#postphd

I have the good fortune to be able to spend time with lots of graduate students and early career researchers (and I am an ECR myself). I feel like there are some common themes to some of the conversation I have with people, and I wanted to draw some of those themes into one place.

Going through the PhD and navigating postdoc life is different for everyone, and different bits of what I’ve written below will make sense to different people at different times. This makes some of the things I say a little contradictory. Academia isn’t the easiest to stay in, and I know that at some times there will be systemic reasons that people might have problems with some of this advice, or it won’t be appropriate, but these are things I feel like I say to people a lot.

Attend the seminars

If your department has seminars, go. Even when it’s on topics that aren’t immediately relevant to your interests. It helps broaden your experience, keeps you up to date with what others are working on, and at the very worst, helps to remind you why there are some areas of linguistics that aren’t your jam. It’s a low effort way to be a professional.

Have a question ready

If you go to any seminar, have a question ready - even if you don’t end up asking it. This helps you practice your critical thinking, particularly in areas you aren’t well-versed in, shows your willingness to learn, and means that you have practice for when it’s really important, e.g. attending conferences, job interviews or surviving your own defence/viva/completion talk. Also, giving a talk and having no questions is always an awkward experience, so think of it as paying things forward.

Administrative staff are humans

Universities sometimes feel like they just like generating paperwork to distract you from research. Don’t forget that the people who make the university run are the professional staff - they’re often more qualified than you are, and have a much better grasp on how the system works. Whatever bureaucratic title they get in your institution, treat them with respect - and not just because they might help you at some point - because they’re humans and being nice to other humans you work with is a good thing to do.

Use social media

Even at a moderately-sized conference these days, there’s a second conversation happening on Twitter, and it’s amazing. Since moving to Europe, I’ve gone to conferences in the UK, Europe and the USA where I’ve not met people before, and been able to meet up with linguists who I know from Twitter. It can be a great way to talk directly with academics you may not get to meet in real life, or who are quite senior, if you follow some basic politenesses (related: @allthingslinguistic​ post with excellent advice about Twitter/live tweeting).

Don’t confuse social media with work

I love the linguist community on Twitter, and I regularly pop up there, but that doesn’t mean it’s part of my job. Don’t let social media distract you from the task at hand, use an internet blocker if you need to get that thesis chapter or journal article done (I use SelfControl or RescueTime). And don’t confuse people being upbeat on social media with them doing better at academia life than you are - remember we all get to curate our best self for the rest of the world to see.

Volunteer for things

I am (no surprise) a participator. Getting involved in whatever is happening in my department or city has led to some great stuff that I didn’t think about at the start. It allows you to sample a range of skills and ideas that you might not otherwise come across. Resume building is a thing too, but that’s more a nice side effect, if you’re only doing something to build your CV then maybe you’re not building the CV for the job you really want?

Don’t work for free

During your PhD, you’ll want to volunteer for things, but as you get a firmer idea of what you’re doing, and what you’re interested in (see below), it’s ok to become more discriminating. It’s taken a while, but unless I can see a clear benefit to me, I don’t have to say ‘yes’ to everything that comes along. Sometimes the benefit is not financial - I read the work of colleagues who I know I will benefit from sending work to in the future - but it’s ok to step away from doing things for ‘experience’, and that time can come sooner than later. If you’re an opportunity fiend like me, get yourself a couple of people who you can use to talk you down from signing up for another great project when you’ve already got enough to do.

Know your interests

This one doesn’t necessarily come easily, if you’re like me and interested in all the things. Knowing that you’re specifically interested in 3 or 4 things makes it easier to assess opportunities, jobs and other things. For example, I’m interested in evidentiality, gesture, Tibeto-Burman and data management. A project has to hit at least a couple of those for me to consider it. It took me a while to clearly articulate such a simple list to myself, and I don’t imagine it will stay that way forever, but it’s a good tool for me at the moment. 

Working with the British Council, France and the French Ministry of National Education for their cross-cultural project, Science in Schools. At one particular school a teacher commented on how students would often pass the iPads between themselves, offering advice, swapping tips and helping those that had fallen behind. We agreed that this might be theorised as nomadic learning. A local television item on France 3 covering the workshops even defined my role as a ‘specialist in nomadic technologies’ [1]. A future implication of this research might be to explore the phenomenon of nomadic learning, and its practical application for media literacy in schools by considering mobile media as a creative resource.