Identify your academic career goals

• Plan years ahead for promotion, fellowships, and grants, addressing gaps in track record.
• Establish your research ‘niche’ to set yourself apart and, for ECRs, to gain independence.
• Set clear short-, mid-, and long-term goals; review annually to adapt to changing circumstances.
• Consider requirements for each academic level and your discipline; use AP&D and promotion guidelines.  
• Setting goals can help you decide which opportunities or requests to accept and decline.

Read time: 7 min

The question “Where do I want my career to go?” is only yours to answer. But here are a few points worth considering as you identify your goals and complete the Career Planning Workbook. Remember, if you don’t take control of your career, your next fellowship, or promotion – other forces probably will. 

A ‘successful’ career can mean different things to different people. For some, teaching is the most rewarding part of an academic career. For others, it’s research. Some people are keen to move into leadership roles. Some want to work with end users to maximise the impact of their research, and others prefer to focus on generating fundamental new knowledge. For many academics, achieving a degree of work-life balance will itself count as a success!

It’s clichéd, but you really do need to figure out what career ‘success’ means for you – not for your supervisor, manager, parents, partner, or anyone else! Bear in mind that the world changes – what worked for a previous generation of academics may not work for yours – and that ‘success’ might look different for you at different stages of your career too.

In the early years of an academic career, it’s important to establish your own research identity, to differentiate yourself from others, to find your niche. Ask yourself, ‘What can (or could) I do that no one else is doing?’ The answer may lie partly in the research you’ve done to date, partly in the research you would like to do in the future, and partly in other professional or personal experiences you may have had.

Thinking about what personally motivates you to do research can help in identifying what is uniquely ‘you’ and therefore sustainable for the long term. Establishing a research niche merely because it’s untrodden ground (or, conversely, because it is an up-and-coming topic that is attracting many researchers) may not, in time, prove fulfilling.

Finding your identity as a researcher is also vital to gaining independence from your supervisor. Developing your own, independent research program and leading your own team will become increasingly important as your career progresses, especially if you plan to apply for fellowships. 

But making this transition can be a challenging process that requires tact and diplomacy. Typically, you will want to continue collaborating with your supervisor, even when you set out on your own. For these reasons, finding a mentor who is impartial and can see what’s in the best interests of your career is a useful strategy. 

You will want to develop a clear strategy to gain independence, which often involves thinking about how to develop a funding track record, publish as senior author, and act as lead supervisor for HDR students.

Your long-term goals will give you an overall direction, a compass bearing. But if they’re likely to take 10, 20 or even 30 years to achieve, you’ll need some more immediate objectives too. You might think of these as milestones on the journey. Every milestone you pass will be cause for celebration, a well-earned reward. Everyone needs this sense of accomplishment to sustain and motivate them. 

You can map out career milestones by working forwards from where you are now, and by working backwards from your long-term goals. 

Make sure that you identify some concrete, achievable goals for the next 3-5 years. These may include submitting an article to a top journal or a monograph to a leading university press, or perhaps applying for a fellowship. Note that we used ‘submitting’ and ‘applying’, which are 100% achievable, not ‘publishing’ and ‘winning’, which are not. It’s okay to use the latter; just be aware of the expectations you are setting for yourself.

All of these goals are of course generic suggestions. You will want to identify your own goals, some of which may be specific to your field of research as well as to your personal interests. 

Having decided on your desired career trajectory, a further consideration will be the specific academic expectations at the University, which vary for each academic level and between disciplines. 

The annual AP&D process (UniKey required) can help you with this as you develop an annual plan and discuss your career goals with your advisor. Also look closely at the academic promotion requirements for your next level.

Life happens. This is normal. And that’s why it’s useful to re-assess your goals annually. Of course, short- and even mid-term goals are more likely to change than long-term goals (that said, even long-term goals can change). For instance, if you achieved your short-term goal of applying for a fellowship and then actually won it, you would have good cause to revise your next set of goals.

The AP&D process is an annual affair precisely because goals (as well as performance) do need to be reviewed regularly.

When you’ve clearly identified your goals and are fully aware of university expectations, you can start identifying the steps you will need to take to advance your career. Download the Career Planning Workbook (pdf, 120 KB) (UniKey required) to help you with this, as well as the annual AP&D process (UniKey required).

To help you implement those steps, you will find guidance and resources across this website, whether you need to publish more strategically, build your leadership skills, secure funding,  apply for promotion or apply for a fellowship, and so on. You may also want to find a mentor to help you plan.

It’s absolutely essential to plan ahead. Every job, every promotion, every research grant or fellowship you apply for will have selection or assessment criteria that prescribe what’s expected. Usually, expertise in your field of research is necessary but not sufficient. You may also be required to have a strong track record in, for example, PhD supervision, leading research projects and teams, and contributing to your profession (e.g. peer review, organising conferences) and to your university.

Unfortunately, it is very common for applicants to look at these requirements only months before the deadline, only to realise that there are critical gaps in their track record that could take them a year or two to address. ‘If only I’d known this earlier!’ is an all-too-common refrain.

A useful rule of thumb is to familiarise yourself with the requirements for whatever it is you intend to apply for two years in advance. This will give you ample time to target any critical gaps in your track record. 

You’ll find that identifying which steps to take to advance your career has several benefits:

• Peace of mind – you actually have a plan and know where you’re going!

• An understanding of the tasks that require a long lead-time – e.g. to reach the next academic level you may need to spend a year or more building your track record in a certain area.

• Priorities to help you decide which opportunities and invitations to accept or decline – this can be bewildering otherwise.

• Being strategic about what you agree to do will help you achieve a more sustainable work-life balance and avoid burnout.