Distinct Career Research Articles

Career orientation and perceived professional competence among clinical research coordinators.

This study identified underlying career orientation types of clinical research coordinators (CRCs) using cluster analysis. Select career (satisfaction, engagement, and planning) and competency-related (perceived competence) information was used to identify four distinct career orientation types. A web-based survey was administered to CRCs employed in one of four research institutions affiliated with a National Institutes of Health-funded Clinical and Translational Research Award (CTSA) in the southeastern USA. Each respondent completed a survey containing questions about personal background, individual attributes, perceived professional competence, and career orientation. The first CRC type (35.2%) possessed a positive, knowledge-seeking orientation, characterized by high career-related scores but a conservative assessment of perceived competence. The second CRC type (18.6%) represented an optimistic and confident career orientation reflected in moderate to high scores on each of the four identifying factors. The third CRC type (27.6%) reflected an inconsistent career orientation highlighted by lowered perceived competence. The final CRC type (18.6%) reflected a disengaged orientation characterized by negative responses to all career and competence factors. Understanding the career orientation of CRCs can be helpful to institutional administrators and clinical investigators as they seek to support the professional development of CRCs through tailored training efforts or work-related supports. Knowledge of career orientation may also inform individual CRCs as they manage their personal career paths by assessing current levels of functioning, career-related strengths or weaknesses, and training needs.

Aprendizaje autorregulado de estudiantes universitarios: Los usos de las tecnologías digitales

Durante los últimos años, el uso de la tecnología se ha vuelto más frecuente entre las personas por las ventajas y facilidades que ofrece. A través de ella se van adquiriendo conocimientos y desarrollando destrezas digitales que utilizamos para nuestro beneficio. Los estudiantes cada día son más conscientes de los procesos que llevan a cabo para organizar y dominar su propio aprendizaje con el uso de las tecnologías. El objetivo de nuestra investigación es conocer en qué medida los estudiantes universitarios utilizan la tecnología para autorregular su aprendizaje. Nos referimos por Aprendizaje Autorregulado a la manera en que los estudiantes son capaces de planificar, dirigir, aprovechar y establecer sus propios objetivos para dominar su propio aprendizaje y aplicar los conocimientos en diferentes contextos. El método utilizado fue: encuestas de tipo cuestionario a 138 estudiantes de la Universidad de Sevilla, en España, y a 166 de diferentes universidades en República Dominicana de diversas carreras, donde un 59% eran mujeres, y un 41 % hombres. Los resultados mostraron que, si bien el uso de recursos tecnológicos como cursos online, búsqueda de información en la web, compartir información con los profesores y compañeros, beneficia a los estudiantes, no es un factor determinante para autorregular su aprendizaje, más bien, se necesita de procesos relacionados a la metacognición, con el entorno donde los estudiantes desarrollan los procesos de aprendizaje y las actividades que realizan dentro y fuera del aula.

Salon Pictures, Museum Records, and Album Snapshots: Australian Photography in the Context of the First World War

Among the various new modes for making photographs that were explored by Australian photographers in the first decades of the twentieth century, three in particular – Pictorialist images, authentic records, and personal snapshots – had far-reaching implications for the institutions of Australian photography. Pictorialist photographs are now the foundation of many Australian art museum collections; photographic records produced at the time have become iconic in Australian public history, forming the backbone of many social history collections; and personal snapshots from the period are increasingly reproduced in social histories. Historians of Australian photography have discussed and analysed each of these modes1, but they have tended to treat them separately, or even in opposition to each other, and to concentrate on the distinct careers of individual photographers. This article looks at this crucial period, and these key photographic modes, from the point of view of the worldwide networks and systems for the distribution, exhibition, collection, and indexing of photographs. We show how these modes, far from being distinct, overlapped one another as each grappled with the same issues of nation, history, and memory, and as each articulated their nationalistic concerns through international networks and idioms.

Entrepreneurial, Occupational and Leadership Dimensions: Analysis of Multiple Role Career Patterns

This present study analyses the career patterns of a sample of 2916 individuals drawn from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79) by characterizing their careers as consisting of job roles unfolding in entrepreneurial, occupational and leadership dimensions i.e., our coding allows individuals to hold singular job roles (e.g., Professional only or Entrepreneur only or Manager only) or multiple job roles (e.g., Professional-Managerial or Entrepreneurial-Professional) at certain points of their careers. We identified five broad career patterns, labelled as mid- professional, late-professional, persistent-professional, persistent-vocational and entrepreneurial career patterns. We also examined the antecedents and consequences of adopting the distinctive career patterns and found that individual and social hierarchy attributes play an important role in career pattern adoptions. Significant differences were also observed in the levels of objective career success across the identified career patterns. Contributions to the broader careers, entrepreneurship and human capital literatures are discussed.

