218: Stages of The Academic Career [RE-RELEASE EP 190]
May 7, 2024
The discussion highlights the limitations of traditional academic career stages, like the typical PhD to tenure track. It emphasizes the significance of defining one's research identity and the importance of mentorship in building a legacy. Cathy explores how academics often navigate their careers in a non-linear fashion, advocating for curation over quantity in publications as one progresses. Listeners are encouraged to reflect on their current stage and aspirations, fostering a deeper connection to their academic journeys.
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insights INSIGHT
Received Stages Miss The Point
The received stages (PhD, postdoc, tenure, full) are socially received labels that miss real career dynamics.
Cathy Mazak argues these labels fail to capture real responsibilities, milestones, and variation across careers.
insights INSIGHT
Five Real Career Stages
Mazak proposes five 'real' stages that map to the work you do rather than job titles.
She frames stages as learning/apprenticeship, stepping into your own, planting your flag, building your legacy, and enjoying your legacy.
volunteer_activism ADVICE
Treat PhD As Genuine Apprenticeship
In apprenticeship, focus on deep learning and working closely with mentors to acquire methods and thinking styles.
Use that training to prepare for later independence rather than rushing to publish prematurely.
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The "received" stages of an academic career are very linear and do not capture the true responsibilities, workload, or goals within an academic career. I have worked with hundreds of women and nonbinary professors, so I have a unique perspective on the academic career–one built through observation of many different scholars in many different types of institutions. In today's episode, I explain the REAL stages of the academic career.
This episode is a re-release of episode 190 of the podcast and in this episode, tune in as I compare and contrast the received stages of an academic career to the real stages. My goal is to shift your perspective about how you think about your academic career. After this episode, I hope you can check in with yourself and see where you are in your academic career and where you want to go. From there, you can see what you can check off as already done and where you need to put more energy, focus, and development to have the academic career you desire.
We've opened the waitlist for our next cohort of Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap®. Check out the program details and get on the waitlist here.
Our 12-week Navigate: Your Writing Roadmap® program helps tenure-track womxn and nonbinary professors to publish their backlog of papers so that their voice can have the impact they know is possible. Get on the waitlist here!
Cathy's book, Making Time to Write: How to Resist the Patriarchy and Take Control of Your Academic Career Through Writing is available in print! Learn how to build your career around your writing practice while shattering the myths of writing every day, accountability, and motivation, doing mindset work that's going to reshape your writing, and changing academic culture one womxn and nonbinary professor at a time. Get your print copy today or order it for a friend here!
If you would like to hear more from Cathy for free, please subscribe to the weekly newsletter, In the Pipeline, at scholarsvoice.org. It's a newsletter that she personally writes that goes out once a week with writing and publication tips, strategies, inspiration, book reviews and more.
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