the time I am spending while waiting for the plumber, I hate to admit, has been spent catching up with work emails that I felt were too important to wait til I was next in. This kind of thing was something I promised myself I would not do. I told myself if I took on work stuff at home then I would take it off my time at the office the next day or so, however, I'm finding the usual pressing list of stuff to do now or yesterday never ends. If I'm not careful, this can spiral and I'll just begin resenting the work and hating myself for doing this. I am the only one to blame here. Although there are some tight time frames in which I'm attempting to do things, I know some things can wait and will just take longer as I'm part-time.</div>
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So, I'm now trying not to spend too much time in front of the computer screen as it seems to lead me into too much temptation to check emails and follow up a thing or two. Like <a href="http://leavingacademia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/some-miscellaneous-ramblings.html">JC</a> recently posted, it's probably a good idea to go offline sometimes. </div>
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Aside from my own problematic tendency towards a negative self-surveillance that can lead me to over-working, the new-ish job is all okay, overall. Some of what I'm trying to manage at the moment, is taking up lots of time with fiddly bits of admin-type work that I hadn't quite banked on, but which I can see is necessary for me and not someone else to do, as I don't have my own personal secretary. As I work for a non-profit organisation, there is always a tight budget and less resources available to help support some of the ambitions of the organisation. This is a frustrating aspect of the job and it means that many people there are probably trying to do too much in the space of the working week. Many of them appear to do the sensible thing and take time in lieu when they are working over time in the week. There is a knock-on effect though, I noticed, when you need to have that person to do something important for you and they're off for a day or two because they are finally catching up. It's not a perfect situation, considering I'd like to achieve some of the things I've set out to do when I was hired. The reality is that these targets will need to be planned as long-term ones, maybe with a few small successes along the course of this academic year.</div>
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I thought it would be worth noting that I've come across a few other alt-ac professionals in the university with whom I'm trying to liaise about a few things. I'm finding it reassuring that these women are also confessing to feeling that when they left the traditional teaching/research path, they felt they were selling out or would be perceived as failures. But they've also found that their alt-ac jobs in the university have given them opportunities to use their PhD/academic skills in other really useful ways. And they seem pretty happy to me, at least at the level of the chats I've been having. I'm getting there. I still feel a bit awkward when I share my PhD background/identity to some of my contacts. But as time is going by, is getting easier and feels less awkward. In fact, I seem to be hearing little pockets of stories of this PhD who left academia and is now doing this or that. Ahhh, there is hope!</div>
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The holiday season is all impending now and the organisation is planning festive drinks and parties. The university closure time, we've been told, will be a whole two weeks. This means paid holiday time for all. I'm looking forward to this a lot, even though we haven't got big travel plans.We may drive to London for a night or two to visit my in-laws. This stay is always a bit short because my husband's parents are elderly and not set up for lots of visitors in the small flat they have. Hotels aren't cheap there, but we may think of an over night in a nearby one to make things a bit easier. The fact is that I actually really enjoy hanging around in the nice city where we live. It's a popular university city which becomes much calmer when all the undergrads go home for the holidays. It's got great theatre, cinema, restaurants, shops, all which we can walk to. The centre is about a 35 minute walk - a great way to burn off all of the holiday excess that we'll be subjecting ourselves to. There's no city like London, but we lived there many years and had loads of great times there before having children. I don't really miss it or get any great buzz on visits back. What I'm looking forward to this holiday season is a nice rest, knowing that my time off includes pay, and looking forward to returning to a secure job (at least for now).</div>
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Cutting to the chase now....Sunday night, UK telly means the US series Homeland is about to start. Offline fun begins now! Will try to return again before another lengthy gap. </div>
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Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-44209251931502682962012-10-31T03:50:00.002-07:002012-10-31T04:02:41.424-07:00The six week job review, coming out about the chronic health condition and other things...Well, I was reminded the other day that this week at work was apparently the sixth week I have been in my new job. I think officially they are about a week early on that, but perhaps this Monday was the only day that my line-manager could squeeze in a one-one meeting with me.<br />
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The meeting involved chatting about how I felt things were going, how he felt things were going, and finally having a glance at a sheet of paper that had blocks of areas to fill in that covered plans, targets and actions, that sort of thing. This was where the conversation was less fixed, as he has been so incredibly busy over the last five weeks, he has been pretty much unavailable to work with me on establishing plans and how to work through them. There is a larger vision in place at the moment, but with all of the smaller tasks I have had to get through on a three day a week part-time schedule, I haven't exactly had lots of time blocked out for creative planning of sorts. The one thing I've been trying to emphasise with him is that because I am part-time, it will just take me longer to get through the list and that's all there is to it. This can be frustrating for someone like me who is accustomed to charging on forward and working too much in an effort to get things done quickly. For the most part, the biggest challenge, I think for this part-time job, is how I manage my own self-surveillance. It would be so easy to work over my contracted hours on a regular basis. In fact, as this job does involve participating in some of the social activities that are organised for students outside of the working day, I have already experienced busy times when I have still not taken up the 'time in lieu' option where I take off hours in the following week. I seem to be writing myself little reminders frequently - don't forget to schedule time in lieu this week, but there never seems to be a chance to take it because more and more 'stuff' gets piled on to my working week.<br />
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Overall, I reported that things are going well. I tried in the most diplomatic way to mention that there have been times when I felt that it would have been nice to know how some of the systems worked before it was too late or close to urgent crisis-mode, as there have been a few cases where I felt thrown in the deep end without warning. This diplomatic offering was actually prompted by my line manager himself when he made apologies for not being available for important communications and instructions about these things. So, the will is there for sure. But being the newbie in an office setting where quick and efficient turnaround for important events/tasks is crucial can feel a bit daunting when you're unsure about the details. I'm trying hard now to spot some of the potential crises before they happen. A challenge for sure.<br />
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This review meeting was also the time that I decided to bring up my Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. As some readers may remember, when I was applying for the job back in July, I wrote about my anxiety around disclosing my MS on the application in the section where the employer asks about health conditions and disabilities - all carefully worded, sounding something like this: 'According the disability act, do you consider yourself disabled...' My scan across some of the MS Society website in the employment section also found that they advised you must answer the question honestly when it is presented this way. So in my honesty, I disclosed my condition and added that it is very well managed and that it has been years since I had a clinically defined 'episode'. No point in adding extra details like the experience of fatigue, numbness/tingling, spasms, etc. In fact, most of the time all is fine, overall, especially if I manage to get enough sleep and time to recover from busy days. So part-time hours help a lot.<br />
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So I introduced the topic and wasn't surprised when my line manager responded positively and asked if there was anything they could do in the office to address any needs I may have. He reminded me about the potential to work at home when needed - as it is an open office it is busy and sometimes noisy, so this option will be useful when needed. So far so good.<br />
