I Got My Dream Job at LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY

This video will be a little bit different to the usual lectures, presentations or tutorials because I've got some news to share. I've got a new job as lecturer at Loughborough University and to understand why this means so much to me we need to go back to 2018 where I'd just finished my PhD at Loughborough and I was working a series of fixed term part-time contracts doing a combination of teaching and research related work. I absolutely loved everything about my life in Loughborough but I knew that the chances of a permanent lecturer position were very slim and even if something did come available the competition for the job would be extreme so it was unlikely. With some serious life decisions ahead of me I knew that above all else I just needed some security in life. So I was really really fortunate to get a job at the newest university in the country the University of Suffolk on the east coast and even in my job interview for that role I remember being really nervous about the prospect of leaving Loughborough and what that would mean and whether it was right for me and just going into my interview I knew that if I was just completely honest about everything and what I wanted then hopefully if it was a perfect match between me and the university I'd hopefully get the job and if it wasn't then great and to be honest that's exactly what happened where I was looking for above all else the freedom and trust to really do my own thing and establish myself as an early career academic and just wanted yeah as I say the trust and confidence to do my own thing really and as a really new institution looking to grow that was exactly what they wanted as well. So it worked out really really well for the past three and a half years professionally I've grown a lot my career and probably where I am academically is in a much better position now than it ever would have been had I not made what turned out to be the best decision I ever made and even personally in those three and a half years I've moved in with my girlfriend got engaged got married bought a house had a baby all of those things that probably wouldn't have happened without the security of a permanent lecturer contract so it's been absolutely brilliant starting somewhere quite small I think that's what forced me to go down the path that I've explained in some of the recent videos on this channel where I talk about the principles and strategies for upskilling within academia that I've stumbled upon through a process of trial and error really and even the strategy of building an online presence and using social media to my advantage was something that joining a really small institution in a small group without that big institutional reputation I needed to do really so yeah that's kind of worked out really well for me but fast forward three and a half years my life pretty much consists of juggling three balls of family, work and netball where I'm also a super league netball umpire and the move to Loughborough really benefits all three so family-wise it means we're moving closer to both sides of our family which with a young baby is absolutely fantastic professionally the move to Loughborough is a really good opportunity for me and I'm not a big fan of university league tables but you don't come out ranked number one in the world for sport related subjects five years in a row for nothing and even netball-wise being located centrally within the country will be really advantageous for that and cut down on a lot of travel which should also make it easier to actually balance work, family and netball as well I'd like to say a massive thank you to anybody watching this from the University of Suffolk both staff, colleagues and students you've all been fantastic for the last three and a half years it's genuinely been some of the best times of my life and the best decision I ever made to move to Ipswich I'll genuinely really miss the place so yeah just a massive thank you in terms of moving to Loughborough I actually mentioned this in my wedding speech but I love the quote that you become the average of the five people you spend the most time with and for me more than anything else it's an opportunity to surround myself with people that will push me to be a better version of myself there's nothing I love more than kind of striving to upskill and advance myself on a day-to-day basis and so I'm just really really looking forward to a new challenge that's what makes me tick really and gets me out of bed in the morning so hopefully I've got a renewed energy and focus to kick on and take everything to the next level but yes thank you for watching sorry it's not a useful kind of lecture or presentation this week but I'm really excited to share the news have a great day