Pathfinder Career Narratives is an ongoing series tracking the career choices and experiences of doctoral graduates. You can see all of the posts in the series here. You can find all the Pathfinder resources and opportunities here. Today’s blog is written by Dr Neil McIntyre, Knowledge Exchange Associate in the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Glasgow. You can find Neil’s university webpage here, and his career-related social media profiles here and here.
Name: Neil McIntyre
Doctorate subject area and year of completion: History, 2016
Role and employer: Knowledge Exchange Associate, University of Glasgow
Approximate salary bracket for this type of role: £39-£44,000
It remains a great surprise to me that I have managed to develop and sustain not only a career in HE/research but a career of any description at all.
Where I had any notion of A Career or The Future as a teenager, it had led to preparation in the hope of studying Fine Art, but I had a last-minute change-of-heart and opted to study History, first at Glasgow (2005–09), then St Andrews (2010–11) and Strathclyde (2012–16). I very nearly abandoned my undergraduate degree after the first year, but, after deciding to stick it out, in a fairly remarkable turnaround, I was soon wondering whether historical research might form the basis of a career in academia, archives, or heritage.
I took breaks between my degrees because of the immediate need to earn a living but also for time away from university life and an opportunity to reflect. I loved all aspects of research, which had rekindled my curiosity, restored my sense of self, and refounded in me a sense of purpose, but I required time to think about whether I had the capability or personality to pursue an academic career.
During and between degrees I worked in retail, hospitality, finance, and for a trade union. When I was fortunate enough to get funding for my PhD, I jumped in two-footed, buried self-doubt, and vowed to say Yes to any and all opportunities, hoping, somewhat naïvely, and perhaps arrogantly, that if I left no stone unturned and grafted relentlessly, I might succeed in academia. Success did not necessarily mean a permanent job, but that was the ultimate ambition.
My doctoral studies proved to be a genuinely transformative experience, as much personal as intellectual or professional—an outcome that will remain true regardless of my career path.
My first paid role in the sector was as an ambassador for the US-UK Fulbright Commission Scottish Summer Institute (2013–17). I picked up fixed-term teaching and research posts at Strathclyde (2014–17), St Andrews (2017), and Glasgow (2017–19), as well as at Glasgow Kelvin College (2018) and Uppsala University (2019), before moving into External Relations at Glasgow not long before Covid-19. I re-joined the College of Arts & Humanities in 2022 as Research & Impact Support before becoming Knowledge Exchange Associate later that year.
I was appointed Lecturer in Scottish History at Glasgow in 2018–19, which was both the apex and denouement of my academic career in the formal (i.e., paid) sense. It was, at the time, the Dream Job. I remember vividly the feeling of being appointed; the relief that, after years of stitching together short-term roles and eking out a living, that I was getting closer to the coveted permanent post.
The next full-time role, fixed-term or otherwise, was not forthcoming, however, and I was reluctant to go back to the contract-juggling of previous years when I was in desperate need of financial stability. There was a tangible sense of having reached a juncture.
The pursuit of an academic career requires an admirable dedication, but also an unshakeable and arguably unhealthy single-mindedness. I found it in some ways relieving, therefore, at a fraught moment, to consider as many options as possible, and to recognise, too, that I need not close any doors definitively. More options meant less risk, I felt. In an initial phase of narrative reframing for employers, I emphasised my skillset as a ‘research professional’: research and project management, teaching and training, writing and editing, etc.
Later I thought this might be better imagined as ’HE professional’: that after several years working across different universities and departments, I had accrued—albeit more by accident than design—a breadth and depth of knowledge of the sector that might be useful or valuable to someone. The longer I worked in HE, moreover, the more aware I became of the range of posts that were available and the lateral moves that were possible.
I am immensely grateful to have landed in my current position as Knowledge Exchange Associate. Above all, it is about enabling academic research to make a difference in the wider world, and, relatedly, ensuring academia recognises the value of, and engages with, the expertise of diverse practitioners and professionals in other sectors. There is, therefore, a heavy emphasis on collaboration and partnership: that we stand a far better chance of achieving that kind of societal impact through collegiality and reciprocity.
The role reflects my own values—I remain an unstinting believer in the critical role that universities should play in our communities—and makes the most of my skillset, academic or otherwise. I feel appreciated and supported, and I have significant autonomy and space for creativity. I get to spend much of my time encouraging and enthusing people in their work and have the opportunity to indulge my curiosity when participating in projects that my own research might not make possible. It is fulfilling to the extent that I’m not sure that I’d want to do anything else.
Although my career narrative is necessarily autobiographical, I’d like to conclude by highlighting what I think are the merits of an academic-adjacent career and the value of a research background, in the hope that this might be helpful to researchers currently considering their options.
(1) As a researcher and educator, you develop a range of knowledge, skills and experience beyond your subject-specific discipline. This includes a valuable understanding of the HE and research environment in terms of culture, projects, funding, timecycles, infrastructure, bureaucracies, etc.
(2) An academic-adjacent role allows you to continue in a sector in which you are experienced and which values that experience. No matter what role you might move into in HE—and there are many—your prior experience of the sector will be helpful to you, enhance your chances of success, and is valuable to universities.
(3) Such roles do not require a definitive and potentially painful break from a sector in which one’s identity is often bound up. You can retain your academic identity while pursuing an alternative career in HE.
(4) Nor does it require an outright abandonment of one’s own academic work, which might be integrated with or continue alongside your other work, or else your research skillset redeployed in other HE contexts.
(5) Such roles develop knowledge, skills, and experience that in most cases only enhance any future academic application that you might make. You can pursue a career in HE without having to close off the traditional academic route.
(6) Finally, academic-adjacent work broadens your value to people, organisations, and communities outside of the sector or the academic world. HE can be bewildering to those unfamiliar with its idiosyncrasies, and thus your value is not, or not only, the research or teaching you have done as an academic, but your broader understanding of the sector, how to navigate it, and how to engage with it.
The Auditorium: a research culture and researcher development blog 