Tag Archives: Academia

Family and Fieldwork

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I have been following two topics with particular interest over the past year. The first centers around Family and the Academy. There have been some great posts reflecting upon and highlighting challenges and strategies for balancing the demands of a job and a family (e.g. getting a research career established with small babies) and issues such as maternity/paternity leave.

The other centers around Fieldwork. Posts and discussions here have ranged from the joys of close field sites and the defense of distant field sites to working in a field camp. Within this realm I would also include the great series over at the New York Times – Scientists At Work – which unfortunately has come to a close after 3 years.

What I wish to reflect upon here is the intersection of these two: family and fieldwork. Despite the various posts and articles I have come across concerning the above two topics, I have yet to see much if any discussion situated at the intersection. Though perhaps I haven’t looked in the right places!

It was just about a year ago my wife and I got the great news that we were expecting. At the time I was in the midst of prepping for my comprehensive exams. I was both excited and overwhelmed all at once. Perhaps a bit naive, I thought I was going to be able to get the majority of my fieldwork done before the arrival of our son. Moreover, I quickly convinced myself that’s what I ‘needed’ to do. While I was still wrapping my head around how our life was about to change with the addition of a new member to the family I certainly wasn’t in any place to grasp what it would look like to do fieldwork with an infant!

However, my wife was quick to point out that: a) I was not going to be in field during the third trimester; b) she wanted to travel with me; and c) she wanted to learn more about what I did! All very legitimate reasons. She made a good case! Needless to say, I quickly came to terms with the fact that my fieldwork was not going to happen so soon and began to embrace a new vision for my fieldwork that included an adventure with my family.

At the end of June I came down here for a short visit with a number of objectives which included conducting some preliminary interviews. As if being away from my son for the first time wasn’t hard enough, I also had to envision our time in the field as a family and the logistics associated with that. First and foremost, I needed to track down and secure a place for us to live. The combination of not having a vehicle and having an infant meant that there were a number of criteria that needed to be met (e.g. laundry on site or within walking distance, groceries/ food in close proximity). And I was thinking about the accommodations with regards to safety as it is currently still hurricane season. Now, because I was going to be working in three different communities, I needed to find three different places that met the criteria! Despite the underlying stress and uncertainty during the trip, overall it was a success and I was able to line up housing for our time together in the field.

As I outlined in my previous post which served as an introduction to my fieldwork and research, I’ve got my work cut out for me. That equates to busy days, possibly odd hours and some potential travel. This leads me to one of my main concerns for my family, loneliness in a cross-cultural setting. I count ourselves lucky in many regards as we will have a few visitors during our time (equalling almost half of our time here). My wife had a great sales pitch. Her mantra – “We’ve got a place for you to stay, flights are reasonable and you have to pay for food no matter where you are!” I have also met some wonderful people in the communities where we will be staying.

While I’m sure there will no doubt be challenges, it will also be an amazing adventure to be shared with my family. Perhaps too having my family with me will serve as a way to connect with people in the communities and across the island – a bridge between cultures and strangers. Perhaps I may be perceived and received by the communities and individuals I meet as more than just an outsider from the ‘North.’

My family arrives today. I am beyond thrilled to have them join me in the field for the next few months. I’d be lying though to say I’m not nervous and apprehensive about how this will all play out. Perhaps too is has to do with still feeling like a novice at this whole parenting thing! While the adventure is just beginning, I wouldn’t want it any other way and often chuckle to myself as I think back on my ‘rational’ thinking and justification for wanting to get my fieldwork done before our son arrived.

Stay tuned as I hope to reflect further upon my experience with #familyinthefield over the next few months.

 

Getting Ahead on the Job Front

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For some time now there has been a relatively ongoing discussion about the job prospects for PhD’s both in academia and beyond the ivory towers. This discussion has surfaced in the media, on blogs and in the twittersphere. For example, The Globe and Mail has had a number of pieces over the last several months (here, here & here) speaking to this issue with Brent Herbert-Copley, vice-president Research Capacity at SSHRC proclaiming most recently that while there were indeed few academic jobs, Canada needed more PhDs. Yet around the same time, Macleans’ published a recent article where Charlie Gillis questions whether a PhD is an academic dead zone! Similarly, not too long ago, Alex Bond, a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Saskatchewan, provided a really honest reflection on the post PhD prospects for an ecologist in Canada over at The Lab and Field. On twitter, one only have to take a look at #altac or #phdchat to quickly see various musings, appeals and interweaving discussions concerning current and future job prospects.

