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Why now is not a good time for standing still…
11 January 2010
By Elizabeth Dodson
I’m not generally one for doom and gloom but I can’t help but feel a little more concerned about job security at the moment. It feels like we are just starting to glimpse the effects of the recession. It was recently announced that HEFCE funding is to be cut by £915 million over three years. Protection of schools, hospitals and the police, mean that other public funding needs to be drastically cut. So higher education is taking a hit and cuts are also expected in transport – which happens to provide much of the research funding for my discipline. I’m sure other disciplines will also be affected by the broader belt tightening of funding provision in a multitude of areas.
Suggestions are flying around within the Times Higher Education comments, of restricting research funding (including PhD studentships) to more well established institutions (predominantly those from the Russell Group and the 1994 Group) and closing or merging some of the struggling post-1992 universities / returning them to polytechnic status. There is much debate to be had on such issues but there is a general consensus that there will not be enough money to go around and the impact of this may vary across different institutions, different departments and different job families.
Arguably, this is not a great time to be an academic researcher! In a world of fixed term contracts, it appears that the chances of contract renewal have just diminished for a lot of people. Job cuts are inevitable which will increase the competition for any new posts that do become available. So now really is the time to be selfish, to think about what makes you particularly employable and to prioritise addressing any weaknesses in your CV.
I am reminded of the story of two men in the wilderness who realise they are being stalked by a lion. The first man starts running and the second shouts after him, “You’ll never outrun a lion”. To this he replies, “I don’t have to, I only need to outrun you”.
I’m certainly not saying that you shouldn’t care about or be considerate of your colleagues, but now really is the time to bolster up your own defences by strengthening your profile. You shouldn’t trample on other people to do it, but this is a particularly important time to focus on visible measures of your expertise and your value to any employer. Whether it’s presenting at a high profile conference, completing that seminal paper or taking on an additional responsibility, most researchers have something they need to make time for.
For me personally, it’s publications and external measures of esteem. So over the next few months I will be focused on completing reports/papers and making sure I get first author wherever I have done the bulk of the work. I will also be prioritising the work I do with external organisations - even if I have to sacrifice a little annual leave to attend meetings that are more beneficial to me than to my department. Having focused goals will sometimes mean I have to say no to some of the many other things I may get asked to do, but in the long run it is in my employer’s interests to have well developed staff as we are their greatest commodities’ – especially when it comes to securing shiny new funding…
Hannah Dee12 January 2010 at 09:16 AM
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I think those of us on fixed-term contracts have more than a little right to be nervous right now! I checked the front page on Guardian Online with my morning coffee to find yet another tale of the UK university system going into meltdown. I find myself asking the perennial questions... Will more conference papers improve my CV enough? Should I concentrate on journals? Will working late and tapping away at the weekends really help? Have I got enough "extra-curricular" stuff, or have I got too much? Should I try to become more focused? Or would I be better becoming more generalist? I've heard two stories from different universities where a single lectureship advert received more than 70 applicants. In this climate, standing out from the crowd isn't necessary to win the perfect job, it's necessary to win ANY job. So how do we do this? But... If we all have to run faster than our peers to escape the lion I'm silly asking these questions here. Nobody's going to share the answers on a public website.
Elizabeth Dodson12 January 2010 at 03:20 PM
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These are indeed very difficult questions to answer and there is no generic best response as we each need to demonstrate different types of expertise for the specific roles we do now, and then have to predict the expectations of future employers too! It truly is a minefield but the point is that there is no benefit in doing nothing but worry. At least by taking a proactive stance we can hope to improve our chances of continued employment. In choosing my own priorities, I have found it particularly useful to sign up to a mentoring scheme where a more senior member of staff from another department has taken an independent view of my cv and helped me to shape and follow a specific set of development goals. Of course this by no means guarantees my current position but hopefully it improves my overall employability. To go back to the analogy, it may feel like there are too many people in the race, but in my experience, there are many people who actually don’t bother running…
Sarah Davies13 January 2010 at 01:09 AM
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This isn't quite a defence of not running, but I do think it's also helpful to have a bit of a que sera sera attitude. However well prepared we are, many application processes - whether for jobs or grants - are simply a lottery. If something doesn't work out, I don't think we should beat ourselves up too much, or assume that if we'd 'done' more we wouldn't have missed out...