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This was his opportunity to say how he felt about my work and he was very positive. The last month has been completely full on, with me having to finalise pieces for an important postgrad student social event that happened at the start of term at a venue in the city. It was important that I was the face and voice of this large event, as my new role is focused on engaging with postgrad and enhancing the postgrad experience. So, after fumbling around sorting out people and details around this event, it all seemed to go well and a huge amount of students turned up and looked like they had a great time. All staff were totally positive and saying well done, well done, oh you're so amazing, you're a great public speaker and so on. This praise carried on into the following week, after the Friday event - it felt nice to be recognised this way, I must say, and at the same time, it felt very odd too. I had never had such open outward praise as a contract lecturer or researcher. I may have experienced a pat on the back here and there but this response was different. I guess that might be related to the timing of the praise and the buzz of the social event. We had a drink at the pub after and the buzz just extended there. The following Monday was kind of a recap time and the praise continued. I have since noticed that people in the office goo out of their way to praise and recognise eachother. Of course, this seems like it would help management in terms of people skills and getting the most out of people. But peer co-workers are also in this habit so the feeling is generated throughout the various departments. So, all of this seems a good thing, yes. There is a tiny sceptical side of me, perhaps the academic side, that thinks it's all too over the top and unreal. Surely, my performance can't be that amazing! Was just doing what I was told to do, earning the crust. When I shared this with my husband he said, well, you are very good, maybe exceptional, and they've noticed that in a way that the academic world doesn't because it's overly critical of everything, nothing's ever good enough. While there may be some truth to this, I guess I'm thinking that with time, there will probably be less outwardly praise as I just get on with the everydayness of the job. That's fine too, but I'll admit, the outwardly, over-the-top praise is kind of nice. There's one more thing though that has just come to mind; perhaps I am just better at doing a job like this than an academic teaching/research job. Hmm, yes this is important to realise and also important to remind myself that if this is the case, that's actually okay.<br />
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The everydayness of this job overall is fine, as far as my current career expectations go (yes, this is the first moment in this post where I have used the term 'career'). It will surely have it's lower, less exciting, less intellectually challenging moments, like the hours that get taken up with email correspondences and meetings (as is also the case in the world of academia). I can also see the spaces that feel very challenging for me, where I need to get my head around and take on something completely new; there is some real anxiety there and a questioning of my ability to do it well. There's a lot of that feeling lurking in the background. And this is where that side of me wants to say, hey, you'd better hold back on your praise because there's no guarantee that I'm going to do a great job this time! It's this sceptical side of my self surveillance that can hold me back if I'm not careful. I'm certainly going to make some mistakes in this work, but I should probably cut myself some slack. My line manager made a good point of noting in our meeting that this was a place where mistakes could be made and that was acceptable and seen as part of a longer working process. I need to remind myself of this when the anxiety and vulnerability begins to set in. A bit of anxiety is okay and normal but it shouldn't take over. Some good lessons are to be learned here.<br />
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<br />Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-74260338188037416202012-09-30T10:34:00.004-07:002012-09-30T13:04:12.747-07:00Is there any 'compassion' in academic recruitment?It's Sunday evening now and I'm due to get on with family food preparations and a whole list of other domestic tasks, but I feel compelled to note a few things before I disappear into the kitchen and crash on the sofa later.<br />
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It's been a pretty busy week here for me. When I first accepted my new job role and discussed things like a proper starting date, I agreed that the week commencing September 24th looked like the best time, even though my family visitors from the USA would still be lingering around the household and leaving mid-week on the Wednesday. In the mean time, I agreed to work a couple of days a week through some of August to try to get my head around the systems, meet people and just settle in to my new work space. All of that felt very nice and cosy. It was great meeting these very welcoming people and I started attending some important meetings and thinking about creative plans for the future. One of my nice colleagues was unfortunately leaving his position at the end of August and I was allocated to picking up on some important jobs that he to leave with me. But of course, some stuff needed sorting when I had to take a couple of weeks off in September when my family members were here visiting. My line manager assured me not to worry and that he would pick them up while I was away. He is a very busy man indeed and when I returned on Monday he had to confess that these issues were still left unresolved and that I would have to attend to them. So, to make a long story short, I have spent the week in a frantic state trying to make sense of a plethora of tasks, sometimes hassling him throughout the days with endless questions of how to do this or that (like getting stuff printed after design, etc.) and other related things. Heavy sigh, I got home on Friday evening, crashed at the kitchen table, relieved to see that my husband got home early and started cooking, and vowed not to challenge myself with much of anything over the weekend. Yes, I know, welcome to the world of the permanent work-force. The summer holidays are now over and it's time to get my head down and get on with things. It'll all fall into place, yes, but 'new' job stuff like remembering what systems to follow for this and that is still to be done via the ways of a learning curve that is frustrating when jobs need to be done yesterday.<br />
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What I want to draw attention to now though has been prompted by another post-academic over at <a href="http://unemployedphdforhire.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/yep-academia-still-sucks.html">Unemployed PhD for Hire</a>, who writes around the topic of academic recruitment and some of the issues that come up when the post advertised actually has someone already working for some time in the role but the role still needs to be advertised. 'WTF' adds some thoughtful points about the prospect of some other star candidate coming along who is great for the job and who will thus shunt the prospects of the hopeful one already in post. Of course, as I've added in comments, there is then the long list of other hopeful applicants who are probably well-qualified, fantastic, strong candidates, who just may not stand a chance because; a: they are not up to 'star' standard yet in their early career status; b: if they are 'as good' a candidate as the one in the role already, then, well, the department will just offer the job to the one they already know rather than rock the boat. Well, why not? It's tough. The problem, as we are all very well aware of by now, is that there are just too many great candidates out there for the few available jobs.<br />
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So my question today, after I read 'WTF's' post was, what kind of feedback will these hundreds of hopeful candidates get after forwarding their strong applications? What will these academic employers tell them? Will they just send them the standard response - Sorry, good luck next time? Or should they offer more?<br />
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Coincidentally, I have just today come across this article from<br />
<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2012/sep/17/recruitment-in-academia-dealing-with-rejection">The Guardian UK Higher Education Network</a> that asks critically, this very same question about the ethics of academic recruitment. It makes some great, and to us in the post-academic community, obvious points about the over-saturated post-PhD job market. What I would have liked to see noted though is, considering the higher numbers of job-seeking PhDs, a recognition that academic institutions now have a responsibility to provide more advice about legitimate, intellectually stimulating, and well paid careers outside of academia. Sure it would be very nice to see employers think hard about how they can feedback in a supportive way why candidates don't get short listed or offered the job after interview. But most of this difficulty and disappointment relates to larger, structural problems with the institutions who are rewarded (financially) for getting more and more PhD students through to completion, and knowing these PhDs will be struggling to survive in the over-saturated job market.<br />
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I am left feeling more and more sceptical about academia and the future of many worthy PhDs. With this in mind, I am not at all sure if there is any 'compassion' left in academia. Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-67338629034469945092012-09-13T08:11:00.001-07:002012-09-13T23:56:51.176-07:00Occupying one's post-academic 'non-academic' timeThis is intended to be a short post. Sometimes I kind of start that way and end up going on a bit more than planned, so apologies if I head off in this direction.<br />
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Over the last couple of days I have had a bit of a strange sensation about some the ways in which I occupy my 'free time' now. Most of my days don't really afford me with massive amounts of free time, because I am obliged to care for my dependent children and keep up with the usual domestic tasks of (chaotic) family life. While my two are older now, 12 (soon to be 13) and 16, and the level of 'care' is less intense than it used to be, I have discovered that the list of parental responsibilities is still long enough to sometimes feel exhausting and endless. On top of things like having to make sure they are keeping up with standard stuff like school work, getting out of the door on time, showing up for school etc., I am constantly trying to teach them the skills they need to actually 'grow' up and look after themselves so that they manage at some basic stuff on their own. This, as many parents of teens will know, is a harder, emotionally draining task, than giving them a bath and putting them to bed with a story. There's all the other stuff like the ongoing moral teaching we try to do - we want them to be decent people, caring citizens, in a modern world where aesthetics, surface fashions and consumption often overtake some important values like how crucial it is to treat people fairly and with respect. Their school does a pretty good job at this but I do find myself having lengthy discussions about the use of certain kinds of language that have become acceptable in 'common-sense' discourse (things like when the kids have used the term 'chav', which in the UK is used as a derogatory term to describe 'working-class' people who dress, talk and act a certain way) As I my younger school self almost certainly would have been perceived as a working-class chav to middle-class kids like my own, I take certain offence here and want them to know about it. While most of the middle-class school kids in our neighbourhood wouldn't dream of using racist or homophobic language, most of them seem to think it's okay to make jokes about 'chavs'. Much tiring parental work is still to be done.<br />
