It’s like reading about my own ryde…
Hi Noemi,
Your story has so many echoes of my own. I’m in the final year of my PhD, hoping for some sort of a career in research - academic, ideally - but increasingly realising that these opportunities are few and far between and, as a result, hugely competitive. I’ve packed so much into my years of postgraduate study - publishing papers, appearing at conferences, putting on workshops - as well as research-related work outside but allied to academia, that I’d like to think I’m pretty darn employable. But that’s no good if the opportunities in my field just aren’t there - and that’s more the root of my anxiety. The fact that, with the best will in the world, I can’t make a funding body earmark a load of money for the kind of projects I want to do. So, I’m trying to learn to make peace with the fact that these things are somewhat in the hands of fate.
In the meantime, since (financial) security is a pretty big consideration, I’m opening my mind to other careers that might bring satisfaction in other ways - that use skills that I developed between my undergraduate and postgraduate years and that have mostly lain dormant since. I’m about to head to a careers fair (run by people I used to work for - in fact, in 2004 I was running this event!), armed with a stack of business cards to go and find out about the world of publishing. Maybe I’ll decide publishing isn’t for me. But maybe I’ll get talking to someone who offers a snippet of advice that opens a door to an opportunity I would never have thought of.
From one social researcher to another, I wish you all the very best on your ryde. 