How professionalization and organizational diversity shape contemporary careers: Developing a typology and process model

‘How are contemporary careers constructed?’ The aim of the article is to answer this question by developing a conceptual model of how professional and organizational environments shape careers in today’s knowledge-based economy. Focusing on the interplay of two macro-level forces, professionalization and the diversity of organizations, we develop a typology of four distinct career models and incorporate them into a dynamic evolutionary process of careers. The implications for developing a more integrated and dynamic approach on contemporary careers are discussed.

Abdurrahman Atçıl. Scholars and Sultans in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire.

Scholars and Sultans in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire by Abdurrahman Atçıl is a welcome addition to English monographs on the Ottoman learned class. Ottoman ruler Mehmed II (r. 1444–1446, 1451–1481) introduced a number of reforms leading to the Ottoman polity’s centralization. As a part of these efforts, he hierarchically organized the scholars who worked in positions from judge to fiscal administrator. Atçıl analyzes this restructuring process, unprecedented among the peers of the Ottomans. As a result of this policy, “scholar-bureaucrats” (as Atçıl calls them, to differentiate this group from the scholars who did not occupy positions in institutions under the central authorities’ control) emerged “as a professional class” (5–6), gradually gained a degree of control over who would be a member of their class, and “began to see their relationship with the government as valuable instead of as compromising” (5). Along with Mehmed II’s revolutionary role, Atçıl also underlines that the emphasis of Süleyman I’s reign (r. 1520–1566) on bureaucratization, accompanied by a substantial increase in learning institutions and hence positions for scholar-bureaucrats, enhanced this hierarchical structure, especially from the 1530s onward, leading to the rise of distinct career tracks for scholar-bureaucrats. According to Atçıl, this system was consolidated by the 1600s, where this book concludes.

Education and public outreach in astronomy and beyond

Education and public outreach has evolved from being part of a scientist’s duties into a distinct career path that is well-suited for astronomers. The ideal professional in this field has strong communication skills coupled with a broad research background.

Understanding and addressing the gaps: Generational perspectives on public relations leadership development in the United States

This qualitative study is the first known effort to define the differing perceptions of public relations leadership at three distinct career points, and explore the leadership development gaps and needs from these varied perspectives. Semi-structured interviews with senior public relations practitioners, young professionals and current students in the United States bring needed depth and clarity to prior scholarship on leadership development, a growing concern within the public relations industry around the world. Additionally, the findings pinpoint leadership development best practices for better infusing leadership development into undergraduate public relations education, and into training and development programs for young professionals.

A survey of working conditions within biomedical research in the United Kingdom

Background: Recent articles have presented a bleak view of career prospects in biomedical research in the US. Too many PhDs and postdocs are trained for too few research positions, creating a “holding-tank” of experienced senior postdocs who are unable to get a permanent position. Coupled with relatively low salaries and high levels of pressure to publish in top-tier academic journals, this has created a toxic environment that is perhaps responsible for a recently observed decline in biomedical postdocs in the US, the so-called “postdocalypse”. Methods: To address the gulf of information relating to working habits and attitudes of UK-based academic biomedical researchers, a link to an online survey was included in an article published in the Guardian newspaper. Survey data were collected between 21st March 2016 and 6th November 2016 and analysed to examine discrete profiles for three major career stages: PhD, postdoc and principal investigator. Results: Overall, the data presented here echo trends observed in the US: The 520 UK-based biomedical researchers responding to the survey reported feeling disillusioned with academic research, due to the low chance of getting a permanent position and the long hours required at the bench. Also like the US, large numbers of researchers at each distinct career stage are considering leaving biomedical research altogether. Conclusions: There are several systemic flaws in the academic scientific research machine – for example the continual overproduction of PhDs and the lack of stability in the early-mid stages of a research career - that are slowly being addressed in countries such as the US and Germany. These data suggest that similar flaws also exist in the UK, with a large proportion of respondents concerned about their future in research. To avoid lasting damage to the biomedical research agenda in the UK, addressing such concerns should be a major priority.