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Anyway, I use this just as an example to illustrate some of the investment that often cuts into my so-called 'free' time at home after the list of other chores like cooking, cleaning and laundry are sorted. Others in the house also help with these things - I am not the only one- but perhaps I end up taking more 'time' with these chores than others! So, what is left? I do enjoy my television drama hours for sure, but when not indulging in this (getting my way with the evening TV also involves a series of struggled negotiations with three others!) I am ready to get on with some reading. In my 'academic' life, this certainly filled a lot of time with lots of note-taking, writing, revising, and so on. When there was ever a 'spare moment' for reading on the weekend, the eyes turned to my pile of library books that I 'had' to get through. I could never do enough, there was always more and I did it willingly.<br />
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So, after having my summer holiday at the end of July and having gone through a series of fun novels, I am at this new point in September. The old me would be collecting a stack of library books now and downloading articles for work-related purposes and reading in the evenings. I would enjoy the intellectual stimulation, but it always took a further step when I'd find the brain working overtime and then interrupting sleep. Now I have a new job which involves some research activity and source searching, but I do not feel inclined to use what I now consider my very precious down time to do it. It can certainly wait for my contracted office hours. But I find myself now pondering what I will do with this 'precious' time? When I've done my bit of virtuous exercise and had a drink with a friend or gone out shopping (not for food!), what kinds of questions and challenges do I want to be presented with? I do love to read, but more than fiction genres. I have enjoyed reading scholarship but don't want to create and anxiety for myself where I start to conjure up all sorts of feelings about what the academic world was like for me. There are those works that go in between academia and the popular spheres. After having just read Siri Hustvedt's non-fiction work Living, Thinking, Looking, I can see the possibilities for this kind of writing from a writer who completed a PhD in English literature a while back and decided not to aspire for the life of a professor, and declares that this has enabled her to see so many intellectual possibilities outside her field of study.<br />
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My aspiration I guess is to get to a point in my new work experience where I can feel challenged enough intellectually without being drained of all of my sensibilities and yet also have something outside of the career that keeps me from feeling bored. But maybe 'reading'/thinking as an activity can play a part on my life alongside a whole list of other stuff. I previously mentioned that I kind of fancied the idea of taking singing lessons (I've been a closet singer for a long time now I think). This and a few other pass times I'm sure will be enough to keep me amused. I also think I am having these funny feelings at the moment, like okay, what's next, because it's September and for so many years before now, it was a time of continuous academic focus. Things have changed now for the better. I need to remind myself of this and I will just adapt to new ways.Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-29322241195976179852012-09-05T01:40:00.000-07:002012-09-05T01:40:43.235-07:00The potential of the 'alt-academic' career for the 'post-academic'As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I will start my new 'alt-academic' job (working in the university setting as staff but not as teaching/research) 'officially' in late September, although I've been going in a couple of days a week since my family summer break away to familiarise myself with some of the systems, attend some key meetings, and begin a general 'induction'. It's been a great way to settle in there slowly and get a sense for what the people are like and what the core values are. Of course, the whole purpose of the place is to prioritise the best interests of students, so if some staff didn't exactly sympathise with this aim they probably wouldn't last very long. But there are always less than perfect office personalities with which to contend at the best of times, so I'm sure certain negotiations will be made at some point along my path there. So far though, so good, I have to say. Everyone at the moment, seems to have gone out of their way to be friendly and welcoming. It's still a quiet time before the onslaught of student registration and things like Freshers Week, Induction sections etc., but at least I can say it feels like the place has a good sense of responsibility to co-workers and of course, the students.<br />
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I've already had a couple of meetings with some of the post-graduates with whom I'll be working throughout this year in various degrees. I've had the chance to throw around some ideas with them about possibilities for building a cross-faculty post-graduate community through which they can share positive intellectual as well social experiences. My first meeting also involved some conversation about future careers and what kinds of support the careers' office has offered. The chemistry/science PhD student I spoke with said that his department supported regular careers' workshops as it seems well-known that there are many fruitful opportunities outside of academia that are worth considering. The other Social Sciences PhD student wasn't aware of any workshops offered and admitted that she wasn't really keeping her eyes out for them either. But she made it very clear that she was aware of the poor employment prospects for working in academia after she finishes (she's in her 'writing-up' stage now). She acknowledged that a job probably wouldn't appear straight away and it could be a few years before a permanent one surfaces. Without pushing her too much, I had the feeling that she was going to give the academic path a shot for a while before considering other directions. That's fair enough, I thought. But then after tossing this around after our meeting, I wondered if students like her might still benefit from attending some of these early careers' workshops and even see a careers' counsellor as a way of introducing some important aspects about career planning that they may not be aware of. I remember being in the same position as this young woman, feeling sure that I was going to give it a go and work hard to get there. I remember getting advice from my adviser and the department about what was required and it all seemed very helpful and supportive. However, in retrospect now, I ask myself, 'What if?', What would have happened if I just allowed myself to open myself to other possibilities? Could I have found something that suited me much earlier than now, something that recognised my intellectual strengths and skills and rewarded me financially without me having to sacrifice myself in the process? I wish I could have broken through that barrier then. I admit though, I think it would have been a difficult one. All of my PhD friends at the time were on the academic path also. I would have been the odd one out, without any space to talk about and feel out other possibilities. I am certainly not in a position in my new job to act as a careers' adviser but what I can do is try to work with the careers' office as well as postgrad students and faculty staff to recognise the importance of career planning before postgrads complete their studies. I'll have my work cut out for me for sure.<br />
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I had another experience yesterday with a postgrad which made me think about my new role and how this job allows me to utilise quite a lot of the knowledge and skills I acquired in my PhD studies. Without going into too many details, last year my office implemented a postgrad research project which invited interested postrads to conduct some small-scale qualitative research projects about various aspects of the postgrad student experience. I've had the opportunity to read and assess the quality of some of the work so far. They are not perfect final pieces and they are in need of much revision it seems. My time yesterday was spent with a student going through the draft and discussing restructuring and revising for clarity and other things. It was a tutorial session without having the weight of having to give the student a final mark at some point. And the student was genuinely interest in the politics of the project and wanted to improve the work. It was a fulfilling experience for me, a nice start to the job which will have more of this kind of work in the future.<br />
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I've said this before and will say it again, this job seems to offer the prospect for lots of potential for professional growth and intellectual satisfaction without having the baggage of over-working or giving up one's personal life. My line manager made it very clear that I shouldn't work over my expected contracted hours and I think this is the ethic throughout the office culture there. The salary is less than a faculty teaching/research job would have been, but I've accepted that this is the area where there will be a sacrifice. For me and my personal circumstances, this sacrifice is worth it as I have other bonuses like lots of holiday time through the year (something like 5 weeks as well as added university 'closure days' that I will be paid for). The building I work in is being refurbished - the swimming pool will be back in action in October and I can use it, conveniently, at lunch time or after work when I want to fit the exercise in. I can also cycle to work and be there in 15 or 20 minutes, depending on my mood (sometimes I just take it slower to be cautious). This means I don't have any expensive or timely travel costs and I can be home at a reasonable hour at the end of the day to sort of the domestic responsibilities like feeding my children eventually. It's all looking very promising. The 'alt-academic' choice, for me, I feel, has been positive. Time will tell, but I'm willing to give it a good shot.Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-66911614062630620192012-08-22T05:23:00.001-07:002012-08-22T05:33:39.397-07:00Post family vacation revival and new startsIt's been a busy month away from posting here and keeping up with other post-academic blogs. As I mentioned in my last very quick update on things, this is mainly due to our recent family vacation away to La Costa Brava area of Catalonia (that's Spain - although the Catalan people argue that Catalonia is not Spain - they cherish their own Catalan language and many want independence from Spain). With a bit of advice from a Catalonian friend of mine here in the UK, we visited the area of Palafrugell (about 1 1/2 hours from Barcelona) about seven years ago and stayed in a nice, family oriented beach village called Tamariu. We liked it so much we thought we'd go there again this time for a bit of relief from such a rainy British summer - oh yes, I've mentioned that before here haven't I? With luck, the sun did come out here for about a week or so before we left and it was hot enough to sunbathe and get into the summer spirit as the London Olympics were just about the start. When we returned on August 11th it was hot and sunny again, so a nice means of reorienting ourselves back into the routines of everyday life. Grey skies and rain were to come again soon, that was for sure, but at least I've been experiencing recently something of what I would call a normal summer season after so much vitamin D deprivation!<br />
