Hi,

I've recently finished my PhD. I plan to print some business cards for attending conferences/seminars before successfully landing a full-time job (which I understand that it may take up to several years!). I have three burning questions and I'd love to know what other early career researchers think:

(1) I don't really have a job title, since I don't have a full-time job. I may have a three-month temporary part-time teaching contract but I won't put that institution as my ''affiliation''. I find the title ''independent scholar'' odd because it simply means I am jobless. If I do not put any job title on my card, it automatically means that I am looking for jobs/on part-time contracts. Therefore, titles such as ''independent scholar'' or ''independent researcher'' would be redundant. Or would you still put "independent scholar" as your title on your card?

(2) Will you include information about your previous education? In my case, my PhD is an interdisciplinary programme (media studies) and my MA is in political science. I am wondering if it would be a nice idea to list out my MA degree as well, so as to indicate that I have a background in social sciences instead of humanities, since both have quite distinctive training and approaches to media studies I suppose. So my card might look like this:

Name
PhD (Media Studies, A University)
MA (Political Science, B University)
Email:
Website:

(3) The last question is about card design. I am looking at websites that provide templates. I am deciding between fancy designs (https://www.moo.com/uk/design-templates/business-cards/pack/monogram.html) or conventional plain designs (https://www.moo.com/uk/design-templates/business-cards/pack/profile-power.html).

Colourful or fancy design may be eye-catching/impressive, but as a female researcher I want to be taken seriously. My male colleagues designed fancy cards but I hesitate if I want to do the same.

Many thanks x