I was really excited when I was invited to participate in the Life after a PhD Q&A here on the Guardian Higher Education Network back in April. I had just entered life post-PhD; I completed my PhD in geography at King's College London in 2010. It wasn't long into the panel when I realised I was asking more questions than I was providing answers.
I had always wanted to do a PhD since I knew what one was. According to my mum this was from the age of about five. By the time I finished I knew I wanted to stay in academia, so my focus had been on the traditional on post-doc research positions and lectureships and the development of publications.
I've had interviews, I've been a close second on a number of occasions, received good feedback and been told by my careers adviser that I was doing everything right. This is actually incredibly frustrating. If I was told I was doing something wrong there would be something specific I could change.
About half way through the panel discussion, I felt like giving up and going off to make a cup of tea and procrastinate until Deal or No Deal started. I am glad I didn't though, as participating in the Q&A offered me a chance to reflect and evaluate what I wanted to do and why and enabled me to begin to broaden my post-PhD strategy.
The Q&A highlighted a number of areas and ideas which had the potential for enhancing your post-PhD experience. These included creating an online presence, developing your own projects, networking and so on. All of which I had been involved with to a greater or lesser extent pre-viva and post-completion – and issues that I hope to cover in subsequent blogs.
I strongly believe that early-career researchers require a platform on which they can communicate their research and establish their brand, but this is where my problem lay; what was my brand. Post-PhD I had developed my own blog, The life and times of an aspiring academic. I'd spent years being asked "how is your thesis?", rather than "how are you?", which was incredibly annoying at times. The purpose of the blog is to present my work as a part of me, not the whole of me.
Beyond that I have been actively involved with other, more academic resources. I am the managing editor of PhD2Published – publishing advice for first timers – I am also the supervision correspondent for The Thesis Whisperer. Both positions came from being noticed online and are enhancing my profile, enabling me to integrate social media into traditional academic practices, publishing and developing supervision techniques.
They have also given me a number of platforms to discuss and develop my research communication skills and share my experiences of the research process, particularly my work on the integration of social media applications in academic research and researcher development.
Initially I was concerned that my online activity, while creating opportunities for me to speak and develop aspects of my work, was focused on methods such as the use of social media in conducting research and not the big conceptual issues associated with international environmental politics, the subject of my thesis.
This made me slightly nervous of what was happening, as I felt I was doing my PhD a disservice by focusing on only one small element. I felt uneasy that all the interest was in social media. Deep down I love doing research. That's why I did a PhD in the first place. The process of how we undertake research is both important and fascinating. Developments in social media mean we, as researchers, are being offered new and constantly evolving ways to find, develop and disseminate information. If I can contribute to this area in the early stages then I will have achieved one of my goals.
What participating in the panel taught me is that this is the wrong attitude. In order to develop my career I need to look at my thesis as the sum of many parts. Having made innovative developments in one area I need to build on them. I now know that to achieve my goal, to secure that academic position, I need to explore and exploit the full range of skills and abilities gained from my PhD experience. I hope that as this blog unfolds I will be able to look at some of the key issues concerning early-career researchers providing a resource for future graduates.
Dr Sarah-Louise Quinnell is a social scientist, PhD graduate and managing editor of the site PhD2Published. She tweets as @sarahthesheepu.
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