The Importance of Continuing Professional Development to Career Satisfaction and Patient Care: Meeting the Needs of Novice to Mid- to Late-Career Nurses throughout Their Career Span

This paper provides insights into the role of ongoing training and education on nurses’ career satisfaction across different career stages and their ability to provide quality patient care. Eighteen focus groups were conducted over the course of five months in 2015 (January to May) in eight Canadian provinces. There were a total of 185 focus group participants. Each focus group lasted approximately 1.5 h and included 8–15 participants who self-selected in one of three distinct career stages (students, early-career, mid- to late-career). A thematic analysis of the data revealed that ongoing professional development is an expressed need and expectation for nurses across the various career stages. Student and early-career nurses expected sufficient training and education to facilitate workplace transitions, as well as continuing education opportunities throughout their careers for career laddering. For mid- to late-career nurses, the importance of lifelong learning was understood within the context of maintaining competency, providing quality patient care and enhancing future career opportunities. Training and education were directly linked to nurses’ career satisfaction. Healthy work environments were identified by nurses as those that invested in continuing professional development opportunities to ensure continuous growth in their practice and provide optimal quality patient care. Training and education emerged as a cross-cutting theme across all career stages and held implications for patient care, as well as retention and recruitment.

A survey of working conditions within biomedical research in the United Kingdom.

Background: Many recent articles have presented a bleak view of career prospects in biomedical research in the US. Too many PhDs and postdocs are trained for too few research positions, creating a "holding-tank" of experienced senior postdocs who are unable to get a permanent position. Coupled with relatively low salaries and high levels of pressure to publish in top-tier academic journals, this has created a toxic environment that is perhaps responsible for a recently observed decline in biomedical postdocs in the US, the so-called "postdocalypse". Methods: In order to address the gulf of information relating to working habits and attitudes of UK-based biomedical researchers, a link to an online survey was included in an article published in the Guardian newspaper. Survey data were collected between 21 st March 2016 and 6 th November 2016 and analysed to examine discrete profiles for three major career stages: the PhD, the postdoc and the principal investigator. Results: Overall, the data presented here echo trends observed in the US: The 520 UK-based biomedical researchers responding to the survey reported feeling disillusioned with academic research, due to the low chance of getting a permanent position and the long hours required at the bench. Also like the US, large numbers of researchers at each distinct career stage are considering leaving biomedical research altogether. Conclusions: There are several systemic flaws in the academic scientific research machine - for example the continual overproduction of PhDs and the lack of stability in the early-mid stages of a research career - that are slowly being addressed in countries such as the US and Germany. These data suggest that similar flaws also exist in the UK, with a large proportion of respondents concerned about their future in research. To avoid lasting damage to the biomedical research agenda in the UK, addressing such concerns should be a major priority.

The Emerging Adulthood Years: Finding One’s Way in Career and Intimate Love Relationships

ABSTRACTThis study examines career and intimate love pathways in 100 Israeli emerging adults (fifty-four men) who were followed from age twenty-two to twenty-nine. In a semistructured interview at the age of twenty-nine, participants were asked about current work and educational status and changes in recent years. They were also asked to reflect on the meaning of the processes they followed. Following the completion of the career interview, participants were asked to talk about their current romantic status, their past romantic experiences, difficulties in relationships and past separations, and how they coped with these. Analyses of interviews yielded four distinctive career pursuit pathways and four intimate love pathways that varied on the continuum of stability–variability, and were associated with different levels of concurrent well-being. Analysis of the interviews showed that changes that young people make along the way do not necessarily indicate confusion, but might represent their efforts to find their own paths toward settling down. Personality measures, such as self-criticism, dependency and efficacy, measured seven years earlier, predicted pathway affiliation at age twenty-nine. In addition, parental support was found to serve as a protective or risk factor associated with adaptive pursuit of career and intimate love goals. By employing this mixed-method approach, the findings demonstrate the diverse development of career and intimate love pathways during emerging adulthood, and indicate the importance of personality and parental support in the process of development during the transition to adulthood.

