By all means ‘get ahead’. But don’t be a dick, yeah?

In ‘A Machiavellian guide to getting ahead in academia’ (published in THES on 21 Dec. 2017). Rogier Creemers provides a number of suggestions for navigating the post-PhD world. There are moments of truth in this – it is really tough both getting a post-PhD academic job AND once in that job the pressures can be immense. There will obviously be different experiences based on your discipline. However, across this there will be a wide range of demands on your time. Often these demands will pull you in opposite directions. Publishing for most is what will help you into the next job and grant applications will weight on your mind (either to pay your salary or enhance your CV). But teaching and teaching prep. (if you’re not in a research-only post) will take up the bulk of your time. And if you’re in a research-only job, you’re most likely going to be working most if not all of the time on someone else’s agenda rather than your own. This all, of course, is not to factor in ‘life’ – family, dependents, partners, pets, etc. etc. etc.. There are also, unfortunately, some academic who are less than nice. And academia may turn out to not be for everyone and, in some cases, it very much is a good thing to have an exit strategy.
 
I was left with a distinct feeling of sadness, though, as I read through the advice Creemers offers in response to this given the bleak and egoist picture it portrays of both academia and of what is needed to succeed within it. This may be a product of having had a very different experience of post-PhD early career life. This might be a product of a different national or disciplinary context. I may have just been lucky with the jobs I’ve had and the departments I’ve found myself in. Or, it may just be a product of the Christmas season being upon us. But as a rejoinder, I’d like to suggest a more positive take …:  
 

• Value your peers

Yes, it’s important to know what you want and to listen to advice from those in the know. This is very good advice. The best advice I got at the start of my career was from such a notable figure in my discipline (see below). But it is also important to develop a network of peers and to maintain the links that you have (hopefully) built up with those you did your PhD around. Don’t just suck up to those you deem more important and try to ride their coat tails. Mentors can be great. But such a network of peers, more so than ‘the great and the good’, will more likely sustain you throughout your career. Recognize that, give time to them, and work together. It’s likely that these ‘lesser’ figures are the ones that you will be able to turn to to bitch, whinge, complain, as well as seek consolation from and reassurance. They are, after all, going through much of what you are going through. Recognize that, develop a community of support rather than competition, help each other succeed (or manage failure).
 
 

• Be driven by interest and temper that with pragmatism

It is possible to be focused without being ‘blinkered’. Your standard answer should not be ‘no’ to invitations to do things – to write chapters, review articles, to present etc.. Rather, you should think carefully about what you’re asked to do and whether you want to do it or not and whether you can do it or not. If it immediately looks interesting, think pragmatically: how are you placed with your probation / tenure criteria? Does the request work in that context or not? Equally, how does it relate to things like REF, TEF or your national equivalent, if they’re significant to your contract. If no, you may have to say no to ensure imminent future employment / employability. But also, think about whether it is intellectually stimulating or not? Does it help your name circulate where it might not have so far? Will it help you as a stepping stone to something else? Will it give you the chance to work with someone interesting? Can you use it to road test an idea?
 
It’s likely that you’re going to have something like 35-40 years of work ahead of you when you get out of the PhD. Thinking in terms of what’s REFable etc only and so solely writing journal articles and grant applications is going to get pretty dull pretty quick. So, vary what you do, gain satisfaction out of pursuing what’s interesting, be part of your academic community and embody the sort of practice that you would like to see in others. In all likelihood, so long as there is a bit of self-awareness and pragmatism mixed in (i.e. ticking the big boxes first), you’ll be fine.
 
Also on this, the idea that once you’ve got a ‘proper job’ you’ll have more time for various requests is, well, a bit naive; it’s more likely the case that such requests will accelerate along with the expectations your employer has of you. So, you need to develop a more balanced / heathy / rounded approach from the start if you’re going to do this for 35-40 years.
 
 

• Recognize collegiality and act accordingly

There are ‘dicks’ out there who may well try to take advantage of early career staff or use them in some way to advance their own cause. We’ve all seen the person at a conference who puts their hand up and, with a horrible question to a PhD student, announces to those collected there ‘Yes, I’m the biggest dick in the room’. I’ve had that happen to me and it wasn’t nice. There are also, on occasion, ‘colleagues’ who appear Teflon coated, who make a mess for those around them, or drop balls that you end up catching. However, there are also a lot of very well meaning, very nice, very collegiate folk out there who will try to work with you and support the development of your career if you seem worth investing in (i.e. if you’re enthusiastic, hard working, well-meaning etc). Sometimes they are overt mentor figures who’ll take you under their wing. There are, though, many more who’ll just be collegiate people who contribute to this in much more subtle ways.  
 
The advice I mentioned above, received from an eminent figure, was delivered on the news I’d got a short-term lectureship. It was simply: ‘make yourself indispensable’. That might go against any kind of blinkered egoism that Creemers advocates. But there’s something in that – it got a lot of people on my side early on who wanted me to succeed. It meant that they didn’t want to lose me at the end of the contract I was on and tried to stop that happening. It meant one or two wrote me a nice reference. They also identified possible collaborations and invited me to be involved in things. They got back in touch when jobs subsequently came up and encountered me to apply. They read drafts of papers for me. They read drafts of grant applications for me. I reciprocated. Generally, it got a bunch of people on my side.
 
Yes, some are dicks and will try to take advantage. But in many cases, if you’ve set a positive tone / positioned yourself as a valuable colleague, it is more likely that others will try to to include and involve you, help you to get the chance to do something interesting or that you’ve not had the chance to do. It could be something as simple as someone in your department asking you to give a guest lecture on your specialism on their module as a break from the generic stuff you’ve been lumped with (I’m looking at you, methods modules out there). It might be a hand-me-down invitation to write something that will probably do more for your name circulating than theirs. It might be to be involved in a supervision committee as a 3rd or 4th supervisor. These are all small things that won’t be headline points on your CV. They rarely add up to REF-able publications or pounds and pence. But they’re a part of what being an academic is. So, by all means be wary, watch out for dicks, heed when others flag such dicks up for you, but don’t assume the worst of every invitation or request that a) isn’t from a ‘superstar’ and b) isn’t about a fairly myopic aspect of being an academic. Some of the time, at least, your colleagues will be trying to be collegiate and something interesting looking is just that!
 

• Be Nice!

The best concluding advice I can think of, then, is: just be nice! Or, to quote the Last Leg, ‘Don’t be a dick’. Creemers suggests that “Being a nice person … is secondary to not getting shafted”. This is probably the worst advice that I have seen in any early career advice context. Quite simply, not everyone is going to be out to get you. Not everyone immediately sees early career academics as ripe for the ‘shafting’. I’d go as far as to say most aren’t out to shaft you. However, if you act like a dick to everyone you’ll get treated like one. And if we all act like dicks, then we’ll all be pretty much shafted, won’t we? It is possible to balance the pressures you’ll experience (to produce, to teach, not to mention all the life ‘stuff’ you’ll be dealing with). It won’t be easy and you need to be careful in how you navigate this. It may also be the case that you need support through that from those around you; from colleagues, broader networks, etc. That’s part of being in an academic community. So, be a positive part of it.