An Update on Job Hunting

Okay, world. I said I’d talk about the job situation eventually, and now feels like an especially appropriate time to post my thoughts on this given that I have spent the last few days spiralling into the depths of despair. (Not really, but I’ll use any excuse to quote Anne of Green Gables.)

The past few months have been a struggle. Since finishing my PhD, I’ve scrambled to finish papers while I still have library access, have been teaching my class (I’m lucky that my students are all great), have done some research support/translation work, and have been applying for a boatload of academic jobs, mostly in the UK. Some jobs reject me straight-out because I don’t have UK citizenship. This sucks, but I get it. Others send rejection emails a few weeks/months later. Cool. Others don’t send anything at all. Did my application even go through? I guess we’ll never know.

And then there are the interviews. I’m good in interviews. Heck, I even enjoy them. One interview I did was hilariously bad (saving that story for my memoirs), but I have absolutely nailed the others. I know that I have nailed them because the feedback I get in my rejection always assures me in no uncertain terms how ‘very appointable’ I was. I’ve since learned that I lost one of those jobs because they didn’t wanna sponsor my visa. Other times, someone else has had more subject expertise. Other times, eh. No idea.

I get that the academic job market is tough. We’ve all heard the horror stories. However, I am finding it even tougher with an international passport. I have gotten so close, and then… nope. So why do I keep applying in the UK at all?

I have been in the UK for five years now. I have built my professional network here – a network that serves as a solid foundation for doing great things. I understand this country’s academic and social structures, have UK credentials, and have built a life for myself. Here.

The thing is, I just want to have a life where I can meaningfully contribute to the world. I don’t need an academic job to do this – I’m happy doing any job that puts my skills to good use. I’ve simply focused on academic jobs because academia is a world I know I can rock, but relevant jobs in industry? I’m down.

But, you ask, why the UK? There are jobs everywhere. Sure there are. At this point, I will let you in on a little secret, dear reader.

Life is about more than just work.

It has taken me longer than it should have to realise this.

Life is about relationships. It’s about community. It’s about belonging. And all of these things are rooted in a sense of place.

The UK has – don’t get me wrong, much to my surprise – become a place that I feel rooted in. It is home, at least right now.

And that (complemented by my unwavering stubbornness persistence) is why I keep applying in the UK.

If it doesn’t work out, life will go on. I’ll leave, and I’ll go and build a life for myself somewhere else. However, I’d rather keep building than start completely afresh somewhere else. I want to meaningfully contribute to the world – and I want to do so while hittin’ up the local with my awkwardly-accented friends.

Conference Presentations 101

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while, but I’ve – har dee har har – been busy with conferences lately and haven’t had a chance. Now that I have a few minutes, let’s get ‘er done.

In my few years of going to academic conferences, I’ve seen a lot of paper presentations. Some have been great. Some, not so much. Likewise, some of my own presentations have been great, while others have fallen pretty flat.

At my latest conference, I started making a list of things I did and didn’t like in others’ presentations. Not so I could criticise them, but so that I could reflect upon my own presentation style and see if there were ways I could  improve by stealing things that I liked from other people. Here’s my list: mostly for my future self, but also for anyone else who may find it useful.

Don’t read from your PowerPoint.

There are, of course, exceptions to this rule: if you’re feelin’ not-so confident in your content, if you’re not speaking in your first language… Sometimes you need a bit of a boost, and your slides can help provide that.

What I mean by this is to not just get up to the front of the room and spend your entire 20 minutes reading from a computer or, even worse, from the projection. I can read your slides myself, thankyouverymuch. If you don’t add anything to what your slides say, you may as well just turn the slides on a timer and sit right back down.

Don’t forget to read from your PowerPoint.

At the same time, don’t forget to read the really important bits from your slides out to the audience to emphasise that they are indeed really important. It can be hard to read slides and listen to/watch a speaker at the same time. Having the speaker read out quotations, or just really key bullet points, from the slides can help slow the presentation down and give the audience time to digest the content.

Explain your quotations.

It’s great when a presentation has a juicy quotation, and even better when that quotation is both on a slide and read aloud. However, quotations don’t speak for themselves, and should always be explained. Your audience doesn’t know your content as well as you do, and it can be easy to think that a quotation’s utility is clear when it’s really not.

Tell your audience what you think about the quotation. Read it out, and then summarise it. Tell them why it matters. Tell them what’s wrong with it. Don’t let your own thoughts get overshadowed by dense quotations coming from other people.

Don’t use the same language you would use for an article for your presentation.

Reading an article, your audience can take their time thinking about your points. They can refer to a dictionary if they don’t understand a word. They can reread trickier sections. Those luxuries do not exist in a presentation, even if that presentation will be recorded and made available later.

The language you use for an oral presentation should be much simpler than the language you use for writing. Keep words short and simple – less than three syllables, if possible. If you start more than three words with ‘meta’, stop and evaluate whether that extra ‘meta’ is really necessary.

Also, step away from the thesaurus. I love a good synonym as much as the next gal, but there is a time and a place for peacocking the extent of your vocabulary and a conference presentation is neither.

If you’re reading from a physical paper, look up at your audience every once in a while.

I tend not to read from papers when I present, as I’m quite confident with the content that I’ve been presenting lately. Also, in my first conference presentation ever I read from a paper, and I was so nervous that people literally could not hear me speaking over the sound of my body uncontrollably shaking the paper into the microphone. Never. Again.

That said, there’s nothing wrong with reading from a paper, particularly if you have some facts or quotations you need to reference, feel like you may need a reminder every now and again, or are presenting in a non-native language. Just don’t forget to look up. Your audience is there to see you, and you don’t even need to be there if you’re just reading from some paper.

To help with this one, make sure that your presentation is printed in a big and readable font. If it’s useful, put a highlight on every few lines to remind yourself to look up. Throw in a comment here or there that isn’t written down to make your presentation a bit more fun.

Use a microphone.

My last tip: use the flipping microphone if there is one. If there isn’t one, ask if there is one and, if there is, use it. If there isn’t a microphone anywhere in the place, speak loudly and clearly, and then complain that there was no microphone in your conference feedback form.

You may be the loudest speaker in the world (even louder than I am!), but your choice to use a microphone is not about you. It is about your audience. As someone with not-so-great hearing, I struggle to hear presenters when they’re in a room with other people moving around and whispering to each other. It doesn’t matter if it’s a large or small space – my ears struggle to distinguish sounds when there are lots of things happening. A microphone helps the sound of your presentation stand out, so I can actually hear it.

USE. THE. MICROPHONE. Please and thank you.

And there’s my list of conference presentation tips! You’re welcome, Future Leah et al.

Also, a final note. At my latest conference, I gave a really good presentation. Like, really good. The best I’ve given in my life so far. Other people liked it too – I got lots of compliments. One compliment I didn’t appreciate? A woman exclaimed: ‘And you’re only a PhD student?! Incredible.’

Folks, please don’t ever say this to any PhD student. Acting surprised when a PhD student gives a good presentation implies that the contributions of PhD students are somehow less exciting and less important than those of more established academics. It implies that you don’t believe in the future of your field. It’s a subtle jab at the quality of doctoral work, and it’s not the kind of uplifting comment that a baby academic needs or wants. Cheers, y’all.