Christmas parties attended: 3
Christmas parties yet to attend: 3
Lie-ins to look forward to: so many!
So, it’s the end of my first term in my new academic job and time for a rest and a mental stock-take I think. Everything has gone really well and I love my new job, the students and my colleagues, but I am sure that sort of nauseating talk is not what you have clicked on to this blog for!
Certainly the challenges of an academic job have been numerous, and no different from those of most new jobs really: getting used to a new environment, and a new managerial system as well as working out who it’s most important to get on with and who will help you out of a life and death situation!
Christmas and New Year is often a time when people reconsider their lives and think about changing their future. But this is a way of thinking that should be adopted throughout the year constantly assessing and reassessing progress, training and the future. As an academic this can be done in small ways, by building on student feedback to improve teaching for next term for example. You can think bigger… by bothering to put in for that long-winded grant application or suggest a collaboration with a like minded colleague, but smaller improvements to your working life are just as important. Just something to think about over the turkey, Christmas pud and mince pie! I’m off to have a few days of rest, before getting down to some serious research next week!
