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Recently I've presented a "little literature review" on careers & employability for #PhD students. With @aClearOutlook for @LTUresearchers, and for @sydney_business, as curtain raiser for @thesiswhisperer. I'll share the talk in this thread.
#PhDlife #PhDchat #AcademicChatter
#PhDlife #PhDchat #AcademicChatter
First I spoke about the importance of knowing yourself, drawing in particular on the dialogical self theory, which looks at how people experience multiple identity positions. Monereo and @evaliesa have an excellent intro to DST, applied to ECRs https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2020.1835834
To provide a more details example of how DST can be used to understand competing identity positions, I shared Boncori & Smith 2019, an autoethnographic account of a uni lecturer doing their PhD. It's an exemplar of the value of this kind of reflection. https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2018.1561436
In the interests of brevity, I didn't include this one, but it's another excellent description of narrative and dialogic reflection for PhD / ECR identity construction. It highlights the dynamic metacognitive process involved in reflective thought. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2012.06.006
At this point we paused and headed for small breakout rooms, to discuss our own experience of this idea of the dialogical self. I had a good chat in my room about the voices that express doubt, and how they can wreak havoc if not recognised and managed.
I've written before about my own PhD dialogical self, in this guest post for @thesiswhisperer https://thesiswhisperer.com/2019/10/16/13768/
The next section of the little literature review is about knowing other people. I shared this from @troyheff, showing the kinds of benefits that networks can return, with careers and employment right up there in the list. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2020.1799948
Then I shared this one by @emgermaina @NbanyaSam @SaeedMSaman and @GWevers, focused on networks as enablers of transition from the PhD into employment outside academia. They highlight how crucial "deliberate and conscious initiative" is for networking. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2020.1754783
However, I never promote transactional, self-centred networking. Authenticity and sincerity are key. I believe that if you set out to give more than you get from your community, good things will come to you. So our next breakout room chat focused on what we have offered others.
The next section was about chance events or tipping points & how to create conditions for them to happen. First was this from Kindsiko & Baruch, who draw on the venerable theory of Planned Happenstance, a staple of career development theory and practice. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2019.01.010
Then this on an industry based professional development event, a data science bootcamp, as a "career catalyst". Not so random in this case, but no less crucial as an accelerator of careers and employability development. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103479
Finally, I couldn't neglect @Prof_Alistair 's recent article on serendipity in doctoral research, showing how chance events impact on both the research itself and the researcher's development. Importantly, he notes that it's possible to make luck happen. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2021.1905157
Our final breakout room chat was about these chance events, during which I heard some remarkable stories. Of course, when we unpacked them, sometimes they weren't so random and what seemed like luck was in fact the result of particular decisions and actions.
Which brings us to the end of my little literature review. At the risk of oversimplifying, I wanted the #PhD students to take away three key principles of career development: know yourself, know others in your communities, and don't hide away in your office.
