5 Minute Career Plan Review

Well. Yesterday I started thinking about completing my goal for the month, which is to write a new career/publication plan. I couldn't really be bothered starting from scratch and I had seen that jobs.ac.uk had some career planning toolkits on their site, so I thought I'd review them. You should watch the video before reading the rest of this post.

So, I think it's pretty obvious that I don't think this is a good resource for early career academics. That is not to say that this isn't a good resource for everyone, but if you're precariously employed then it can be both disheartening and discouraging. This particular resource has some really good elements. The section at the start of the workbook is really interesting, and definitely made me think about my life.

But the issue with this book is that it doesn't take into account any of the things that really are required for early career academics. If I were to design a workbook like this (let me know if you think I should!) it would contain sections for things like proper CV audits, looking at entry level permanent job requirements and see how you shape up against those, and using that as a basis for writing your goals.

This book moves too swifly from 'imagine your dream life' to 'write your goals', but that's not a practical thing for an early career academic.

Again: these are just my thoughts - go and have a look at the workbook (it's free!) and see what you think!