Please note: This story reflects the personal experience and perspective of its contributor. Academic careers vary widely, and others may experience different challenges and opportunities. 

Career Story 

I was appointed to the University of York in 2018 to establish cryo-electron microscopy and launch my independent research career. In 2021, I was awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship. I lead the York Bioenergetics Lab within the larger York Structural Biology Laboratory.

My career path has moved through Leeds, Singapore and Cambridge before York. Along the way I have learned that academic careers are often framed in grand language, but the day-to-day reality can look quite different. One myth I have found helpful to challenge is the way academic careers are dressed up with elaborate titles. With my team, I often say that much of what I do would simply be called middle management in any other organisation! You look after your team, secure funding, and negotiate upwards. Framing it this way made the role clearer and more manageable for me.

On leadership roles, in an ideal world you would apply when it suited your career stage. In practice, roles often need to be filled on a timescale that suits the institution rather than you. Sometimes there is an urgent unmet need. Sometimes circumstances change unexpectedly. The UK university system is currently in a period of jeopardy. Leadership in such conditions can be difficult and thankless, but also offers an opportunity to make a real difference.

The reality is that progression through an organisation, whether promotion or resource allocation, often happens through retention. The academic job market is competitive. Applying elsewhere is the only way to determine whether a move makes sense professionally and is worth the personal cost. Given the adversarial nature of academic institutions, external offers can generate leverage for you and your team that are difficult to create otherwise. From the institutional side, making offers that are not ultimately accepted and having your top-flight researchers targeted is part of how the system operates and something hiring panels/heads of department are used to.

One of the difficulties with academic careers is that the highs can be completely thrilling and the lows are brutal. Sometimes the happy periods align when life outside of work is hard and provide a much-needed lift. On the other hand, if difficult periods at work align with difficult periods at home, that can create a bleak situation. Academic careers are not unique in this regard, but they are often extreme in the passion they invoke and the time they require. How people balance this will be unique to them but they will have to come to an accommodation.

Academic teams (or labs) tend to be collections of brilliant people and leading one is a real privilege. Remembering this helps me to get on with dealing with the reality of working in a university as pragmatically as possible. Often, when feeling exhausted or that I have lost direction, I will go and chat with them to re-enthuse myself before fighting whatever battle is next!

Reflections I would offer now 

• Leadership roles do not always arise at a convenient time. Sometimes they arise because they are needed. 
• Difficult institutional periods can also be moments of meaningful impact. 
• Promotion and securing more resources often requires leverage. External applications can clarify both your value and your priorities. 
• Academic titles can obscure the fact that much of the role is middle management. Embrace that reality and get on with it. 
• Look after your team, negotiate upwards and secure the resources you need. 
• Checking in with your team doesn’t just help from a managerial point of view, it can also give you a boost!