Looking for a job is a difficult habit to break. Most days I still find myself checking the jobs.ac.uk website and also others such as H-Net for jobs overseas. And this despite having secured myself a permanent job. However this repetitive behaviour is not as daft as it seems, there is a good reason for keeping an eye on who is hiring and who is not. It gives you a different sort of understanding of your discipline.
Another good reason for a permanent member of staff to keep an eye on jobs.ac, the Times Higher and so on, is to check up on which institutions are offering studentships. I have never taught postgraduates before, and am hoping to have the experience of doing so at Manchester Met. And one of the pieces of advice I can offer finalists deciding where to do their postgrad work is to investigate which unis have funded scholarships available. There are some fantastic ones out there at the moment for example… do you fancy studying ghost belief after the second world war? How about a 17th century Dutch watchmaking family? No, would you prefer the reception of Greek Literature from 300BC-800 AD?
Being able to direct an enthusiastic young scholar towards one of these awards will be part of my role as a permanent staff member, so I shall continue to use jobs boards for that purpose. But I also need to follow such hiring and firing developments for my own career progression. I can use jobs boards to check out trends in my field, which universities, departments and scholars have had a big funding award, for example. And which topics are currently fashionable in my field. This information will be very useful once I start making funding applications of my own.
Have you any advice for people hoping to start a postgraduate degree? Do you think jobs boards can be useful to the academic community as a whole, or just those seeking work at that time?
