Pathfinder Career Narratives 45: Research Culture Specialist, University of Glasgow

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 Danielle Barkley, Research Culture Specialist at the University of Glasgow. You can find Dr Barkley on LinkedIn.

Name: Danielle Barkley

Doctorate subject area and year of completion: English Literature, 2015

Role and employer: Research Culture Specialist, University of Glasgow

Approximate salary bracket for this type of role: £35-45k

I began a PhD in English literature at McGill University in 2009, aspiring to a career as a faculty member. During my time as a post-graduate researcher, I found myself interested in administration and coordination activities in addition to research and teaching; for example, I was involved as a department rep with the Graduate Student Society and I also participated in coordinating programming for early career researchers at a disciplinary conference in Japan. Looking back, I can see that some of these experiences were building skills that would later be foundational to varied work within academic settings, and also reflected my interest in working with individuals from a variety of academic backgrounds. For both myself and many other individuals I know, activities initially undertaken out of interest or as “side quests” adjacent to the PhD actually shed light on some of my key interests, strengths, and values, although I didn’t necessarily realize it at the time.

I got my start in student support/career services in a volunteer/peer support role towards the end of my PhD; I thought the opportunity sounded interesting and could provide some much-needed structure and human interaction during the often-isolating ABD phase. Fortunately, this role continued to develop into future opportunities: a part-time contract, an extended part-time contact, and eventually a full-time contract role. I held these positions in conjunction with a variety of teaching, facilitation, and writing support roles while also applying to tenure-track positions and I genuinely believe that my career could have gone in a number of different directions. I’m very happy that working in career development panned out, but I don’t think it was foreordained, nor do I think it is the only career option that could have met my needs.

Eventually I realized that working in career development aligned well with my teaching experience (which translated into comfort facilitating workshops on a wide variety of topics), interest in working with students from a wide variety of academic disciplines, desire for ongoing learning and intellectual challenge (there are always new jobs and new questions), and desire to remain in the higher education sector. I began exploring a range of roles and began a position at the University of British Columbia in 2017. This role allowed me to gain invaluable experience meeting with thousands of students, facilitating workshops in a wide variety of settings, and fostering relationships with collaborators both within and outside of my home institution. I became actively involved with the Graduate and Postdoctoral Development Network, which brings together professionals working to support post docs and post graduate researchers from across Canadian universities. One of my favourite aspects of working in university settings is the ability to build collegial networks across institutions; for me, this mirrors how I once (and to some extent, still do) feel connected to researchers studying Victorian literature, regardless of what university they worked or studied at. I believe that beginning one’s career as a researcher provides an interesting and valuable model for collegial networks and interdisciplinarity, and I value how this mindset has animated my career even after I moved into other roles.

Working in higher education has also supported my desire for lifelong learning and a “portfolio” model of career (in which one combines a variety of roles to maximize the skills used). I had the opportunity to participate in initial coaching training as part of my professional development in higher education; I then went on to complete my coach accreditation and have been an ICF certified coach since 2021. Coaching has given me a portable skill set that I have applied in many roles and contexts, as well as some wonderful additions to my professional network. I also maintain an active portfolio of freelance writing projects, mainly related to literature; for example, in 2023, I contributed this guide as part of a project spotlighting diverse writers. I’ve also been pleased to find that, especially with increasingly digital initiatives, it is often possible to attend talks and reading groups related to literature and history. While writing and thinking about books may not be central to my day to day “career,” I believe that I have been able to make it a substantial part of my overall life.

Starting a new role with the Research Culture & Researcher Development team has been my latest adventure, and I’m very grateful for this opportunity to learn about higher education contexts in a new country. I think that my experiences as a researcher and teacher during my PGR years were formative for helping me to feel resilient and confident to try new things; as a researcher, curiosity fuels innovation and exploration, and this mindset can also be applied to individual careers. I certainly could not have anticipated the places my career path would take me (literally and figuratively) and looking back, I’m glad that I couldn’t predict this future. Reflecting on what has unfolded since I completed my PhD make me hopeful as I think about what is still to come.