How to Work in Academia

If you want a career where you’re constantly learning, researching, teaching and publishing your work, academia might be the career path for you. Each academic’s career is completely unique, and varies massively across job roles, specialities, universities and countries.  

Academic roles within universities tend to be very competitive and passion for your specialisation is essential. Most roles require a PhD, and you’ll need to build up contacts in your specialised field. 

For this reason, many PhD graduates start out their careers in roles such as a research assistant or a research fellow. These are usually short-term roles on temporary contracts, but you’ll earn some valuable work experience to secure the more competitive full-time roles.  

Three academics working in universities around the world told us why and how they became academics and what advice they would offer to students looking to study in the field. 

Samantha Walkden is a lecturer in Forensic Psychology at Leeds Trinity University in the UK.  

No two days are ever the same in Walkden’s role: some days she’s in meetings, others she’s talking about new research projects with academics at other institutions or preparing workshop materials. 

She also teaches the MSc Applied Custodial Leadership, a graduate scheme in partnership with a charity called Unlocked. Here, she supports students who are completing a part-time master's whilst working full-time as prison officers. 

Walkden insists that there’s no ‘perfect’ route to get into academia, as proved by her own career path. Walkden studied forensic psychology at undergraduate level and worked at McDonalds after class: her job for more than four years. “But I knew that wasn’t what I wanted to do forever,” she said. 

After the passing of her beloved grandma in her final year of university, Walkden decided to explore her career options in psychology, eventually landing a two-week work placement in a psychology department. She then used this experience to become a full-time healthcare worker.  

After working as a health worker for two years, Walkden switched to part-time to complete her master’s in investigative psychology. 

“Towards the end of my master's I applied for the vice chancellors fee waiver to complete my PhD and was successful,” she said.  

In 2017, she started to guest lecture on a forensic psychology undergraduate course, which gave her an insight into life as a lecturer. She realised this was something she wanted to pursue. 

She said: “I’m passionate about sharing my knowledge and experience with students but also wanted the opportunity to continue to conduct research in forensic psychology” 

In 2020 Walkden applied for the position of Forensic Psychology Lecturer at Leeds Trinity University and got the job. 

Her advice? “If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Ask for opportunities, talk to people about your passion and make yourself known,” she said.  

“It’s important to remember that you might not be confident at the start, you won’t know all the answers and you will make mistakes. But you have to take that first step and learn from the bottom up. It isn’t a quick or easy process, but you need to gain small experiences in order to learn and grow,” said Walkden. 

She added: "Believe in yourself and I wish you all the best in your future careers."