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Okay, for my US readers who may think I'm living the high Life of Riley here, I'll just add that lots of Brits go off to hot European places for breaks in the summer as we can't have a guarantee of hot summer here, although the Southwest coast of Cornwall, Devon and Dorset have beautiful spots for walks, cycling and fun on the beach - that is, when it's not raining. And warning to non-UK home-based visitors: the waters are far too cold there to swim in comfortably. If you dare you can get a wet suit like many of us. In my view, even then it's far too icy and there are some strange Brits who strip down to their swimming costumes and splash around in it at the first sign of sun creeping through the clouds. Anyway, there are frequent cheap flights with Ryan Air to Girona and the accommodation there is close to the same price you'd pay for a cottage in Cornwall. Renting a car (much needed where we were) can add up but what can you do?<br />
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Here area few snaps:<br />
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Top pic shows the view from our apartment to the shared pool. Tamariu beach had a diving board that our kids loved - big bonus there!</div>
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One of my highlights was cinema on Tamariu beach for the families. We watched Ratatouille dubbed in Spanish. Great, great fun. Comfortable temps and no mosquitoes!</div>
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A stop to La Bisbal where they make these gorgeous ceramics.</div>
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Our teens in a moment when they weren't grumpy about something or arguing with each other. </div>
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A nice little moment with me and hubby on a boat/cave excursion. He copied this and framed it as a gift for our anniversary yesterday - 18 years married and known each other for 22 - and still see eye-to-eye - how nice!</div>
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<b>New start with new job</b></div>
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I won't be able to start officially with my new job until mid September. This is because before I applied I had made plans for my mother and sis to come here for a two week visit (various reasons why). At that point I kind of accepted that I would probably be unemployed for a while. I'd been job seeking for a while, applied for another role and never got an interview and pretty much thought it might take another few months before I would land anything, if I was lucky. When this prospect arose, I thought, like the others, I wouldn't hear anything but decided to give a shot anyway. And low and behold, I was surprised when it all went well in my favour. Anyway, I had to be honest about some of the difficulty I would have with working during the time my family is here - Mom doesn't drive in this country, which is for the best, considering her funny driving habits back home, and sis doesn't drive at all as she lives and works in the city. The whole driving thing wouldn't be a big deal if mother was not disabled by arthritis, but she is, or at least immobile enough that she can;t seem to walk further than short distances or be in major pain after 5 minutes. Her lifestyle has become very sedentary and suburban - car driving everywhere door to door, so a lot less exercise to help build up her strength etc., oh well..... So, this means I'll be taxi-ing her and sis around, getting them door to door to cafes and other places that might interest them in my city and I'll be left struggling to find parking and walking to meet them. All good exercise for me, I guess! </div>
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So, yes, the job. I've agreed with my line manager to come in this month and early September to get to know the department a bit and start my induction. I've been invited to some important meetings already by the Dean of Graduate Studies to help get a sense of what some of the current issues are for Postgrads at the university. My role is with the student union and I will be training Student Reps and developing the area of postgraduate provision across the university. This means I'll be involved in getting together some research around the postgraduate student experience from various faculties and using this to target weak areas where troubled students may quit, complain or be struggling. After I accepted the job and got more of a sense of what I'd be doing, I began to really see the interesting aspects and potential of this role. I've gone in a few days now and really feel like this a good fit for me. </div>
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When I first started to think about making plans for my academic exit about a year and a half ago, I got involved with a nice little research project on the undergrad student experience where I last worked as a contract Associate (Adjunct) Lecturer. Looking back, I think this was one of my smartest moves. I got a nice bulk of contract money from the gig (more than I would have from teaching as there were more 'hours' involved) and it was a great way of developing my CV outside of the usual teaching I was doing. While it was 'research' based, because it was oriented toward the student experience, it was valuable experience outside of the expected research area from my PhD and teaching interests, and a nice, well-respected internal report came out of it with my name attached. In terms of its value for working in a permanent staff/non-Faculty position in a university, it was very good with an excellent reference from the project coordinator who headed the work. It was also a good way to begin thinking about where my other professional interests may lie. In trying to think through what became a long, post-academic transition, one of the areas that kept coming up was my interest in wider issues in education. What did that mean to me though, exactly? I wasn't really sure. I looked back on my experience as a secondary school teacher, which I embraced but felt I could not do forever. So going back to that level of teaching, I decided, was not a good option. I enjoyed some of the intellectual challenges that my postgrad and PhD experience offered and I got to experience what higher education in the UK was like. The process of post-academic transition has enabled me to be pretty critical about what postgrads (in my case, in the Arts and Humanities) are offered. In the last six months, I've been thinking a lot about the problems and challenges in the area of careers' advice for postgrads and PhDs who may not get jobs in academia. Careers' support is a crucial area, I think, and I'm sure other readers here will agree, that can be highlighted for postgrads. In the UK there is a support service called 'Vitae', which offers a range of advice and courses around careers for postgrads. It used to be called the UK Grad School (I think?), and UK funding bodies have been known to send their students to week-long courses that offer workshop themes that help them think about their general strengths and transferrable skills so they'll have the confidence to win the job when they start hunting for it after degree completion. I did in fact, attend one of these courses in my second year, but the experience was clouded with the stubborn sense that I was already clear about where I was going. I was going to get an academic job in my field and I knew what I needed to do to get there etc. </div>
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All of this experience came back to me the other day after I attended a meeting with the Dean of Graduate Studies and other key people from various student services, including someone involved in employability. Employability wasn't on the agenda - issues such as postgraduate depression, stress, isolation over the summer, and personal tutors were the key areas - but in a side chat about careers it was revealed that Faculty members are the ones who put walls up. It was said that after a key careers' staff spent a long time scheduling a student workshop, which teaching staff would have been aware of and helped organise, the whole thing fell through when she showed up to an empty department, hung around a while and finally gave up. So, we're back to step one again when faced with academic staff defending their own roles when threatened by others who may actually propose other viable options for students. This is dangerous territory - what consequences might it have for their departments who are struggling to round up and keep paying taught and PhD students? If these students are thinking of employment outside of academia then they might catch on to the fact that they don't really 'need' the PhD qualification. Of course you'll need it in the academia path but not outside it. The can of worms will be open. </div>
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My new role will be fascinating in so many ways. I'll be the sympathetic face to other postgrads because I know what they are going through, and at the same time, I will be in a position where structural support for them is vital so that they stay on and complete their studies. If they aren't happy, and don't come here to study, people like me won't have a job. I am looking forward to this challenge. At least the first fun thing I have in my diary for October is the postgrad welcome party at a neutral cultural venue in the city. I hear it all went very well last year and inspired lots of interest. The rest of the year I'll be faced with coming up with other plans to sustain student interest, community building and who knows what else. Wish me luck. More to come as I settle in. Mid September posting may go slow again as I face US family visit!</div>
