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Nathan

Episode 49: Academic Jobs Special 3

Episode

In this episode I chat to Dr David McGrogan about academic jobs: Dave is my best friend, and I previously spoke to him about his PhD and viva in Episode 16, and then he interviewed me for Episode 25. Dave is a Senior Lecturer at Northumbria University, and he was very generous in sharing his experiences in applying for jobs, thoughts on the academic job market at the moment and in the future, and advice for anyone looking to apply for lectureships. You can find him on Twitter as @DavidMcLaw.

Episode 50 is next! It will be a little different, as I’ll be taking a reflective look-back at the first forty-nine episodes, what’s happened, what I’ve learned, the opportunities that have come from doing this and more. I’ll also be looking ahead to the next year or so of the podcast, and while I’m not quite in a position to share something exciting just yet, I hope to be able to tell you something about it.

Expect to see Episode 50 of Viva Survivors on Monday 9th November 2015. Until then if you want to get in touch please email me, or you can catch me on Twitter as @DrRyder or @VivaSurvivors. I love hearing from people who want to come on the podcast to share their PhD and viva experiences. If you can, please consider supporting the podcast by buying one of my ebooks on viva preparation.

Thanks for reading!

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)

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Nathan

Episode 25: Dr Nathan Ryder

Episode

No, that’s not a mistake in the title! For this episode I asked my good friend Dr David McGrogan (who you might remember from Episode 16) to interview me about my PhD and viva. I’ve mentioned bits and pieces about my doctoral experiences over the previous twenty-four episodes, but thought it might be interesting to talk about the viva as a whole. In the autumn it will be ten years since I started my PhD at the University of Liverpool, and so it seemed like a good sort of time to look back and reflect. I hope you find it interesting!

Just in case you don’t know, when I’m not doing the podcast I work freelance as a skills trainer in Higher Education, working primarily with postgraduate researchers all over the UK (and soon, the world!). In the last few years I’ve met close to a thousand PGRs on a workshop that I deliver called Viva Survivor, which was the inspiration for this podcast. In turn, that workshop inspired me to write Fail Your Viva, a book about viva preparation (despite the title!).

So that’s what I do in a nutshell! If you have any questions or comments about this or any other episode then please get in touch: comment on a post, email me or tweet away!

Thanks for listening,

Nathan (@DrRyder and @VivaSurvivors)

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Nathan

Episode 16: Dr David McGrogan

Episode, Podcast

In this episode I talk to Dr David McGrogan, who recently had the viva for his PhD in international law. Dave is my best friend, and I’ve been asking him since I started the podcast whether or not he would be willing to come on eventually and talk about his experiences. He recently took up a position at Northumbria University in the School of Law.

If you’ve got questions or comments, then leave them on this post, tweet @VivaSurvivors or email me – particularly if you would like to share your story on the podcast.

And finally, if you’ve read “Fail Your Viva – Twelve Steps To Failing Your PhD (And Fifty-Eight Tips For Passing)” then please get in touch, I’d love to know what you think!

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