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Contract end looming...
27 April 2010
By Chris Thomson
It’s that time of the year again, the sun is back and I’m in a good mood, but it’s not long until my contract ends. Last week we went through the formal University procedure to notify me that my days were numbered, and I’m not the redeployment list waiting to see if I get lucky and an appropriate job becomes available before I’m made redundant. Fortunately it’s not all bad news last week I also heard that a joint paper had been accepted in a decent 3* journal (my first good journal publication – I started my PhD in 2002 so it has been a while coming). I also really feel like I need a break, and with the help of my wife can afford to be job hunting for a while. This last year has been really busy, fun, but ultimately tiring. Like many researchers I’m left with lots of ideas, but only limited time of my own to pursue them in any depth.
I’ve also certainly reached a time of transition in my employment. I’m feeling more settled than ever where I am living, and with my wife feeling secure in her permanent contract at an industrial firm, there is little inclination for us to move unless I can secure a permanent contract myself. Yes, I can earn more than her, but it’s not worth much if I can’t stay in employment. A lectureship is currently looking unlikely as my research has firmly placed me in the wrong department – I’ve been doing social science type research in computer science, so I lack the subject knowledge for social science type posts and the research experience for computer science posts (in most departments at least), a sticky problem.
So where next? Well I still enjoy research and the potential for short interesting contracts appeals – if I can find them in the right geographic area. I’ve found in the last year that I have been able to become more focused in getting papers out over short time spans. However turning those into journal papers remains challenging. I also feel I need more security, but not necessarily in terms of a permanent contract, part time contracts are what appeals right now, because in theory I could get them staggered so there is less chance of the full stop that is approaching. That leads me to a question, given that I have never seen a part time research post advertised, what do you think the reaction of an employer would be to me asking if they would consider splitting the post into two 50% parts – do you think they could fill the other part?
Simon Smith28 April 2010 at 04:23 PM
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It's always worth trying, but inevitably you will compromise your chances slightly. They are obliged to try to 'fill the other part'. Whether they can is a different matter! I work part-time for health reasons, so it's a situation I've faced repeatedly. I've always found employers willing to try and accommodate my wishes, but at the same time I think I lost out on one or two jobs. A common enough scenario is that there are two equally appointable candidates, one wants to work part-time, the other full-time, so they ask the latter if he or she is willing to job-share. If yes, then great, but if no, you can imagine what they will do! If you're the stand-out candidate, however, they will usually find a way. I had one job where the PI actually put in extra hours to suit me (for which I still feel a bit guilty!). One line in your post had me nodding in agreement: "I’m left with lots of ideas, but only limited time of my own to pursue them in any depth". I've also found that breaks between posts, voluntary or otherwise, are useful for developing ideas that have been on the back-burner for a while. In fact whether people have career breaks or not, I suspect there's an awful lot of unpaid research going on out there!
Andy Humphrey14 May 2010 at 01:36 PM
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Chris: it strikes me that with your skills, you might make a very good freelance writer. Perhaps have a look at journals in your field as well as some broad-market titles and see if any of them have opportunities, either for staff writers or freelance submissions... it's a job you could probably do from home and it needn't take up every working hour. I do a bit of this when other commitments allow, and find it very rewarding. On the subject of part-time researchers, there are a few of us out there. I was redeployed onto a part-time post last October (I've blogged about it elsewhere on this site). The post wasn't originally intended as a part-time one, though. Basically, the colleague who was paid on this research grant emigrated leaving 6 months' worth of full-time funding; and rather than advertise it as a 6-month post, it was re-framed as a 12-month part-time post. There were a lot of bureaucratic hoops that my boss had to jump through with the university and the funding body, though - I guess that's the reason we don't see more posts like this advertised.
Matthew Salois15 May 2010 at 01:01 PM
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Your predicament certainly sounds challenging, Chris. Ultimately, my gut feeling is that it cannot hurt to ask. Especially if you are willing either to accept the post if they can only offer it full-time, or walk away if they cannot accommodate you, then you lose nothing by inquiring. However, like Andy, I also feel that unless the post is offered part-time that any employer would be unlikely to split a post into two, for a variety of reasons. Not least of which is that even in order to get a job posted on an employment website, a university department has to get the position approved by HR. But on the other hand, since two part-time employees are generally cheaper to employ than one full-time employee, perhaps many universities will be more willing to entertain the notion of dividing a job. And since there seems to be an excess supply of researchers compared to the availability of posts, then maybe the current economic climate would facilitate finding the second part-time worker. I do hope you find either way what you are looking for.
Chris Thomson17 May 2010 at 08:29 AM
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Thanks for the various bits of advice, I'm currently on a locally run Vitae Broadening Horizons course (it runs here over 4 weeks, and 4 afternoons) so that's helping me to think about this too.