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<br />Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-48543620330786730552012-08-17T04:23:00.000-07:002012-08-17T04:23:18.242-07:00Overdue UpdateI realise it's been sometime since my last post and I just wanted to send a very quick little message to mention that a longer one will appear soon with more details as to what's been going on with nice re-charging vacation/holiday and with new job start. We've had a two week family holiday to sunny Spain, the Costa Brava area of Catalonia to be exact and it was the perfect tonic needed for sun deprived souls from a wet and grey British summer this year - apparently the worst in many years. I plan to add some nice pics, hopefully without boring all to death. This week I've gone in a bit to my new job for a start with an induction to the place and that's opened my eyes to a range of interesting challenges I'll have to look forward to. Much of this new role at the university where I did my PhD involves engaging with the postgraduate community across faculties and working to enhance representation and the postgraduate student experience. I'm told that my PhD background and experience there was what sold them on me as the strongest candidate for the role. So nice to hear that my PhD has actually been useful and respected outside of the teaching/research norm.<br />
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More to come soon - Bye for now!Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-1783978739344548962012-07-19T04:41:00.001-07:002012-07-19T04:41:51.786-07:00Surviving commuter cyclingAfter visiting <a href="http://literaryemergency.com/">Literary Emergency's</a> blog with its post about cycling to the new alt-academic job, I was inspired to share my commuter cycling enthusiasms and my joyful feelings of managing to find a job that is only about a fifteen minute cycle ride from home.<br />
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When I lived in the Boston area years ago in my younger, carefree days, it was common and accepted that most working people would just have to get in their cars to get to work if they didn't work within the busy city borders where you could rely on buses or trains. I worked a few jobs that were located in the suburbs around the major industrial parks, with my last, desperately needed job taking about a 55 minute car journey. I hated the traffic filled journey (and wasn't crazy about the job either), but I couldn't escape it. I used to dream of having work that I could walk to or take a short, uncomplicated bus journey. Later when I lived and worked in London, I relied on the underground system to take me across the city to my first job. My next job was a bit closer but still required a long-ish bus ride in constant London traffic. In my later job when I was teaching I had the option of driving a 50 minute journey, and could also get on a train then bus if I wanted a change. We lived in a very busy part of the inner city then and with the work commute I felt there was never a moment of a slow pace in life. By the time the weekends came, the thought of just staying indoors for two days was quite attractive. As I said in my last post about babies and post-grad study, our move out of London at the time was very welcome.<br />
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One of my other teaching contracts in higher education years ago also meant a long commute in. It was another stint that I hated and I wasn't overly excited about the teaching deal there either, so was very happy when I accrued more hours at the institution that was closer to us. By the time I was thinking about PhD study, I was determined that it had to be somewhere I didn't have to spend my life struggling in traffic to get to. At that point I just didn't had the luxury of extra time for it, and my patience had run thin.<br />
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This terrain of the question of how far would I be willing to commute in my future employment prospects has been a difficult one. It certainly played a large part in my decision to give up on a teaching/research academia career. I have come across many others in academia who work away from their homes and come back for a few days of the week when they are not required to be there for teaching or in meetings. I contemplated that possibility and after some time realised that with all of the other demands and pressure I would be under, this wouldn't be a good option for me. My domestic situation with two young children and an academic husband who is required to be away (sometimes frequently) just wouldn't accommodate it. After living with Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis for some time, I also accepted that my health would suffer and my condition would probably progress and go downhill if I wasn't careful. It's been a relief to accept that if I want to continue to be upright, on my feet with some energy that something else in my life will have to give - and the prospect of an academic first permanent job away somewhere else across the country was what I was willing to give up. But what about non-academic work? After researching some of these possibilities for some time, it's been clear that with the recession there are few good/appropriate jobs out there and many people have to be willing to travel if they want to stay employed. One possible contract position that looked interesting and got me a telephone interview some time ago was over an hour's drive away. Another prospect was full-time and an hour or so train travel and bus ride on the other side. I have often thought that my increasingly narrowing list of expectations for the ideal job will just result in long-term unemployment - it would all be my own fault as I was simply asking for too much.<br />
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I promise I am getting to the cycling part now and I apologise to readers as I've noticed I've tended to go on a bit too long now. Anyway, last year in June I managed to secure a short-term research job based it the city centre here, only a fifteen-twenty minute cycle ride away. Walking is manageable but about 40 minutes one way and I worry a bit about using up my energy reserves this way. This prompted me to finally get out there and look for a bike that would replace the one that was stolen around the same time that I was really ill and had my RRMS diagnosis. After the diagnosis and long recovery time, I really felt that I'd never be able to get on a bike again. Maybe on flat ground but certainly not in my very hilly city where even mega-fit cyclists seem to struggle on. But, not to despair, the electric bike has made it's way here! One of my work colleagues from the university got one and it began to open my eyes to the freedom I could have to pop in and out of the city. After some time looking around and being very indecisive (they're not a cheap option) I decided to go for it and started riding again last June.<br />
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For us it's been a perfect commuting option. We have only one car that I use more as my husband can cycle quickly to his office. So, without the extra burden of a second car with increasing petrol prices and car insurance, maintenance etc, I could justify spending a bit more on the electric bike to help me up the hills around here. I use it mainly just for short commutes but the juice will go for about 40 miles before it needs a recharge. The battery comes off and you just plug the charger into it over night to go the next day.<br />
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Now, back to the issue of job searching and getting lucky. The non-academic staff job I've just managed to secure a couple of weeks ago is based at the university where I did my PhD and is close by. The pay is much lower than I wanted but it has lots of benefits that for me cancel out this problem. I don't have a long commute that will stress me out and exhaust me. I am actually going to save a fair bit of cash this way by not having to spend on train fares or petrol costs. Commuting to another major city where some academics go for top jobs around here, for example, would run costs up to at least a couple of thousand more pounds a year. They have offered me the option of part-time hours, which had been on my list of outrageous and unrealistic preferences for a long time - after a while I crossed off this preference, assuming it was just too unrealistic and I'd just have to see how I got on in terms of my energy levels. The team of people I will be working with are accommodating, nice and professional. I discovered that one woman left her work as a lawyer in a swanky law firm because she wanted to work in a more civilised atmosphere. So, I'm not the only one compromising! The job can grow - it also includes research and will make good use of the skills I've been acquiring over the last several years. Later I will have the option to apply for other internal only jobs where there will be less competition. I can get back on the bike again and give up the car. This prospect is a good one, but of course, I do live in a country where we have had the most rain this summer in British history. Cycling in a down pour is not fun at all, and I have begun to invest in more cycling rain gear - some of it quite stylish,as you can see here:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW3yE_yojp_-NgMtHVKB6zvb2f1DgIaA7E5l_6FAXWYr-e0_jTogssBguJ54qpnFjO7Tvk1uPQd8ee7tC2mEOFlpBQRcHj71Wmun0ENay23_I9n_xttfWc9b52n792dlI3n09yA4BZ/s1600/IMG_5551.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiW3yE_yojp_-NgMtHVKB6zvb2f1DgIaA7E5l_6FAXWYr-e0_jTogssBguJ54qpnFjO7Tvk1uPQd8ee7tC2mEOFlpBQRcHj71Wmun0ENay23_I9n_xttfWc9b52n792dlI3n09yA4BZ/s320/IMG_5551.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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These fancy things are called Leggits and I've got them online from Georgia in Dublin, where they have their fair share of rain. They had some other cool, stylish stuff but thought I'd wait a bit before spending all of my first pay cheque before I've even earned it. These leggits are meant to be worn over any kind of shoe to protect shoes and trousers from rain. I've run them under the tap already as a test and they are completely waterproof. Good stuff in summer showers when cycling in sandals! Here are some shots of my electric bike. It's the 'Diva' women's design from the Oxygen brand:<br />
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I've got waterproof trousers and waterproof gloves now, as well as a stylish long cycling coat which claimed to be waterproof but after a major heavy rain, I discovered it was 'resistant' which isn't quite the same! If pushed I could drive the car to the area of my new job during a heavy rain and walk a distance to the office, as parking is extremely limited, if not impossible there. I'm hoping that after the very wet summer we've had, the colder season, like this past winter, will be drier. The saving grace is our mild temps in winter here, so winter commuter cycling is feasible outside of the really heavy rain conditions that is! My message here then is, if you're hesitating about getting back on your bike (in hilly cities like mine), don't despair. The electric bike is amazing and liberating. I highly recommend it to all. And who knows, maybe your list of future job expectations is not as unrealistic as you think it is at the moment. The right job may just be right around the corner waiting for the right time to surface!Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-92125847937012765012012-07-17T02:39:00.001-07:002012-07-17T02:39:43.842-07:00Babies and Post-Grad studies<br />
