Hearing many complaints from my peers (who are young researchers just as myself) on how hard it is to squeeze yourself into the ever growing competitive academic world, also having discussions on how to build a career in academia with more established scholars, and reading advices from academics (for example, blog entry of Tanya Golash-Boza http://getalifephd.blogspot.com/2011/07/how-smart-do-you-have-to-be-to-become.html or a book by Munck, Gerardo/ Snyder, Richard (2007): Passion, Craft and Method in Comparative Politics) I was wondering whether being a succefull academic is only about skills and hard work? If so, what skills are the most important? Whether having a good acquaintances with the right people from academic circles is more important for building a solid academic career that mere talents and knowledge in the field? Please, share your experience and your view on what skills are crucial for a young researcher to become the part of the respectable academic circles. And whether the chances to enter those circles for those from "academic periphery" (like my country - Kazakhstan) are in fact significantly less than for those who are closer to well known academic institutions?
Lyubov,
Some notes in my point of view:
- Networking
(develop your professional network on online networking sites like RG, LI, Academia.edu)
- Presentation skills
(give your student`s feedback)
- Introduce yourself
(find events outside your university, find relevant people in your field, Attend the conferences/meetings to present papers/talks)
- Resilience
(be receptive to constructive criticism, be confident to defend your right views)
- Be a self-starter and manage your own projects
- Time management
(Keep long/mid/short schedules, stay organized and highly disciplined)
- Follow the new publication/model/software/issues in your study area
Skills that most important to become a succesfull member of academia; take care of teaching, research, and community service.
In my opinion, being update and fresh in your specific profession and also being well-connected to outside world are very effective to be a good member of academia. But I think having unwavering passionate is the most important factor.
Shida, on what basis you decided that I dont have a life so I need to get it? :) If you suggest to leanr more skills, please, note that my question is presicely abotu what skills to learn/ Just more? just any skills for the sake of their number? I would appriciate if you share your experience on becoming a renowed scholar or on what you think is essential for becoming a one. Otherwise, do not waste your time on answering this question.
Lyubov,
Some notes in my point of view:
- Networking
(develop your professional network on online networking sites like RG, LI, Academia.edu)
- Presentation skills
(give your student`s feedback)
- Introduce yourself
(find events outside your university, find relevant people in your field, Attend the conferences/meetings to present papers/talks)
- Resilience
(be receptive to constructive criticism, be confident to defend your right views)
- Be a self-starter and manage your own projects
- Time management
(Keep long/mid/short schedules, stay organized and highly disciplined)
- Follow the new publication/model/software/issues in your study area
Dear Lyubov
The main quality - that goes for all professions - is pleased to work as a scientist.
To be a good scientist you must have a certain obsession with scientific challenge and the ability to deliver the work. Of course, creativity and supporting basic preparation are important, but also not neglect to maintain a general, including humanistic, because it enriches and makes the person more creative.
We can cite the interest, initiative, curiosity, interdisciplinarity, the spirit of research and effort in research and study characteristics as any researcher. Having ability to work in groups and express themselves well, any necessary research. Already, an accurate observation, attention to detail and the ability to analyze, concentration and organization are more reserved for the scientific field skills.
If you can't even take a simple constructive criticism as Raoof Mostafazadeh stated, that says a lot. I am not being mean or judgemental because I don't even know you personally. As Vitaly Voloshin said, be the best in your field. As Nelson Elias said, be obsessed about your work. As Amir Sedaghatdoost said, always think of something fresh and new. As Aieman Al-Omari said, be fully aware of your teaching, research, and community service. These are all super good advice. If you are a serious academic, you should be able to think for yourself about the types of skills that you should be learning. Consult your colleagues and those working around you within the same field. These can vary according to where and when you are at what stage of your life. Just stop making excuses for yourself, stop trying to find shortcuts and stop whining everytime somebody says something that you don't like to hear. This goes for both men and women in academia.
Elsevier (the publisher of many high impact journals) published this booklet, see: http://cdn.elsevier.com/assets/pdf_file/0019/111835/charting-a-course-for-a-successful-research-career.pdf
Hi!
From my experience, the succesful people that I really respect on the "academia" (in my case, more the research world) are those that achieve their success just thinking in doing their work in the best possible way and that, at least apparently, they don't have as goal to be succesful but the success has come as a natural result of their work.
