Hi,
I am just about to finish my PhD in social sciences, and I am not in a good place.
Due to various reasons, I did do during my PhD any tutoring, and don't have any publications. I also don't have any conference papers. In the middle of my PhD I did tell my supervisors that I want to pursue an academic career (initially I said I wasn't planning on being an academic), but unfortunately my supervisors saw it in their role description to only help me with my thesis (which I wrote very much independently), and did not offer my ANY minimal advice, not even one conversation, on what I need to do in order to become an academic (i.e. tutoring etc). I know that this may seem obvious to most of you, but I do now have people in my life that are in academia, and the environment in my school was highly competitive, so I did not interact much with my colleagues during my PhD. I will, however, as it seems, will be able to do some tutoring in this trimester.
I just passed my PhD examination, my examiners basically told me that my work is really really good.
I was really aiming to stay in academia and had a meeting with my supervisors to see if they can help me in any way gaining some teaching experience, but they basically ignored my questions and/or said they can't help me with that. So they are basically not gonna help me, which hurts.
I was considering to maybe publish topics from my PhD with scholars from my field, maybe even my examiners if they will be interested (my topic is not really the area of interest of my supervisors, and we NEVER even talked about publishing together, I'm pretty sure they won't be interested).
CONTINUE IN NEXT MESSAGE
Congratulations on passing your viva Dr Ericca!
Finishing your PhD is a big achievement, so don't put yourself down. I understand you are worrying about your future but you should put your achievement in perspective. Passing your viva is not easy and you have obviously done well.
Now, sorry to be blunt, not everyone can become a lecturer. It is hard to become a lecturer and even harder being a research active lecturer. Academia is not a fairytale job and lecturers are just as exploited as industry employees. There is nothing wrong going back into the real world having gained invaluable experience, so don't be ashamed if you do. Saying that, if you are passionate about academia, there is nothing wrong trying.
Masters Degrees
Search For Masters DegreesPostgraduateForum Is a trading name of FindAUniversity Ltd
FindAUniversity Ltd, 77 Sidney St, Sheffield, S1 4RG, UK. Tel +44 (0) 114 268 4940 Fax: +44 (0) 114 268 5766