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<span style="background-color: white;">Today is my son's sixteenth birthday. This is a pic of him after we brought him home from the hospital and tried to get our heads around the reality that our lives would never be the same again. His impending arrival sixteen years ago was the start of many new things in my life at that time. My husband was offered a new job which entailed a much welcome move away from an inner-city London area where we lived for some time. My husband was a Londoner since the age of three and loved it there, but the time had come for a positive career move for him and a good move for us to start a new family with a baby. I left a secondary school teaching job that I enjoyed, but I was feeling pretty fed up with a very busy city life that was never quiet. Coming out to the South West of England to a nice, manageable city was great for me. We had already established a couple of sociable connections through his new workplace and found a great flat with amazing views. The problem with this flat was the extent of the physical work that one needed to do to get to the views at the top of this Georgian terraced building. These amazing old places don't have lifts/elevators and there are many stairs to negotiate to get to the top flat. I did feel a bit skeptical about this, knowing there was a baby on the way and we'd be carrying extra loads (more me, as husband would start job straight away), but husband talked me into it as we hadn't seen any other places that were as nice as this one. Another crazy decision that added to the exhaustion that took over my life much of the time. Well, one positive point was that I managed to stay pretty fit and tone with all the stairs and lifting, not to mention walking extensively with baby in pushchair in a very hilly part of town.</span><br />
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My activity levels were challenged even more, because for some crazy reason I also made the decision to start an MA course part-time. It was going to be a difficult time for me to begin looking for new work, as I was pregnant when we arrived, and I wanted something else in my life to 'challenge' me. As I type I am chuckling cynically at this idea now - what was I thinking - all I can say is that I was properly warned by many that this idea was not exactly practical, as once baby arrived I would realize how much pressure I would be under to keep up. My crazy husband, also an academic, was one of the few who encouraged me to give the MA a go as it was 'only part-time - sure I could manage it if I approached it realistically. Well, it must have been hormones doing strange things to me at the time. I started the course in the October after my son was born on the July 17. I found some part-time baby care and sorted out a schedule of class and study time for myself, and cracked on. After the initial struggle with confusing ideas and academic challenges, I got the hang of it and felt excited by academic work. But this 'excitement' seemed to be mixed totally with a tendency toward obsessiveness and compulsion toward perfection, to succeed at all costs. As I read more current debates in the field, I convinced myself that my own essays weren't as good - they too had to be of publishable standard. I am amazed that I actually managed to finish these essays by their deadlines. Of course, I did manage this but only because I would be working at crazy hours throughout the nights to achieve a high standard. Nothing was ever good enough. Hmm, I'm sure post-academics reading this know exactly what I'm talking about. Over the years I have recognised that these obsessive qualities seem to define many features of the academic personality. I think it may take me many years to break away from these tendencies and relieve myself of these pressures. Oh how liberating this will be. I've been allowing this to happen slowly since planning my post-academic transition and feel a great weight is being lifted from my shoulders.<br />
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The pressure of perfectionism in some personalities also extends into other areas of life too, especially for the middle-classes whose horizons of expectations are high. My biggest challenge was living up to the expectation of trying to 'have it all' and mastering everything. What a heavy burden it was to try to make new friends in new city while pregnant with my first child. All of my MA peers were younger and single, no kids. There was one other student, single mother with two older kids, but they weren't babies and somehow she seemed to have a grip on things a lot better than I had. New mothers, especially the middle-class ones, are also expected to cook fresh food, pureed when the babies begin solids, and I haven't even mentioned breast-feeding, which was a constant, on demand activity. With my son, we suffered the extra strain of very bad colic, which was at its worst in the evenings and night time. There was not much sleep for many months. When I left him with someone else I struggled to get little bottles of expressed breast milk for him and stressed when there wasn't enough. When I was away at class or at the library, I'd have overly engorged breasts and would need to rush to the bathroom to push some of the milk out for some relief. What can I say, there was never any easy way to get around the business of feeding baby when away in the early days. When I weaned from breastfeeding I had the same over-engorged problems - with my second baby this resulted in painful mastitis.<br />
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In the final year of the part-time MA I was working on my dissertation. This was the year when my husband and I discussed whether we should think about having another child. Wow, this decision was very difficult indeed. Finally, I felt I was getting to a point where life's pressures seemed to ease up a bit as my son was getting older. I haven't mentioned how extremely active he was. Compared to other boys and girls his age, he was certainly the busiest and most distracted, with the tendency to take more risks than other children. The playgroup he went to advised me not to try to 'full-day' as they thought he wasn't ready/mature enough and needed to be with me. My translation was that they couldn't cope with his activity levels and left it to me to deal with. I was desperate for a break and only got little bits that I treasured. Suddenly, there was talk about having another. I was 36 at the time and felt I needed to be clear about what we were going to do - I wasn't getting any younger - pressure, pressure. We did try and after I finished my dissertation in May, I had my daughter a few months later in September. Sometime later I started the adjunct teaching path and then was talked into starting a PhD. I applied for funding with the expectation that I wouldn't get it, but surprise came when I did. I felt compelled to carry the obligation through - with such competition for funds I saw it as my duty.<br />
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I cannot ever make the claim that my PhD study was a waste of time. I am the person I am today because of this unique experience and I've grown intellectually in ways I would not have if I hadn't done it. Having said that, I may have found other avenues for intellectual challenge outside the expectations of a PhD if given the chance. I also may have had a less self-inflicted stressful, anxiety ridden life if I avoided PhD study. Or would I? Perhaps, considering my somewhat obsessive personality I may have sought other ways to put myself under pressure. I've said in earlier posts that I have some residual guilt about how academic stress may have been passed on to my children. Being completely honest, I have to admit I would have been more productive academically had I not had them. If we decided not to go forward with having our second child I probably would have gone straight into PhD and had more energy to devote to my academic career. I may have secured a job at a time in UK Higher Education when there were more jobs available. <span style="background-color: white;">Have I taken some sort of resentment out on my children. Probably. Probably out on my husband too. I am only human and living during historical times when there are just too many expectations to try to live up to. As I'm getting older, I feel I can let go of many of those expectations now and appreciate the other great things in my life, including my family - I'd be pretty lonely without them. Would an academic career, where nothing is ever 'good enough' be worth sacrificing them? As I'm writing this, I want to make clear that I'm not taking a dualistic position on family-good, no family, career - bad. I'm just working through how some of my own difficult feelings around this have surfaced over the years. </span><br />
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The golden time of academic life here in the UK has passed now, of course. If I had taken the path where I din;t have my daughter, I may also have got to this point now, where academic labour may feel less favourable to me. Many academics I have come across are very unhappy with working conditions as they are now and are dreaming about retirement time. Others are losing their jobs from forced redundancy and are wondering how they can now make a living.<br />
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<br />
Fast forward now to the present. Sixteen years later my son last week had his secondary school 'prom'. Not quite the standard of the overblown US high-school prom, (no date, not lots of pics) but enough to warrant spending some dosh on renting a tux (opted out of bow-tie, and went for Mafia style here!). When he was seven, after years of struggling to keep up with his pace and endless negotiations with his school about his unusual level of distraction and hyperactivity, yes, you guessed it, he was diagnosed with ADHD.We opted to try the meds and life began to become more manageable for all the family (too many details to discuss here - life was very, very hard for a while). He's an A star student now aspiring to get top grades to go to Cambridge where they teach top Maths degree. He's picked up on my husband's and my obsessive academic qualities and spends hours on his own trying to figure out bizarre Maths' formulas and problems that are a completely different language for me. My constant advice to him is to take great care and have a balanced life and to focus on having strong relationships with people. Hopefully he'll manage this.<br />
