Much of today has been spent digging around for jobs. The four final exams for the M.Phil will occur between the 11th and 16th of June (8th week of Trinity Term). Having written the qualifying exam last year, I am much less worried about the finals than about the thesis. Being able to write something cogent – on the basis of what I can recall about a subject and a limited amount of time – is enormously less challenging than reading a high proportion of everything academics have written about a subject, then contributing to that discussion somehow. After all, I do the former every single day and have never before done the latter. After the exam period ends, I am obligated to remain in Oxford for two weeks, in case they need to give me a viva exam (oral examination). Those are only given to people who end up on the cusp of pass/distinction or pass/fail.
As of the 30th of June, I will thus no longer be a student. It’s a thought to make a person shiver, and begin scanning through dozens of web pages looking for employment opportunities. I have already sent queries of one sort or another to the following organizations:
- The Economist and The Economist Intelligence Unit
- Environment Canada
- Google and Google Scholar
- The UBC Institute for Resources, Environment & Sustainability
- McKinsey (see post)
Most have not been formal applications for specific jobs. Mostly, I have been trying to assess what kinds of jobs are out there for someone with my credentials and experience. I can write well, do research, teach and lecture (though not with a huge amount of experience), take a decent photo, debate, do some semi-complex web stuff, and converse for at least fifteen minutes on most any subject that is not terrifically obscure. My CV is available online, in PDF or Word format. I am most interested in jobs that focus on international relations or the environment. I can certainly work anywhere in Canada, and can very probably get a work visa for the United Kingdom or the United States.
The dozens of lectures and pamphlets I have been given in the last decade or so about finding jobs, generally stress how most people find jobs through the people who they know, rather than though the kind of listings I have been trawling. So far, my efforts to identify such opportunities through people who I know have met with only moderate success. This is probably the product of mostly knowing people who are (a) career academics or (b) students who probably work for minimum wage a few days a week. That said, anyone who has any leads that they think would be appropriate for me is very much encouraged to let me know (milan.ilnyckyj@politics.ox.ac.uk).
PS. I have written previously about the job search, about why I am not going straight into a PhD program.
I subscribe to emails from jobs.ac.uk – they specialise in academic jobs, but also cover various associated research, lab technician, admin type jobs, if you’d consider hanging around the fringes of academia.
Are you also interested in internships?
Unrelated:
This seems relevant to your thesis
The authors show how science came to the aid of the International Court. Instead of determining the case outright, the Court left it up to the parties to reach an agreement in view of their treaty obligations and the damages born by each of the countries. To assess them, Hungarian and Slovak scientists and engineers used joint environmental monitoring and evaluation to determine and agree on the amount of environmental impact caused by the dam
Are you also interested in internships?
Very much so. That said, I am only really interested in those that will pay the cost of living.
This seems relevant to your thesis
Yes, it does. This is the classic view of science as the neutral external arbiter, which can be called upon to settle disputes in a neutral fashion.
Apparently, my “cv is in good hands.” One of the people who I contacted through a friend who knows people is making things happen.