So one advice that I would give (although I guess many people wouldn't share with me) is to stop thinking about how to be succesful and focus in thinking how to do your work at best (and for this many good advices have been done above) and enjoy doing it. The success should come afterwards as a result and if it doesn't come (academia as any human activity is "polluted" by many spurious motivations), don't worry and continue enjoying your work, which is something that depends mainly on oneself.
Cheers!
Its all about time management, commitment, learning and sharing of information. Also how useful we are in bringing about change in our societies.
The assumption that academics are not socially-skilled, and that we stay in our offices until we come out of a darkened room occasionally to pontificate to our students is simply not true.
It is important to understand the many skills and qualities required to be an academic because simply stated, having a good PhD is not enough to secure the job and to succeed. As you read this section, note both your strengths - to highlight to future employers - and areas for improvement. If you feel that you are lacking in a particular area, then develop a plan on how to improve. Here are some skills required to be an academic:
1.Networking:
Everyone knows that networking is important and yet it can be very daunting. Walking into a room full of strangers and being social, approaching an eminent researcher at a conference, or initiating a correspondence with someone you have never met may feel awkward and uncomfortable. Yet, this is probably one of the most essential and useful skills to have as an academic. What does networking involve?
These are some suggestions for improving your ability to network:
Develop a positive attitude towards meeting potential contacts, even if you are shy and not naturally extroverted. "Regard networking very positively and be systematic in your approach to networking", says John Helliwell, Professor of Chemistry.
Do your research and identify relevant people in your field who may be future collaborators or employers.
Start to develop your own professional network, particularly if you are a PhD or post-doctoral member of staff. See if your PhD supervisor or Principal Investigator is prepared to share some of their own network of contacts.
Attend the right conferences to present posters, papers or talks. Again, try to be (appropriately) forthright and social at these events.
Make yourself known to other researchers on academic online networking sites like Academia.edu or Mendeley. Consider using general professional networking sites, such as LinkedIn, to develop contacts with potential external collaborators (also useful in case your academic career doesn’t work out).
Ask yourself, who knows your work, beyond your own university or research group? If you can’t attend external academic events, see which external researchers are coming to your own university (to give talks or seminars) and attend these. Ask questions about their research and find (genuine) opportunities to engage them in conversation afterwards. Don’t be afraid to ask if you can follow up at a later time (without acting like a stalker).
Find events outside your university to attend which will extend your network. If you are a member of a professional institution or scholarly association (such as the Royal Society of Chemistry or the Philological Society), take an active role in local or regional meetings, special interest groups, mailing lists or conferences.
Apply for funding to travel to other institutions for your research or to conferences. As well as helping develop your network, this also helps develop your ability to write persuasively in order to win funding.
2.Time management:
Ask any academic about their lifestyle and they will all say that it not a regular, nine-to-five job, but rather an all-consuming endeavour that can easily take over one's early mornings, evenings, weekends and holidays. Having to juggle research, teaching and administration will pull you in different directions.
If you want to succeed as an academic (and also have time for family, friends and personal interests), it is very important to be organised and highly disciplined; understand your priorities and ensure you carve out enough time for your own research; and complete urgent, but perhaps less interesting tasks such as marking, as quickly as possible.
3.Resilience:
If you shrink at the mere hint of a criticism of your work, then academia may not be right for you. Papers submitted to journals get rejected, proposals for funding come back full of critical comments, editors insist on rewriting and reworking the material before publication, etc.
'After all, it is an academic's job to read other people's work and find holes in it,' says Dr Angelia Wilson, Senior Lecturer. You must, therefore, have a thick skin to handle the invariable barrage of criticism of your work, be receptive to constructive criticism, and have the confidence to defend your views and resolve issues as you see fit.
4.Presentation skills:
Presentation skills are essential both for teaching and for presenting at conferences. It is no longer acceptable to mumble through a conference paper, but rather you need to present your work in a confident manner, making strong eye contact and articulating with a strong voice. Everyone can improve their presentation skills with some good training and with practice.
Furthermore, most academics are required to lecture and many are assessed on the quality of their teaching and on their own students' feedback. 'Lecturing is a big part of the job regardless of whether you are shy, so think about whether you are happy to speak in public.' says Lecturer Dr Simon Brocklehurst.
