Transferring from industry to academia - careers advice needed

[imaginaytion]

My DH has a senior skilled role in a FTSE 100 company, with a lot of experience and knowledge in a particular topic relevant to many industries. He would love to lecture/teach this topic, so is musing about moving to academia in the future and has seen at least one university lectureship advertised that his industrial experience would be perfect for. However, they also want some academic experience, with the caveat that "early career" academic experience is sufficient. He is wondering whether, in principle, this means a PhD, or whether a Masters with a research focus would fulfill the requirement. He is thinking about how he might get appropriate experience in the shortest amount of time. (His current job is very demanding, so it is unlikely that he'd have time to do a part-time research degree in parallell).

Any advice?

There's a board here called the scenic common room (I think) I'd see if you can get this thread moved there as youlll get advice from academics :)

Early career could be research based Masters level, they're really wanting some teaching experience though. Which PhD students get by being grad teaching assistants, so a Masters might also provide that. Can he get in touch with nearby unis and see if they want any hourly paid, or even guest lecturers in his field?

I would warn though, that is his area is very niche he's unlikely to secure employment as a lecturer. He needs a much broader base from which to teach, and longer term a PhD will be needed. He should check course and module content to see what lecturers typically have to cover - lecturers are expected to teach several different modules each year.

I am a lawyer. For about 20 years I also gave about 70 day courses a year in 16 countries and to lawyers in the UK who needed to know about my areas of law (and I write law books etc) so it is possible in some sectors to teach in that sense (although I did not choose to be employed by a university).

"Early career" usually technically covers people up to four to six years (depending on whose definition you are using) post-completion of a PhD. So just having a Masters would be very much on the low side in terms of both teaching and research experience.

It probably depends on the subject and how valuable his industry experience would actually be. If it's a very vocational course aimed at preparing people for quite specific jobs similar to the jobs he has had then there would be more leeway than if it was a more traditional academic course. If you could give us some indication of that, we could advise better.

My DH has a senior skilled role in a FTSE 100 company, with a lot of experience and knowledge in a particular topic relevant to many industries. He would love to lecture/teach this topic

This really isn't a description of a full-time academic job. It sounds as though he'd be a good guest speaker, but not an academic. We are research-focused - he'd need a PhD as a minimum in most fields, for a serious full-time job. And he'd need more than one "particular topic."

Does your husband want to teach or work in academia? These are two different things. If it’s academia then he’ll need a PhD, possibly some time as a post doc, some teaching experience and will be expected to publish, win funding and all sorts of other things. I would not recommend moving to academia to anyone right now, but maybe I’m just too jaded. Also, getting a decent contract or progression mostly depends on your ability to move across the country every couple of years.

If he's just wanting to teach then guest lecturer (1-2 hours a year) is best bet, or doing some kind of industry-linked executive education. But generally early career means has a PhD, and even 'teaching only' posts are required to engage in scholarship such as writing text books, conducting education based research.

The criteria for the job should say what qualifications are required. I would interpret early career experience as graduate teaching assistant type roles during a PhD with possibly some lecturing experience. However, the best thing to do would be to contact the named person on the job advert and ask.

I used to work in a uni dept with strong industry connections. Suggest he follows up ad suggested above, ie contact the named person for the job vacancy.
We used to get lots of Industrialists in to do guest lectures. I have seen people from industry come in as general managers - they never stay long.

Pay in academia generally doesn't match industry - by a long way. Contrary to the stereotypes, academics put in very long days, weeks and months.
Let him explore the idea by all means.

I moved from industry to academia eight years ago. I am on a teaching-only contract, so I didn't need a PhD or any research experience (I do have a master's degree and a professional qualification). I didn't have any teaching experience either, although I did have significant experience with mentoring and managing graduates within my firm. I think I was also lucky with the timing - they happened to be looking for someone in my field of expertise.

It's been a good move for me and I really enjoy teaching undergraduates. It was a big pay cut though!

If you DH is in a senior skilled role in a FTSE 100 company, he will take a huge pay cut if he moves to academia.

However, it is unlikely that he will get a permanent job in academia unless he has a PhD, post-doctoral research and teaching experience.

Guest lecturing would be a better route to pursue.

The other thing to say is that universities aren't just adjuncts to industry. They are their own thing: just because someone has industry experience, doesn't mean they'll be necessarily good at teaching/researching.

Really will depend on the subject and what industry experience.

I went into my first academic post at Senior Lecturer level with no formal teaching experience, no teaching qualification, no PhD and no Masters. I did my teaching qualification while working in my first year. Still haven’t done a Masters or PhD and am now programme lead. I’d say that’s unusual though. The advert for my job said PhD was essential but I applied regardless.

For job-matching purposes, a PHD is often demanded, but my institution included the wording "or equivalent industrial experience". Depends on the field. Also depends if the post holder is expected to secure research funding and lead research programmes or is purely teaching (the latter is becoming rare, IME).