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My daughter is a high achiever too, growing massively upset if she can't sort out her homework on time or to the best standard. And she happens to be pretty good in everything - her choices will be extremely difficult to make. My advice to her is the same - keep life balanced! These days are tough, with their school expectations very high, wanting good exam results for survival, and with the potential for many girls to play the 'good girl' compliant academic routine. She and her friends simply want to please their teachers all the time. Academic danger signs are there for sure.<br />
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My experience of academia as a mother bringing up two young children has been a great challenge, to say the least. I don't think I ever managed it that well, but this isn't to say it is impossible as I've met other women who, at least from a distance, seem to pull it all together. In my case, my personality, the over-worry, over-anxiety led to over-work. My over-work eventually led to very bad health and a diagnosis of Relapsing-Remitting MS when I was mid PhD study. The lack of sleep certainly triggered the first and second MS episode - a recipe for MS disaster, which made me stop dead in my tracks and rethink what I was doing, and what I wanted from life. If there was anything good to come of out bad health, then a new revelation about the direction I wanted to take in life was it. But it's taken my still, a very long time since then to get out of academia. I'm hoping now that I have a new non-academic career ahead of me, that I put some of these bad working habits behind me and enjoy the work-life balance more.<br />
<br />Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-34499894654128304922012-07-03T09:11:00.001-07:002012-07-03T09:11:46.934-07:00Today's tooth extraction: A metaphor for post-academic lifeWell, as I have such a long history now of life as an academic who has had some great pleasures in reading interesting scholarship, attempting to build my own research and scholarly identity, I now see that I will forever be 'thinking' about intriguing metaphors. It has become a habit now that I think will be hard to break, so I'm just going to go with it and see if takes me to some other creative places outside of the academic sphere. This is what is leading me to share my experience today at the dentist's office.<br />
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I have a had a bad tooth that has been causing me problems for actually quite a long time now. I've begun to lose track of the start of the issues with this problem back tooth, but I believe it caused me some basic headache years ago when I discovered that I had got into the habit of 'grinding' at night. This terrible way of dealing with stress (unknowingly) I think introduced problems with old fillings, and led to paying for an expensive root canal later on. Even using the dreaded mouth guard (another term for this is called 'birth control'), I still hadn't quite overcome it. Last year after having more toothache there I saw my dentist who put in a massive filling. It really just about covered most of the tooth itself on the inside area. I was desperate to have this done before my family and I went on vacation to the US last summer. Unfortunately, into the first week of the holiday when I bit down on something with that tooth, I ended up with growing pain and a gum abscess which had to get sorted immediately, and not so cheaply, by a local dentist there. Eventually when I got back to the UK and saw my dentist, she went into a very long technical explanation about this previously root-canalled and now thinly cracked tooth, how important it was to try to save it but if more filling wouldn't last, it would need to come out or have another expensive procedure that would call for specialist treatment, blah blah. At that point in the conversation I couldn't really hear or understand any more. It was as if she was speaking another foreign language. I basically planned to try the other type of filling and if it failed or didn't last, I was happy to have her take the dreaded thing out and be done with the problem.<br />
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So, fast forward now to the next year - present day, when two weeks ago this damn tooth filling chips at the corner on a Saturday, no pain, rush into see her as soon as I can - happens to be on the day of my birthday (yes, as you get to my age, you fear losing all your teeth) -and a patch up does the job, with a reassuring smile that all is okay now. Unfortunately, another week passes and eating a similar type of food as last time (just ordinary chicken thing, not hard or crunchy) and it chips off again, close to the same spot again. Rush in again but have to see another dentist as she's not there and his discouraging look tells me, there's no hope left. The tooth is cracked. There's an infection starting. It's got to come out (confirmed fear of ageing and losing all my teeth). He could have done it then, or I could have seen my dentist the next day, but the next day was my job interview. Hmmm. Scary thoughts were going through my mind. I won't get through the night. I'll wake up with a massive abscess and pain. I'll have a high temperature. I will need to see some straight away and hence, I must withdraw from the job interview as I won't get the job anyway - self-pity, self-pity and more self-pity. <br />
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Well, I got a grip and carried on and as readers know, I did get offered the job, another year older, cracked tooth, self-pity and all. This has meant that I had to wait a whole week before I could see dentist today to get rid of the thing. I am now back home after the lengthy time of the extraction and feel compelled to share the thoughts that have been running through my mind while sitting in the waiting room and then while holding my mouth open and being pulled around and drilled at for at least 30 minutes.<br />
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This tooth and the extraction has become a metaphor for some of my recent post-academic in transition experience. So last year, I resigned from teaching and took up the RA contract. Not quite 'out' of academia, and wondering if the job would turn things around for me a bit, get me into a better academic position to look forward and maybe apply for other academic posts afterwards. The job was fine, it held me over but I wouldn't say it wowed me. In retrospect, I guess I could say it was like patching up the problem tooth for a while. The tooth was never really completely fixed after such a difficult history, but it was fine for the time being. But then a little chip here and another chip there, revealed the bigger problem that never really went away. The crack got worse, started an infection that was only going to get very bad if it wasn't extracted. Thankfully I don't really need to go the expensive crown route as it was at the very back. As she was yanking out as much of the tooth as she could, although she had to break it up and take it out in pieces, she said, reassuringly, 'You won't feel any pain, but you will definitely feel lots of pressure and force'.<br />
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This, I guess is how some of the transition out of academia has felt. At the very beginning when I had difficulty deciding if I should carry on or stop, it was very painful, with lots of tears and anxiety, and maybe I was grinding again too, creating more of a tooth problem! After leaving teaching and doing the other job, I began to really think about other options and read a lot of books and sought advice about career transition possibilities. The painful element of leaving was a bit less intense but it wouldn't say it was emotionally easy during the job-seeking process - lots of self-doubt pressure was there but not constant, at least. The final crack in the tooth happened at the same time as the recent job interview. The extraction that I have now been looking forward to so much for the last week, so I can put this bad tooth history behind me, now coincides with the new job prospect. I'd like to see this final, drastic extraction as a nice metaphor for the removal of many of my post-academic struggles that grew out of years of hard academic work and uncertainty, not to mention, accompanied with the side-effect of teeth grinding! What I do realise though, is that there is a huge gap in my mouth - and it feels bizarre, strangely inviting, to run the tongue across it - it's so hard not to. I think I've accepted that there will always be some kind of post-academic gap in my life too. Academia has taken up a large part of my life and made me who I am today. It will find ways of enticing me to have a look now and again at what's happening in academic life in my PhD field, I'm sure. This will be hard to escape - a couple of good friends are academics in closely related fields, my husband is an academic in another field and I will be working at the university where I did my PhD - how will I ever be able to completely avoid it? The gap will be what it will be. I've decided I shouldn't be too worried about trying to fill it, but see it as something that was part of me and my history but had to be taken out because it didn't serve it's purpose anymore. <br />
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<br />Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-10130181879730692092012-06-28T04:03:00.001-07:002012-06-28T04:03:23.413-07:00Post job offer happinessThis is going to be a quick little snippet. Still getting my head around the reality of being offered a decent job after so much soul searching and job seeking this year. Today I'm feeling pretty good, with a bit of giddiness here and there. I've also had another birthday last week and as with every year at this time, I find I am often reflecting about my life, where I've been, where I am going, and reminding myself of all of the good things I have for which I am so grateful. So, I decided, in one moment of morning giddiness, to snap a couple of shots to record the moment. This pic is the first one I've revealed here (many of us in the post-academic blog community take pseudonyms and don't have pics of ourselves), but I'm feeling today like it's okay to celebrate a new stage in my life.<br />
