From Viva to the Job Market

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From Viva to the Job Market

• Katharine Ellis, IMR

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1 Preparing for the viva

• Your examiners what do you know about their work
  and their approaches?
• New work published on your subject? New
  perspectives?
• Re-acquaintance with your own thesis
• Re-acquaintance with the degree regulations
• Errata list
• Knowing when youll get to know the result, and
  how
• Accepting that the viva is very rarely the end of
  the thesis process

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2 In the viva examiners

• NB the Americans call it a defense
• A long viva is not a sure sign of examiner doubt
• The examiners are there to test you, not to
  compliment you. They want to know
• a) whether its genuinely your work
• b) whether you are abreast of and building on the
  most recent thinking
• c) whether you considered all relevant
  choices/hypotheses
• d) why you made some choices and discarded others
• e) whether you have the capacity to stretch
  further

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3 Types of question

• Orientation and context what drew you to doing
  what you did?
• Conception, methods and approaches how else
  might you have done it?
• Content and structure why is X missing? Why
  discuss Z before Y?
• Technique how professional a job? How could you
  have communicated your message better?

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4 In the viva you

• Stay calm even if you feel under attack
• Try to open up answers to any closed questions.
  (Examiners find the situation stressful too.)
• Take time to clarify a question you dont quite
  understand
• Ask whats behind a question if you think theres
  a subtext but cant work out what it is
• If you think a question is irrelevant, say so and
  (politely) explain why
• If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging
• Answer directly but amplify, exemplify, where you
  can. Dont answer a conceptual question with a
  detailed example until youve addressed the
  conceptual aspect
• If you need a break, ask
• If you get the chance, ask examiners to make a
  distinction in their final report between
  amendments that are required, and those that are
  desirable

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5 After the viva

• Common experiences exhaustion, hurt at hostile
  questioning feeling that examiners read
  superficially and quizzed you about things that
  were self-evident
• Corrections and revisions can be painful if
  reconceptualisation is required, or cutting of
  favourite passages, or significant further work
  on a project with which you are thoroughly fed up
• Corrections
• Be clear about what you need to send to whom, and
  when
• Dont run late
• Recording corrections in tabular form helps
  examiners check them off, and makes you look
  (even more) organised

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6 Jobs market

• Academia and PhD oversupply
• Recession and possible HE cuts / new priorities
• The PhD as passport?
• The CV as affirmation of PhD-related skills?
• Importance of transferable skills

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7 Common employment directions

• Academic
• Artist in residence
• Research assistant (becoming more common)
• Short-term (often replacement) lecturer
• Funded research fellow
• Part-time academic posts
• Casual HE teaching
• Assistant/adjunct professorships in North America
  (non-tenure-track)

• Academic-related (or not)
• Artist in residence
• University admin
• Other management
• Public service
• Librarianship / archivist training
• Arts management
• Journalism
• Broadcast media
• Publishing
• FE teaching
• Freelance / portfolio

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8 Non-academic desiderata

• PhD-holders can routinely sell what employers
  want
• Independent initiative and/or team-working
  abilities
• Ability to perform under pressure
• Critical thinking, lateral thinking, creative
  thinking, logical thinking
• Planning, organisation and attention to detail
• Concentration for long periods, stamina
• Motivation, courage, potential leadership skills
• Ability to communicate (presentations, written
  work)
• Ability to finish large-scale projects
• Make sure your CV extrapolates transferable
  skills from academic content. Potential employers
  wont necessarily make the connection.

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9 The academic market

• http//www.jobs.ac.uk
• Times Higher Education (THE)
• Guardian Education Supplement
• American Musicological Society bulletin board
  (AMS-Announce) http//www.ams-net.org/index.php
• IMR bulletin board http//www.music.sas.ac.uk
• Specialist / industry journals
• Funding body websites (British Academy etc)
• Internal university publications (often on web)

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10 Academic employer desiderata

• Evidence of
• Tailored application
• Research publications potential
• Teaching experience willingness/ability to
  extend range beyond PhD specialism
• Administrative/organisational potential

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11 Your boundaries

• Leading questions
• Are you prepared to go anywhere in the UK?
• Are you prepared to go anywhere within the
  Anglophone teaching community (inc. Netherlands,
  Scandinavia, Hong Kong)?
• Can you teach in a second language?
• Are you prepared to undertake long commutes?
• How easy would you find it to be the only Xxxxx
  in your new environment?
• To what extent are you happy to reinvent yourself
  within a first post?

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12 Long-term preparation

• Good things to do
• Teaching (wherever, including private)
• Conference presentations / other relevant
  practice
• Reviewing
• Potential satellite publications to thesis
• Networking (actual and virtual)
• Research-related administrative jobs

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13 Medium-term preparation

• Referees (get three on side well in advance)
• Experts (for research fellowshipsidentify three
  useful and potentially empathetic externals)
• Academic-tailored CV and / or non-academic CV
• Understanding of HEI environments, current
  debates etc

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14 The CV

• Weight/relevance, not bulk, is what counts
• Clarity and flawless presentation are essential
• Never exaggerate or double-cite
• Be clear about the status of items pending
  accepted, in preparation, under consideration?
• Ordering of sections adapt to different jobs.
  Initial default will probably be 1) Education
  Qualifications, 2) Publications, 3) Conference
  papers, 4) Teaching experience, 5) Administrative
  roles
• Present items in each section with the most
  recent first
• Feel free to add explanatory text to lists of
  achievements, but keep them short

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15 Preparation for a specific post

• The tailored application letter
• Check the institution website staff, courses,
  feelnot just the further particulars
• Ask for student handbooks if they are not online
• What do you think they want? Why?
• Can you offer it?
• How can you convince them you are what they need
  without insulting them about their deficiencies?
• Thinking laterally about your skill-set
• Extra-curricular things you would want to offer?

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16 The selection process

• Being clear about what is required
• Teaching presentation (level?)
• Research presentation (variegated audience?)
• Interview (cross-faculty representation?)
• In the U.S. Assistant Professor posts can
  involve three days of interviews, real teaching,
  student/staff socials

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17 Presentations

• Dont underestimate first (average 10-second)
  impressions. Body language, eye-contact, dress,
  are crucial
• Youre projecting your personality/potential as a
  colleague, not just your expertise
• Answering the so what? question is the most
  important aspect of a research presentation to a
  general audience
• Less is more three good, illustrated, points
  might be all you need
• Get the timing right. Practise
• A mixed presentation (2 minutes of ad lib
  context, then a more formal presentation) can
  work well

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18 Interviews

• As for vivas, mainly.
• Additionally
• Always have a couple of questions of your own. At
  the very least, youre showing curiosity/interest

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• Good luck!