Leigh’s Five Things to Listen to, Watch, Read, Sign Up To and Do (October)
It’s the time of year where everything is kicking off. You’ve just returned from research/catching up/marking resubmissions and hopefully having some holiday. Everything is starting again and we head happily off into a new academic year. I love this time of year, it’s full of hope, the campus looks as good as it can do (unless you hold graduations on your campus) and I’m catching up with people I’ve not seen for a while. However, we’re also looking to fill vacancies that occurred over the summer, filling gaps with, usually excellent, part time teaching staff and trying to work out personal tutoring and wellbeing….and sometimes I feel slightly envious of those who chose to move to new organisations, because they avoid most of this.
Traditionally, our sector sees the greatest movement of staff over the summer as people teach out the academic year. This also used to be when universities focused their recruitment exercises. However, increasingly recruitment is ongoing activity, with organisations looking to recruit throughout the year and with a global market, summer is no longer a key point in the recruitment cycle.
So this month’s Things To LWRSUD is all about how to be ‘job ready’. I’ve missed some potential opportunities because I started to look in March assuming a summer recruitment exercise. Get your CVS ready, choose the outfit you might wear and practice talking about your strengths (yes I know this is hard). Being job ready isn’t just about spring or summer.
Listen: Get that job BBC Sounds
This is a series that will guide you through the trials and tribulations of job hunting. Made up of 10 separate podcasts, (the 1st one is probably of less value) it takes you through the key things related to looking for a job. It’s obvs a bit generic but it really does make sense. I did find the music quite irritating – but some things are worth putting up with.
Watch: Looking for a job? Highlight your ability, not your experience Ted Talks
Bear with me, this is also very generic and might not seem very obviously relevant, but actually very few of us hold jobs that line up directly with our past experiences or what we studied. This TED talk by Jason Shen focuses on human potential and how job seekers can make themselves more attractive -- and why employers should look for ability over credential. TBF more and more universities are focusing on this and asking people what they have done.
Read: Getting an academic job Prospects
This is aimed a PhD students but having had a look at it, there are loads of really good points that are applicable to academics, but particularly early career academics. Check out the academic CV section – the structure is sensible and appeals to me as an employer. There’s also excellent advice on covering letters – often the hardest thing to write. And share it with your colleagues and PhD students!
Sign up to: Jobs.ac.uk/timeshighereducation.com/ jobs.theguardian.com
As a sector, we’re pretty good at advertising opportunities: Jobs.ac.uk, the Times and the Guardian, and HE recruitment agencies are worth checking out – and once you’ve worked out how to refine your search, sign up to alerts. But TBF, I never trust the alert and check out the website regularly.
Do: Make sure your CV is up to date.
In a blog about interim work, I sang the praises of CV writing services to make sure you were selling yourself as well as you could do (you can find these via Google). But more importantly, always add whatever you have done, particularly externally, to your CV as a matter of course. Trying to remember the number of conference presentations you have made when applying to a deadline is stressful. Stay on top of it and add everything – you can always remove things.