Lucy Rackliff13 January 2010 at 10:36 AM
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I wonder what the reward is for people who do tap away endlessly at weekends and into the evening? I've seen people get promoted without even appearing to do the bare minimum, let alone all the extras that the rest of us worry about (publications, enterprise, teaching, being a "good citizen" of the academy etc etc) My contract says that I should expect to do 37.5 hours a week, but be prepared to do extra when required. However, it also says that should I find myself regularly doing fewer or more than this I should bring it to the attention of my line manager, who will be expected to address it. So, my philisophy is that I do the best I can for my institution without compromising my right to quality time with my family. Everything I take on over and above what I agreed to when I accepted the job goes through my "what's in it for me" filter. If universities don't cost work properly or aren't prepared to adequately resource the things they claim are important to them then I'm not going to pick up the shortfall. Don't get me wrong - I work hard, & I don't think there are many times when what's good for me and what's good for my department don't coincide. I am just absolutely clear that when I'm doing it for them, I'll do it on their time thank you! I think Liz's comment about chosing your own priorities is spot on. I've seen enough inconsistency & unfairness across a number of different universities to have concluded that I should be absolutely clear in my head about what I do & why I do it. Of course, the difficulty comes when you can see personal advantage in every one of the 15 bits of work you've been asked to do over the next 5 days. That's when you need to look at which ones will be most beneficial TO YOU, and let some other mug do the rest! If you can be utterly ruthless about these things, whilst maintaining a veneer of being terribly cooperative, willing and competent, so much the better!
Elizabeth Dodson13 January 2010 at 10:41 AM
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Hi Sarah. I agree with everything you said there as trying to improve your employability provides no guarantees and it's important not to get into self-blame when things don't go quite how we'd hoped. There is a lot to be said for a bit of que sera sera. Personally I find it easier to take that attitude when I already feel that I've done the best I can with the resources I've got. I cannot be certain that there will still be funding for my specific job in 6 months time as it all depends on the uncertainty of which future projects will be funded and what expertise they need to run - such is the nature of academic research. In this situation I see two options. The first is that I keep my head down and hope for the best. The second is that I try to build on the expertise that I believe will be needed and make myself as visible as possible (including being involved in the whole proposal writing process). I'm not going to tie myself in knots over whether I'm focusing on the most important things, I'm just doing what feels right for me at this time. If nothing else, knowing that each month I have that bit more to offer improves my confidence (as well as my cv). These are very uncertain times and I won't be beating myself up over whether I've done enough, but I feel happier knowing that at least I've done something.
Elizabeth Dodson13 January 2010 at 11:28 AM
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Excellent philosophy Lucy that I couldn't have put better myself - doing the best you can without compromising the right to quality time with your family. Because focusing on what you need to achieve to improve your profile (in the way that YOU feel it needs to improve), doesn't mean sacrificing endless evenings and weekends. It's more about choosing your priorities carefully and trying to protect them - by seeking opportunities that fit with your development needs and being at least a little bit ruthless about saying no to some of the other things that you then don't have time for.
Matthew Salois15 January 2010 at 08:49 PM
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In my field the name of the game is publications (like in many other fields as well); conference presentations play a second-tier role. Unfortunately, the time lag from final to review to publication (big finger cross here) can extend well over a year, even two or more. Further, I am finding in interview that employers want to see a record of having secured funding from external agencies. Employers not only want to see experience in grant writing, but actual success in obtaining such funds. I find this all completely over the top for junior candidates. How can post-docs and other contract research staff expect to achieve the experience most universities want for supposedly "entry level" lectureships?
Mashhuda Glencross27 January 2010 at 12:20 AM
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Over the past 5 years, I have personally worked long hours, continued working despite being diagnosed with cancer, achieved top international journal publications in my areas, been invited to top international laboratories to give talks, and accumulated several esteem indicators. I believed I needed to do all these things to secure my job and my career. Now, I have international credibility but I find myself with a "permanent post" and on redeployment. I am being assigned jobs outside my area of expertise, because they happen to have funding associated. Management make very clear to me that they believe I am at risk of losing my "permanent" job due to lack of funds. I have applied for fellowships that have been rejected on the basis that I have not shown I can secure research funds. Research council regulations mean that I am not eligible to apply for research funds in my own right, so I have no way to be formally recognised for the funds that I have in fact managed to secure. Indeed, we can all try to do our best to improve our chances. Whether or not we succeed though may not be so much about outrunning the others, than having the support of the right people. Not what you know sadly, but who you know.
Hannah Dee27 January 2010 at 08:27 AM
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Dear Meshuda - I don't know what to say to that, other than good luck. The way employers want evidence that we can secure funding before they will consider us for a post which enables us to apply for funding is a catch 22 situation and it stinks. I've won a couple of small grants - less than 5k, one for teaching development and one for travel. Have you applied for anything like that? Personally, I hope show that I have some ability to attract money, but it's not what the profs are really looking for and in the current climate there are so many of us fighting for so few permanent posts I suspect it won't be enough.