No matter what your outlook, you will be applying for jobs soon, if you haven’t already. Every so often I come across a nugget of advice that I tuck away knowing that it could help me down the road. A while back I stumbled upon a post by Doug Kalish titled 7 Ways To Stand Out From the Crowd, which was part of the Graduate Student Advice Series. In the piece, Kalish provides a suite of tips to help make ones self known.

1)   The Four P’s: Publications, Posters, Presentations and Patents
2)   Start an ‘achievements’ file right now
3)   Scrub your online presence
4)   Join professional organizations in your field
5)   Set up professional social media accounts
6)   Build an online reputation
7)   Get business cards

The majority of these seemed quite common sense. However, the one that stood out to me as being especially useful was number two: Start an ‘achievements’ file right now. It stood out enough so that I continued to reflect upon it for some time realizing, or perhaps believing, it had even more potential than what Kalish had initially shared.

This is what Kalish had to say:

No one updates their CV or resume as often as they should. And I find that it can be hard to remember everything I’ve done when I finally get around to it. Start a paper or electronic file to hold evidence of your achievements. Any success or recognition, new skill or achievement goes into the file. Did you present your research to another lab? Write it down. Did you attend a lecture series on starting a company? Make note of it. Two years from now you may be crafting a cover letter and some obscure class you took or skill you have may make a difference. Not everything in the file needs to go into your resume, but you’ll appreciate having the documentation when you do get around to the updates.

Why start and maintain an achievements file?
Such a file provides a rich source of material that can be drawn upon for:

Cover Letters
Kalish notes above how invaluable such a file can be when composing a cover letter. Specific examples certainly strengthen cover letters.

CV/ Resume
Kalish couldn’t be more spot on with regards to the frequency, or lack there of, with which one updates their CV. I’m certainly guilty of this. Having all of that extra “source material” may also come in handy tailoring your CV and/or resume, especially for those considering jobs outside of academia!

Interviews
Reviewing your file, or parts of your file could help refresh your memory as to what you have done and in turn arm you with numerous tangible examples that can be drawn upon while interviewing for a job.

Applications
There is no lack of applications to be filled out including scholarships, fellowships, grants, and jobs to name a few. As above, specific examples will help to strengthen your application and you never know when some of that extra “source material” may be just what you needed for a particular section or question! Even once you have a job, you might find it useful for grant applications (part of the continuous search for funding) or perhaps when going up for a promotion (e.g. tenure).

What to include:

Activities
Various activities that you might note include: service, teaching, presentations, guest lectures, workshops, mini courses, seminars, outreach, etc. I would argue that it is important to include not only what you did, but how you were involved. Furthermore, wherever possible, note specific impacts or outcomes. For example, note what occurred during your tenure as a graduate student representative to your department’s curriculum committee and how you personally contributed. Or perhaps you organized a workshop that not only had strong attendance but also inspired a secondary workshop. These are important details to record while they are still fresh in your mind.

Achievements
Not only include the award, but note the criteria that are used. In other words, what does the award recognize or look for (i.e. service, leadership, innovation, merit).

Altmetrics
It is never too early to start scoping out and noting altmetrics (which has seen a recent rise) to document the wider impact of your various activities. Jason Priem and Heather Piwowar even recently published a paper in the Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology entitled The Power of Altmetrics on a CV (sorry behind a paywall).

Annotated Resume
A few years ago, as part of one particular graduate school application, I was required to include an annotated resume that was not to exceed nine pages in length. This was by far, one of the most challenging, yet beneficial exercises I had encountered. Turning a resume into an essay where one not only includes various educational experiences and seminal jobs, but also notes how those have contributed to your personal, academic, or professional growth requires significant reflection. I believe this same idea of an annotated resume, though perhaps only requiring bullet points, serves as a useful model to think about maintaining an achievements/ activities file.

The key is that the file should not just be a laundry list. Rather, strive to include as many pertinent details as possible. Looks like I’ve got some work ahead of me!