Career Planning 11 Easy Steps  

Oh Ellie, I was with you every step of the way for this video. It's so frustrating when these materials don't match up with the reality of current ECR employment practices. The only events/resources I've found useful over the past couple of years have been those provided by my own University department. Each year we have a couple of PGR research symposiums which usually include an employment seminar/workshop. Recent sessions have included advice from departmental ECRs with regards to applying for post-docs and advice from senior academics within the department about University hiring practices (i.e. how to make sure your initial academic job application gets enough points to get you to interview). These have been amazingly helpful and I'm so thankful that my department organises events like these. 'Pie in the sky' resources are super useful if you have no idea what you want and are just starting out on your employment journey. However, for ECRs who are clear about what they want/can offer and are looking for pragmatic suggestions about how to achieve this (particularly when faced with the current realities of precarious employment), they're just not helpful.