The job market in academia has been precarious for decades now. Succeeding at climbing the academic ranks can feel like trying to win the lottery. Researchers are often told to ‘take charge’ of their career, but what does that mean in practice?It’s easy to just be reactive to the job market: if you are talented, you will often just be offered jobs in academia. However, most of these opportunities will be short term contracts, which offer no ongoing security. Just taking the next job that’s offered is low effort, and does pay the rent, but long term you may find yourself frustrated by your choices – and under-paid. Hoping it will get better is not a strategy.Come along to this day long workshop with Professor Inger Mewburn (@thesiswhisperer) who has been studying post-PhD employment for the last 10 years.We will explore the size and extent of the job market for your research skills inside and outside academia, and the pros and cons of each type of work. We will then learn what research on academic jobs tells us about the skill set you need to thrive in the long term (which might surprise you), and what non academic versions of yourself might look like. Then we will take a hard look at AI and what this may do to the job market overall, especially for people with higher degrees.Finally we will turn our minds to developing some personalised career building strategies, which will help you charge of your work life and start to ‘make your own luck’.

About the speaker

Professor Inger Mewburn (better known as @Thesiswhisperer on the internet) was born on Nuenonne country, which is now known as Tasmania, Australia (always was, always will be, Aboriginal land). She has a background as a designer and a researcher, which was nurtured at the University of Melbourne and RMIT University.

Since 2006, she has worked exclusively with PhD students and early career academics, helping them finish complex research projects with (very) demanding stakeholders. She’s passionate about people reaching their potential as researchers and helping create a kinder, more inclusive academy.
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Inger is the Director of Researcher Development at The Australian National University where she oversees professional development workshops and programs for all ANU researchers. Aside from creating new posts on the Thesis Whisperer blog, she writes scholarly papers, books and book chapters about research education, with a special interest in post-PhD employability. She is a co-creator of the PostAc app and co-hosts a regular podcast called ‘On the Reg’ with Dr Jason Downs.

You find out more via her Linkedin profile, Amazon author page, or on Wikipedia. You can view her publications and books on the Thesis Whisperer About page. A full list of her scholarly work is available via her Google Scholar page or OrcidID.

To find Inger on the socials, search @Thesiswhisperer on all major channels (except X).