The BAFA conference was a great way to catch up with people I hadn't seen for a while but I was concerned to learn that so many of my younger academic friends are struggling with increasing workloads and poor management support. I think I was very lucky that my academic career spanned the last two decades of the 20th century when UK higher education was better resourced and creeping commercialism was only just starting to bring in the heavy-handed management that they are now suffering. But I soon learned that I had to be proactive in managing my work situation. Reflecting on this, I wondered what advice I would give to young academics starting careers in business schools now.
Build and maintain your personal network. Your network will be really important for your career: as well as providing friendship and personal support, it will be a source of information about project and job opportunities, as well as referees for grant and promotion applications. Doctoral study gives you the chance to start building an academic network: if you've attended any research training courses or doctoral colloquia you will have met others in the same career stage as you, as well as leading academics in your area. It's worth keeping in touch with these people.
The resources to support conference attendance have diminished in many universities but it is the best way to establish contacts with colleagues in other institutions. Make the effort to meet new people: I know it's not always easy for those who are not naturally extrovert but it pays dividends. Emphasise the value of conference attendance to your line manager by showing what useful general information you have brought back, beyond the benefits to you personally. Get involved in the main learned society in your discipline: committees are always looking for volunteers.
Don't forget your local network: take every opportunity to meet people in other parts of your university - getting yourself known can lead to interesting cross-disciplinary activities.
If you are a qualified accountant, you will also have a professional network through firms you have worked for and your professional body. This will help you to keep up with developments in the profession and with research access. It will also enable you to offer appropriate careers advice to your students.
Record what you do. Much of the work that academics do is invisible. I started writing this blog because a senior manager who was not a researcher had, in an informal conversation, questioned how I spent my time, implying that professors had an easy life compared to managers. You need to make all your activity visible - to yourself to start with, so that you can be realistic about your work-life balance - and then to managers. This may not at first seem relevant in an academic job - after all, you have a teaching timetable. But what about all the admin you have to do to support that teaching? And the research that you often have to fit in during evenings and weekends and annual leave?
There may be allowances to support admin and research (although they are never large enough!) but there is also other activity which supports your role as a good "organisational citizen" which is not formally recognised. There are many examples, including ad hoc jobs that have not been anticipated in your workload planning, such as membership of validation panels, both internal and external; committee membership within your university or in academic or professional bodies; reviewing papers for academic journals and conferences; membership of editorial panels; external examining. These are all career-enhancing opportunities, worth pursuing, and often not obvious to your manager.
You will find it very helpful to have detailed information to hand when appraisal time comes round. Proactively, where there are areas of your work which you want to develop, you can show how your current activity may constrain this and ask for help. Reactively, if you are asked to take on extra work, being able to say "This is what I am doing at the moment. What would you like me to drop to make space for this new task?" focuses attention on *all* your activity, beyond the work reflected in whatever allocation system is used in your university.
Study the politics of your institution. Where does the power and influence lie? Understanding the pressures on your head of department and dean will help you to manage upwards. It will also help you to see what your career development opportunities might be.
Back in 1985 I quickly realised that the head porter was more important to my daily life than my head of department: he had the power to make my daily life much more comfortable in an old and poorly maintained building. My tiny office was always too cold or too hot: he could find me a heater or a fan. Equally important were the AV technician who could replace the bulb in the overhead projector and the library assistant who could find the current journal issue missing from the shelf. New buildings, new teaching technology and online library access have made these particular issues less important but making friends with admin and support staff is always worthwhile.