A survey of working conditions within biomedical research in the United Kingdom

Background: Many recent articles have presented a bleak view of career prospects in biomedical research in the US. Too many PhDs and postdocs are trained for too few research positions, creating a “holding-tank” of experienced senior postdocs who are unable to get a permanent position. Coupled with relatively low salaries and high levels of pressure to publish in top-tier academic journals, this has created a toxic environment that is perhaps responsible for a recently observed decline in biomedical postdocs in the US, the so-called “postdocalypse”. Methods: In order to address the gulf of information relating to working habits and attitudes of UK-based biomedical researchers, a link to an online survey was included in an article published in the Guardian newspaper. Survey data were collected between 21 st March 2016 and 6 th November 2016 and analysed to examine discrete profiles for three major career stages: the PhD, the postdoc and the principal investigator. Results: Overall, the data presented here echo trends observed in the US: The 520 UK-based biomedical researchers responding to the survey reported feeling disillusioned with academic research, due to the low chance of getting a permanent position and the long hours required at the bench. Also like the US, large numbers of researchers at each distinct career stage are considering leaving biomedical research altogether. Conclusions: There are several systemic flaws in the academic scientific research machine – for example the continual overproduction of PhDs and the lack of stability in the early-mid stages of a research career - that are slowly being addressed in countries such as the US and Germany. These data suggest that similar flaws also exist in the UK, with a large proportion of respondents concerned about their future in research. To avoid lasting damage to the biomedical research agenda in the UK, addressing such concerns should be a major priority.

A survey of working conditions within biomedical research in the United Kingdom

Background: Many recent articles have presented a bleak view of career prospects in biomedical research in the US. Too many PhDs and postdocs are trained for too few research positions, creating a "holding-tank" of experienced senior postdocs who are unable to get a permanent position. Coupled with relatively low salaries and the high levels of pressure to publish in top-tier academic journals, this has created a toxic environment that is perhaps responsible for a recently observed decline in biomedical postdocs in the US, the so-called "postdocalypse". Methods: In order to address the gulf of information relating to working habits and attitudes of UK-based biomedical researchers, a survey was conducted and analysed to examine discrete profiles for three major career stages: the PhD, the postdoc and the principal investigator. Results: Overall, the data presented here echoes trends observed in the US: Scientists in the UK feel disillusioned with academic research, due to the low chance of getting a permanent position and the long hours required at the bench. Also like the US, large numbers of researchers at each distinct career stage are considering leaving biomedical research altogether. Conclusions: There are several systemic flaws in the academic scientific research machine - for example to continual overproduction of PhDs and the lack of stability in the early-mid stages of a research career - that are slowly being addressed in countries such as the US and Germany. This data suggests that similar flaws also exist in the UK, with a large proportion of respondents concerned about their future in research. To avoid lasting damage to the biomedical research agenda in the UK, addressing such concerns should be a major priority.

Validation of the German Career Decision-Making Profile—An Updated 12-Factor Version

The Career Decision-Making Profile (CDMP) was developed by Gati and colleagues in 2010 as an attempt to reliably measure which strategies individuals apply when making career decisions. In order to provide counseling and coaching professionals with a German version of the scale, we translated and validated the German version (G-CDMP) in two studies (total N = 622). Results of Study 1 verified the proposed 12-factor structure by means of confirmatory factor analyses, confirming that the G-CDMP assesses 12 distinct career decision-making strategies. Results of Study 2 demonstrated the G-CDMP’s construct validity on subscale level by relating it to self-evaluations (e.g., occupational self-efficacy) and personality (i.e., the Big Five) as well as to career-related constructs, such as career adaptability and cognitive reactions toward career-life decisions (e.g., life satisfaction). As the studies provide support for the G-CDMP’s factor structure and its construct validity, implications for its use during career counseling are discussed.

Honor in the Academic Profession: How Professors Want to Be Remembered by Colleagues

Achievement in the professions is situated relationally. Work comes to constitute contribution only by the judgments of colleagues. This is paradigmatically the case in science and scholarship, where colleagues not only sanction others but also create their legacy. Normatively, it would stand to reason that colleagues would be held in high regard; the work of academia, and the careers of academics, depend on them. The present work, however, examines how professors value colleagues in actuality. Taking the field of physics, the article examines one aspect of the social significance of colleagues by asking how physicists might desire being remembered by them. Data came from interviews with 60 physicists at distinct career stages and employed at distinct university types. The results reveal a highly delimited number of ways physicists wish to be remembered. In addition, their responses vary by departmental tier, age, and productivity. The discussion exposes two sets of purportedly unequal and contradictory social codes used by academics to project a legacy: professional attributes that are code for “charisma” and personal attributes that are code for “morality.” Anticipation of the self in memoriam is argued to constitute a principal means by which people intersubjectively construct status.

