I'm wondering what people think about this? I have busted a gut for a good few years (c. six years since my PhD) to make it as an academic. I've been successful in the medium range I guess - a lot of impact and some sort of public profile in my area, a few decent papers, but not nearly enough - my productivity is very low. I finally got promoted to SL recently though (I'm in a mid-ranking university).
I have come to the conclusion that I am just not sufficiently ambitious to go much faster, although I may go further, eventually. (I am probably also just not quite good/clever enough). And I am only prepared to work fairly standard hours (9ish-5.30ish), I just won't do endless evenings/weekends/etc. Essentially, I want to enjoy my life and my work and I have realised I regret spending my DC's early years in a fog of striving to achieve. I want to make sure I really enjoy what's left of their childhood.
Academics constantly complain of overwork, but I don't feel over-worked now - largely I think because I've decided to reduce the pressure on myself, and let my career just tick over. I would obviously never voice this to peers/colleagues, but admitting or experiencing a lack of ambition in academia seems quite unusual and perhaps a bit controversial.
What do you think? Is everyone here fired by ambition? Or are you ticking over too?
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Is there room in academia for the not-very-ambitious?
34 replies
dameednatheaverage · 25/07/2017 11:38
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