From PhD to Professor: 7 Insider Secrets for Early Career Academic Success

Building Your Research Career

Some early career researchers (ECRs) benefit from continuing collaborations with their supervisors post-doctorate, seamlessly transitioning into productive academic partnerships. These fortunate few can find themselves involved in grants, book chapters, invited talks, and publications. However, others struggle to build new networks when they move to different institutions, their research interests diverge from their supervisors', or the supervisory relationship concludes.

Building a research profile without a formal mentor or 'patron' requires forging one's own path, which can feel isolating and overwhelming. The academic environment, particularly at the entry level, can feel competitive. There's an underlying pressure to match or outperform peers, whose achievements can induce anxiety but also motivate. It's crucial to positively fuel our research rather than fostering competition or negativity.

Collaboration is a key trait of successful researchers. Inspired by AARE webinars and reading Inger Mewburn's 'The Thesis Whisperer' books, I reflected on additional tips for early career academics from my experiences.

Pick Yourself

Starting out, it's natural to wait for external validation or selection from a mentor, faculty, or funder before initiating research projects. Such a passive approach hinders progress. After reading Seth Godin's posts on this topic, I started projects without waiting for grants. What I found was that once I had some data, an article, or a presentation, it was much easier to pitch the project for other grants successfully, validating the 'just start' mentality.

While not all projects can be executed properly without funding or approval, starting anyway can be beneficial. Feedback on one of my recent unsuccessful grant applications suggested obtaining ethics approval before funding is approved demonstrates commitment and can bolster one's chances of success.

If you don't have a dedicated mentor, proactively create a diverse panel of experts for grant writing, publishing, media engagement, promotion, technology, and industry partnerships. Don't wait to be discovered; reach out and build your own support network.

Embrace the Long Tail

While ARC grants are prestigious, ECRs on short contracts can struggle to build the long-term projects and track records necessary. An alternative approach is to consider the 'long tail' of funding opportunities. Target small, seed fund, or niche grants that are overlooked by bigger players. Pursue opportunities with lengthy applications relative to funding, or grants with unique application processes, such as video applications, which may deter others. Securing multiple minor grants builds a track record of successful project delivery and stakeholder engagement.

Seek in-kind support: non-monetary contributions like access to facilities, equipment, expertise, software, or research participants and data. Approaching potential collaborators directly for support may provide you with most of the resources you need to advance your research and bypass the competition of traditional funding applications. This strategy supports immediate research needs within short-term employment constraints and lays groundwork for more substantial funding applications.

Maximize Impact and Outputs from Each Project

To amplify your research impact, generate multiple outputs from each study. This approach not only increases visibility but also demonstrates the versatility and relevance of your work across various platforms:

1. Journal articles and conference presentations for the academic community
2. Internal faculty talks for institutional engagement and collaboration
3. Presentations to end-users and stakeholders (e.g., schools, subject associations, parent groups)
4. Mainstream media articles, blog posts, podcast interviews and social media content for public engagement
5. Classroom resources, policy guides, infographics or 'explainer' resources for practitioners
6. Contributions to educational publications and professional development

Disseminating one project's findings across a broader area of influence increases the impact 'pressure.' Rather than 'salami slicing your data,' you can emphasize different aspects of a study for different audiences (e.g., the method, implications, theory). It may also be compelling for a future grant proposal that the funder will get more exposure than a journal article and academic conference presentation for their investment.

While traditional academic metrics remain crucial, online visibility and research output promotion can significantly amplify research impact, especially citations. Maintaining an updated profile on platforms like LinkedIn, ResearchGate and your university's website is crucial. ORCID and Figshare have 'push/pull' functions that minimize duplicate data entry by populating other platforms with the same information.

If you haven't heard of Figshare, get an account! It allows you to share a wide range of standard and non-traditional academic outputs, such as teaching resources, exemplary lesson plans, rubrics, assignments, case studies, and creative outputs, not to mention important figures from your presentations and articles. Figshare can increase the discoverability of your work, track and measure your full impact more comprehensively, and create helpful benchmarks and comparisons across academic fields.

Organize for Efficiency with 'Super Documents' and Templates

Grant deadlines often clash with peak teaching and marking periods. To manage this, save application forms a year in advance to familiarize yourself with requirements and start drafts early. Though your faculty may alert you to opportunities, I found that creating a 'super document' listing all potential grants, organized by date, with key requirements, helped organize and prioritize the many simultaneous opportunities.

Alongside this, I compiled a grant writing guide from books and other sources. Seeking successful grant applications from your university or colleagues helps you learn from their style. Recently successful applicants, especially those ineligible for repeat awarding, are often willing to share their applications.

To streamline article writing, I created an APA 7 style template with dummy tables, figures, and section prompts from thesis writing guides. This saves time on formatting for both myself and my research students.

Perhaps the most versatile tool is the master resume: an extended record of all relevant career and research information, enabling quick tailoring for different applications. It includes a 'shadow CV' section, a record of unsuccessful applications, documenting effort, productivity and persistence. I got the idea from a senior, very successful colleague, who knew from his that he won about one in eight things he applied for. In his case, that still meant hundreds of thousands of dollars of funding, but even superstar academics face frequent rejections, highlighting the importance of perseverance in academia!

Another colleague exemplifies efficiency and organization with a cloud-based document organized by research interests. She updates it from any device, adding excerpts from articles she reads, tagged with keywords and hyperlinked to the source. This approach streamlines literature review writing.

These initiatives collectively save time, reduce stress, and enhance productivity and outputs. They enable quick responses to opportunities and maintain a comprehensive overview of efforts. In competitive academia, such organization can be key to long-term success.

Expanding Your Network

The easiest way to do this is to go to things: meetings, professional learning, events, AGMs and conferences. Offer your relevant expertise to schools in your area. Provide free resources, training, presentations, or coaching. This creates impact, aligns with academic goals, and may lead to paid opportunities.

Explore media opportunities by contacting local education reporters and offering insights on relevant topics. Contact reputable education bloggers and trade publications. AARE has previously published media tips. Producers often value availability, reliability, and engaging personalities alongside consideration of expertise.

The complex landscape of early career academia requires proactivity and organization. Ultimately, success in academia is not about individual brilliance but also about systematic organization, strategic networking, and resilience.