Research and Research Careers

Published 11 September 07 01:55 PM

Today - Tuesday - has been filled with information on developing a careers in research.

The logical place to start is Robyn Owens' talk on 'Developing and Maintaining a Research Degree' which took an abstract and reflective approach to the topic. My summary is going to be radically inadequate in capturing what was a fascinating and informative account, so I'd urge people to listen to the Lectopia recording when it goes online later this week or early next week. However, here the summary goes:

3 Aspects in Developing a Research Career

  1. Strength in research methods: knowing your discipline deeply and broadly, and having a high level of skill in the tasks required in your discipline of research
  2. Communication: both formal and informal, written and oral. Also being able to understand community needs and communicate how your research meets those needs.
  3. Professionalism: understanding the framework in which you will work - universities, government, funding agencies - and appropriate behaviour in terms of things like ethics and team work. 

3 Phases in Research Careers

  1. Early (PhD + 5yrs). Note special funding and opportunities available to Early Career Researchers. Often characterised by short-term jobs and moving around.
  2. Middle. Need to build a support structure and research team (including having students/taking on a supervisorial role). Chances to think about bigger scale projects at a higher level of abstraction.
  3. Later. Leadership, policy and administrative roles. Review phase - thinking about your body of work and trace in the discipline field. 

Know Thyself

  • Splitter (details, analysis) or Clumper (synthesis, creative)?
  • Risk taker (creative, potential failures) or Risk Adverse (fewer mistakes, less creative)?
  • Social or Solo operator? 

Know how you work, learn how to work with people who have different or opposing styles. 

8 Tips for a Long Life as a Career Researcher

  1. Publish 
  2. Get a reputation for quality (don't go for quantity over quality). Think about signifiers of quality (high impact journals, citations, strategic co-authorship, winning grants, awards, prizes).
  3. Be humble
  4. Be confident
  5. Build networks
  6. Build a team and think about your lineage in the area
  7. Be a global citizen
  8. Have respect for others 
by Karen.Hall
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Comments

# sky said on September 11, 2007 5:14 PM:

It's useful advice, but I do feel a little like curling up in a ball and whimpering when I think about it.

# Susan Hawes said on September 12, 2007 8:58 AM:

They are all good qualifications to building a research career, especially publications, but in Australia the biggest influence is luck! As there is too little funding to support the many applicants, most of who are very well qualified - it isn't skills, publications or supervisory roles that prempt a research career. Last year, only 20% of medical researchers who applied for funding to the NHMRC were successful. However, nearly 60-70% of grants were assessed as worthy of being funded. The worst scenario is to spend years building a research career becoming a middle-staged researcher and then find it difficult to sustain funding. What do you do then? The situation in Australia is really a travesty with such waste of resources and skills.

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About Karen.Hall

I've recently submitted my PhD thesis, titled 'Discovering the Lost Race Story: Writing Science Fiction, Writing Temporality', for examination. In the meantime, I'm teaching in the discipline of Communication Studies at UWA and starting a new project on medievalism and media through a Whitfeld Fellowship.