Career barriers influencing career success

Purpose– Few research has addressed the factors that undermine people’s subjective perceptions of career success. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to further illuminate the issue of career barriers in perceptions of career success for a specific group of professionals: academics.Design/methodology/approach– This study adopts an interpretative-social constructionist methodology. Complementarily, it was employed a phenomenological method in data gathering and analysis – with the use of in-depth interviews and a theme analysis. The research was undertaken with a group of 87 Portuguese academics of both sexes and in different stages of their academic careers.Findings– The findings pinpoint the existence of multi-level barriers encountered by the academics when trying to succeed in their careers. The interviewees mentioned particularly the organizational-professional career barriers pertaining to three general themes: poor collegiality and workplace relationships; the lack of organizational support and employment precariousness; and the career progression standards and expectations. At the individual life cycle level the interviewees referred to the theme of finding balance; at the same time, the gender structure was also a theme mentioned as an important career barrier in career success, particularly by the women interviewed.Research limitations/implications– One of the limitations of this research is related to the impossibility of generalizability of its findings for the general population. Nevertheless, the researcher provides enough detail that grants the reader with the ability to judge of its similarity to other research contexts.Practical implications– This research highlights the role played by distinct career barriers for a specific professional group: academics. This has implications for higher education policy-makers and for human resources managers in higher education institutions.Originality/value– The current study extends the literature on career success by offering detailed anecdotal evidence on how negative work experiences might hinder career success. This research shows that to understand career barriers to success it is useful to consider multi-level factors: organizational-level factors (e.g. poor collegiality and workplace relationships); individual-level factors (e.g. life-cycle factors such as age/career stage); and structural-level factors (e.g. gender).

Honor in the Academic Profession: How Professors Want to be Remembered by Colleagues

Achievement in the professions is situated relationally. Work comes to constitute contribution only by the judgments of colleagues. This is paradigmatically the case in science and scholarship, where colleagues not only sanction others but also create their legacy. Normatively, it would stand to reason that colleagues would be held in high regard; the work of academia, and the careers of academics, depend on them. The present work, however, examines how professors value colleagues in actuality. Taking the field of physics, the article examines one aspect of the social significance of colleagues by asking how physicists might desire being remembered by them. Data came from interviews with 60 physicists at distinct career stages and employed at distinct university types. The results reveal a highly delimited number of ways physicists wish to be remembered. In addition, their responses vary by departmental tier, age, and productivity. The discussion exposes two sets of purportedly unequal and contradictory social codes used by academics to project a legacy: professional attributes that are code for “charisma” and personal attributes that are code for “morality.” Anticipation of the self in memoriam is argued to constitute a principal means by which people intersubjectively construct status.

Time preferences and career investments

This paper examines the role of time preferences in career investments. We focus on the effects of patience on two types of career investments: work effort and on-the-job search. Whereas the former increases the probability of obtaining a promotion, the latter affects the chance of receiving an outside job offer. We propose a theoretical career model which allows for these two distinct career paths. To test the theoretical predictions, we make use of the DNB Household Survey. This large Dutch longitudinal survey contains detailed information on individual time preferences, on-the-job search behaviour and indicators of work effort. The results show that on-the-job search and work effort increase with patience. The relation between patience and job mobility is more ambiguous. These findings may be hard to reconcile with standard on-the-job search models but can be rationalized by models in which work effort and on-the-job search are substitutes.

The naval science of Albert Beaumont Wood, O.B.E., D.Sc

A. B. Wood’s career in Naval scientific research spanned a period of nearly 50 years, from the early days of the first World War to the time of his death in 1964. After graduating from Manchester University with a first class honors degree in Physics he seemed destined for a career of distinction in academia. But, like many young men at the time, when the U.K. was becoming deeply embroiled in war, he felt dissatisfied with the cloistered academic life and instead became one of the first two physicists to receive an official appointment with the Admiralty under the newly formed “Board of Invention and Research”. Thus, the Royal Navy Scientific Service was born and Dr. Wood began his celebrated research into the propagation of sound underwater, about which little was known at the time. Many of his technical achievements were made at the Admiralty Research Laboratory, Teddington and, shortly before his death, he spent a year at the U.S. Naval Electronics Laboratory, as it was then called, in San Diego. He was awarded the Pioneer of Underwater Acoustics medal by the Acoustical Society of America and his Text Book of Sound is still a standard work on the subject.