ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some of the routes that academics have used to develop their careers. It includes summaries of three recent research studies on aspects of academic life, work and career development. Interwoven with the studies are a snapshot of statistics of academic employment in the United Kingdom, and a section on the use of career consultants, mentors and role models. The intention is to provide a survey of the changing scene, to give insight into how commentators view and make sense of it, and to highlight the diverse routes to success. It is worth noting that ‘success’ to the academic is often a personal construct, in that what is one person’s success, could be another person’s imprisonment: for example, a teaching-only contract, freedom to do unrestrained research, titles that provide status, flexible working hours and performance indicator attainment. This chapter, therefore, is not designed as a ‘how to do it guide’, but instead takes on an exploratory role, highlighting some key research findings alongside reference to a range of useful means of gaining support to achieve whatever an individual academic might deem to be ‘success’. The chapter may also be a prompt for reflection on why a career has gone in one direction rather than another, and provide ideas about possible routes for the future. For those seeking something more straightforward, there are two potentially useful guides which readers of this volume, particularly in their own roles as mentors and advisers to younger academics, might wish to recommend: Blaxter, Hughes and Tight (1998) and Royce Sadler (1999).
