182: Paving Your Golden Brick Road: How to Craft a Long, Happy, and Illustrious Academic Career (14984)

The academic career can be a gift to help us master the art and experience the joy of lifetime learning. At the same time, it can be a grueling profession in which negative reviewer feedback, student critiques, and a strenuous path to promotion can dull the purpose and passion that brought once bright-eyed and aspiring thought leaders into the field. The purpose of this PDW is to inspire attendees to develop a growth mindset toward their work and discern a deliberate strategy to experience their professional craft as a calling so they arrive at the end of their career purpose-filled, happy, satisfied, and content, rather than bitter and burnt out. Participants will hear personal narratives from five seasoned academics who have successfully paved a “golden brick road” in their career via different approaches to job crafting. Participants will then engage in self-reflection, take surveys to identify where they land on growth mindsets, calling, and job crafting, and engage in strategic personal planning to chart a new or improve the current course of their career. Finally, participants will have an opportunity to engage with the presenters in a smaller roundtable format to ask questions and seek advice about the tradeoffs and tensions associated with different career paths.

Attendees must register for this PDW via the following Google form: https://forms.gle/B7bxAWwk6SGDgNBe7. For any questions related to the session or problems registering for this PDW please email Chad Hartnell at chartnell@gsu.edu.