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As I am another year older I see the grey hairs are multiplying more quickly than ever and they are especially more visible when a certain daylight hits them. Several years ago I made the firm decision that I was not going to invest in any more hair colouring and I was just going to let the hair develop into a new (grey) style. I don't regret the decision but it is very clear that it quite obviously 'ages' me - yes, there is a reason why the hair product industry makes a fortune as it relies so much on our pervasive culture of youth and our anxieties about losing attention. One of the pair of style celebrities here in the UK, 'Susannah' of the 'Trinny and Susannah' pair whose show 'What Not to Wear' hits the heights of popularity a few years ago, made this statement (paraphrase): 'I really don't know what I'd do if I just became invisible and not noticed'. She just couldn't bear the idea of losing her looks or her femininity and she was referring to the invisibility many 'women' experience when they get old. (Funny though, I have spotted a few older men who I am certain add the Grecian formula to their locks but they would never admit to it!) For me, this 'invisibility' experience offers a liberating potential that she just hasn't quite spotted yet. How nice to know that men (and women) will be forced to judge me on things other than my looks as I get older. And how nice to get a point in later life when not giving a fuck any more feels pretty good. In fact, having that attitude can draw another kind of attention that we may not have managed to get when we were younger and more physically desirable. Yay!<br />
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So, I know I could take a few years off if not grey, but fuck it, I really just don't give a shit anymore about this trivia. Another bonus about ageing is that you begin to prioritise the important things and the other stuff doesn't get a look in. I am relieved to finally come to this point in my life. I haven't given up many of the other accoutrements of femininity (and yes, I will totally admit I felt I had to carefully choose which pic to upload!), but this has been a nice start.Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-481792198626750778.post-10232651520251643012012-06-27T02:00:00.000-07:002012-06-27T05:26:56.726-07:00Not quite leaving the Ivory Tower but…<br />
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This post tells a story about trying to leave the Ivory Tower
of academia and managing to achieve this aim to some degree. It’s about getting
out, but still remaining in the space in another capacity.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Well, so much has been happening since my last post and the
previous one that mentions the process of applying for a non-academic job at
the university where I studied for my PhD. If this job spec appeared a year and
a half ago when I was first thinking about getting out of academia I probably wouldn’t
have given it a serious look. The thought of working in a non-teaching role at
the same university where my old department could ‘spot’ me and drill me about
why I gave up on worthy scholarship etc., was just too much to ponder. I wanted
to get as far away from them as possible. This anxiety also arose when I was
contracting teaching for a long time at another local university. I looked at
job openings there regularly (applied for one but didn’t get the job) but always
feared bumping into other academics I knew in my network and then having to
explain everything. <o:p></o:p></div>
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But that was then and this is now and the reality of circumstances,
as well as the wonderful therapeutic nature of ‘time’ perhaps has been helpful
in narrowing down what I am willing to do and what I am not willing to do. The
narrowing list (always in process) isn’t perfect, but it has got more refined
and containable I guess. <o:p></o:p></div>
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So, I think I’ll leave exact details about the job out
(still have fears about being found out through a google search!), but will
indicate a bit. The role involves developing student representation and engagement
in the university with a specific focus on a certain student cohort (of which I
have personal and professional experience!). When I read the spec I was
intrigued to see that it involved both primary and secondary research as part
of this initiative to develop the area. It also includes recruiting and
training, so the teaching background I have is helpful. My earlier post
mentions sending off the application and reveals some of my anxieties around
the health section, not to mention age, so I kind of left things as though it
would not go anywhere. Mentally preparing myself I guess. But last week I did
get invited to interview and candidates were given instructions about what they
had to do to prepare for the ‘task’, which involved quite a lot of creative vision
and organisational thinking. Of course, this meant presentation with Q and A,
and an additional round of a first ‘informal interview’, another ‘task’ and if
candidates passed that, they went through for a ‘formal’ interview. So, here is
where I shall cut to the chase. After the morning tasks I made it through to
the afternoon. I guess I felt pretty positive about how things were going and
there seemed to be positive nods from the panel. There were a few moments where I
thought I might have gone off on a tangent waffle speech but then made focused
attempt to get back. Clarifications – one or two – then back on track and good
nods in sight. I got a phone call in the evening and was told they wanted to
offer me the job. I had decided by that point that I would accept if it
was offered but I’ve had some nagging anxiety (oh dear, readers must see my
patterns of anxieties by now) about working the full-time load. Ideally, I have
wanted to find part-time work but the possibilities for permanent part-time
jobs are so slim. Anyway, the very strange thing is that this prospective
boss/manager then said he’d like to ask me if I would consider the possibility
of working a four day not a five day week, as they see the potential to use
some of the funds to put into a research pot for the development initiatives in
mind (maybe thinking about my response to their ‘task’ that I presented). Well,
what a strange moment indeed. I could hardly contain my enthusiasm. He said, I’m
sure you may want to take a few days to really think about that before you
accept, etc. This was a pretty straight forward moment for me at that point so
I just accepted. <o:p></o:p></div>
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What is really weird about this whole process is this
feeling that it has all happened so quickly, even though, I realise too that
the job-seeking process for me has been a very long one indeed. I am left
this morning reflecting on how my experience of academia at PhD level and
contract teaching has informed my ability to get this job. Has it been helpful?
Absolutely yes, but for a specific range of reasons. In the morning all five candidates waited in the same area for proceedings to start (we were arranged separately in fixed time slots for the
different tasks and informal interview). After a bit of chat on this and
that, what I discovered was that they all had Master degrees - not sure about
one other person but she had higher diploma to teach English as a second
language. The criteria for the role did not specify Masters Level qualification, but it seemed
obvious to me that candidates with at that level found the role
interesting with a lot of potential for growth. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I think my research experience during PhD and then the later short-term, practical paid research projects <span style="background-color: white;"> </span><span style="background-color: white;">I’ve been involved in </span><span style="background-color: white;">(doing fieldwork, interviews) also made me a strong candidate. Of course the
other important aspect is my work experience and knowledge of UK Higher
Education. I think the department could see the value in the background and
gave me a shot to show them what I could offer. I think all of this is very
promising for potential post-academics who may think about pursuing other
professional areas in Higher Education, which can also involve research and
work with students. The pay scale for this role does not equal that of a first
permanent UK Senior Lecturer’s post. I’ve accepted that in starting somewhere
else in a new area this is the way it is, but there is much room for growth and opportunity
to apply for future posts internally. The universities are now advertising many jobs to internal applicants only out of loyalty. So less competition - not
fighting alongside one hundred other well-qualified applicants.</span><br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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Admittedly, I am just feeling a bit overwhelmed by the whole
thing this morning. I worked hard on the
brief and in selling myself for a job spec that was about three pages long.
Will I be able to live up to my claims? Will I have the energy required? These
are questions many candidates and job winners ask themselves I assume. All I
can say for the moment is that with that fear is a also a sense of
newly acquired confidence and pleasure that my efforts paid off and that other
people recognised and valued them. I forgot to mention that during my interview
I was never drilled about why would I dream of leaving teaching/academia. That
territory was framed in the general question, ‘Tell us what has led you to
apply for this job, why now, what kinds of things have brought you to this
point?’ I also haven’t mentioned that the team of people I will be working
with, including a person who holds a parallel position with whom I can work
closely to develop ideas, were all really friendly, warm and welcoming. It’s
all looking good. Aside from having to sort out logistical matters like what to
do with my younger daughter when both my partner and I are out all day working
over some of the school holidays, it’s feeling manageable. I’m going to work
hard to remain sensible about this job, taking it slowly, step by step as a
process. It’s not a fixed contract run so there is time to grow with it. Lots
to think about. I am thinking also that the post-academic bloggers here, by
sharing their job seeking stories and experiences, have really helped me get to
this stage and I want to say a very big thanks to you all for the encouraging blogs
you are writing and for the comments you’ve been leaving here regularly.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In my last post I mentioned my intentions to write about the experience of working in academia with young children in tow. This aim is still on my list. With these new developments it will be interesting to think about how I'll manage in this kind of role with kids. It's nice that my older son who will be sixteen in July, will be less to worry about in that sense (although I have my other worries as he is the risk-taker, accident prone one - see my Easter/Passover post on his skateboarding accident...). Watch this space. So much to think about!</div>Jethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09959071134691263227noreply@blogger.com9