Lyubov, the answer depends a little bit on the institution too. Some institutions put more emphasis on teaching, and some on research. Here is my list:
*** TEACHING: This is really the most important asset of an academic. Even if you are only going to do research, teaching skills help you attract good students for research. Teaching skills are also highly correlated to PRESENTATION skills. These do not improve overnight. It takes time. The best thing is the PRACTICE CYCLE: a) present, b) look at the feedback, c) improve ... TEACHING skills will help both in a research-heavy institution and teaching-heavy institution. In the end, tuition money is a very important part of most university's income ...
*** RESEARCH: "Publish or perish" is an old cliche that lacks many details. It is a very BAD starting point. This saying does not emphasize the QUALITY of the publications ... QUANTITY is somehow relevant, but, you can be a worldwide-recognized academic with just a very few publications, if they made IMPACT. The right thing to focus on is IMPACT. Quantity could easily be achieved if you try hard, impact cannot be, unless you truly made impact. My philosophy is always to keep my focus narrow, and do thorough literature search, and try to add things that are novel and conduct research in this fashion.
*** STUDENT MANAGEMENT: If you are going to do research that involves students, then, you will run into a different issue: Managing highly intelligent individuals, keeping them motivated and excited about working with you. A seasoned academic will have many rejections of proposals, and papers in his/her life. (S)he has to develop IRON NERVES to deal with this and never get discouraged. However, students are not like that. They will COLLAPSE when they get their first rejection. Not only the supervising adviser has to have iron nerves, but, also bring up the students' morale. This is a super difficult job. These skills only get acquired if you are 100% positive about everything and TRANSMIT these positive vibes to your students ... and be conscious of the students' feelings. An academic is also a good psychologist !
*** FUNDING: An academic is also an entrepreneur. If you are in a research-heavy institution, you can't just do research. You have to continuously write proposals for funding. This is, of course, very field, country, and institution dependent. However, you will always WRITE something ! This requires working on WRITING skills ...
There are many others, but, for now, these are just a few that comes to my mind ...
First the pursuit of "how" and then the pursuit of "why" and a great deal of perseverence objectivity and discipline (as mentioned above) in pursuit.
All the above ideas are excellent and will prove beneficial to you Lyubov. I will just add a personal tip, always try new things, conferences, seminars, courses etc without thinking whether you will meet their standards or not because than you will be sure of having no regrets. Life can open some weird and totally unbelievable paths if you just have the courage to go look for them.
I would support Hementa's comment in this case.
But I think that because you were able to formulate quetions exactly, you know answers too. So maybe you seek more advice on a way which way to choose (Heracles on crossroad).
But one advice more, before you have your career established (independently on the way), try to avoid publishing of works, which are too new and revolutionary.
Highmindedness and intellectual love are two attributes often forgotten in academics, but necessary to cultivate for success In our profession. An attitude of generosity towards other scholars enables us to master their ideas and our own better. An attitude of loving openness to the qualities of the realities we research enables us to turn out more objective, more lasting research.
Work hard, love your carrier, be patient, be honest, and look forward.
I agree on most of the comments. I would only add an issue that I think it's crucial specially when being an academic and researcher.
Don't forget that you are the same person no matter that your paper has been refused or published. Your value is the same and don't depends exclusively on external judgments. It's something I say to myself several times a week. I've seen many colleagues incredibly depressed for not publishing or having a project whilst others feel they are the best after getting these external acknowledgments. Both ends are bad long term
This is about attracting others to your ideas, intelligence and general academic worthiness I guess. This is an increasingly competitive field. In such fields even the best can remain in relative obscurity. Unfortunately it is also an increasingly competitive field where one outstanding member may simply not know the existence of another outstanding member.
Yuval Noah Harari was in the same position. A PhD from Oxford University, he too was on the academic treadmill for years, lapsing into ever greater obscurity, dispensing article after article, when a book he had written was send into a publishers by a friend. The book is 'user friendly', devoid of many academic technigues and consequently sold extremely well and he has made thereby his reputation. He is now one of the world's leading academics.
When a road gets crowded, look around for the nearest half empty one and take that.
For achieving success in academic areas we must have an education suitable to the education system . In this regards our system is not restricted to impart study for the student but in the line of development we must study other literature prepare the notes for the student & also student to be offered an suitable guideline for their career .
This is my personal opinion
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