Philosophy

as a Career?

Dr. Leon de Bruin

l.debruin@0r.ru.nl


Contents


1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

MA/MPhil, and then?

The new philosophy
Publishing and networking
Mobility and supervision
SWOT-analysis
Supervision
Where to nd what
Planning your career

MA/MPhil, and then?

Some numbers (over 2012)

319 philosophy students receive a Ma/Phil

there are approx. 10.000 PhD candidates in the Netherlands (> 50% of the
scienVc sta at the university)
approx. 4000 researchers receive a PhD Vtle (305 in the HumaniVes). Thats 1500
more than in 2003
for each dissertaVon the university receives 93.000 euro

30% of the PhD students end up with a temporary (postdoc-) posiVon
almost no vacancies in the permanent scienVc sta (approx 3% per year)

MA/MPhil, and then?

many post-docs sVll hit a wall a[er two or three contracts, or they dont want to
run the risk and dont start at all

a PhD costs the State on average 2.000.000
the number of scienVsts with a xed (temporal) posiVon doubled since 1999 from
23% to 41%

to compare: for the Dutch workforce in general this is only 30%
its relaVvely hard for young researchers to get a grant (VENI-grant < 17%;
European StarVng Grant = 10%)
women have a beeer chance (staVsVcally) !

MA/MPhil, and then?

as regards PhD candidates in the rest of Europe Dutch PhD shouldnt complain.
They are beeer paid and have more certainVes
salary scale (2013)
P0
2062

P1
2404

P2
2517

P3
2638

also: you are an employee and as such you have pension build-up, parental leave
and other social rights

MA/MPhil, and then?

those who persevere will get a dream-job: autonomy, exibility, stability (once it
becomes a permanent posiVon), reasonable salary
you can preey much engage with any topic you want
external versus internal perspecVve on philosophy: being in love with philosophy
and knowing what it takes
All these pracVcal, conVngent, non-essenVal aspects of philosophy become
important at some point (given that you want to establish a family, earn money
etc.)
it is sVll possible to do pure philosophy, but its very hard

The new philosophy

What you need to know

gejng a PhD-posiVon

publish or perish: as a PhD candidate it is not an opVon not to publish

networking: being part of an internaVonal network of philosophers (publishing,
reviewing, applying for grants, interview commieees etc.)
interdisciplinarity: the independence of philosophy as a discipline is under
pressure (except for ethics). But specializaVon is sVll necessary

valorisaVon: philosophy has to be applied. More and more research is done on
the basis of third-party money (NOW + private insVtuVon)

more collaboraVon, co-authoring

other skills become increasingly important

GeMng a PhD-posiPon

number of PhD-posiVons is variable and dependent on rst-party (OCW) and
second/third-party (NWO/private insVtuVons)

new projects o[en come with PhD-posiVons, NWO promoVes in de
geesteswetenschappen
applying for a job in and outside of Europe (o[en shorter than the Dutch 4-year
trajectory). More compeVVon

what kind of philosophy do you prefer? Which research group would you like to
be part of? How is the university? Who is going to be your supervisor(s)? What
kind of contract will you get? (employee or grant)
what is important: publicaVons (!), researchproposal (ts with the rest of the
group), MA-thesis and grades, other acVviVes, network, interview

be visible!

Publishing and networking

Publishing

the dissertaVon: a book or several arVcles?
what do I want to publish? Who is my audience?
in which journals do I want to publish? How many publicaVons?
co-authoring


Networking

which (living) philosophers do you admire? How can you get in touch with them?
which research-groups do you nd appealing in or outside the Netherlands
visiVng conferences, presenVng your work, submijng publicaVons, pujng them
on the internet, ask quesVons by email, again: be visible

Mobility and supervision

Mobility

what is your radius of acVon?
are you interested in a posiVon abroad (Belgium, Germany, UK, US)
what is your personal situaVon?
when do you want to stay abroad and for how long? (preparaVons!)
who (which university) would you like to visit?
who would be willing to pay for this? (exchange grants, university funding)

Supervision

what do you expect from your supervisor? Content versus project-management
what do you need?
Bildung: how can your supervisor further your career?
who is available?
ask other PhD-students!

SWOT

SWOT: strengths, weaknesses, opportuniVes, threats
what are your strong points? And what are weaknesses? (e.g., mobility, social
skills, strong on content, publicaVons, networking etc.)
which opportuniVes present themselves? (new projects, contacts, grants, new
topics in philosophy etc.)
where do you see (external) obstacles? (compeVVon, cujngs, grants instead of
employee, wrong topics etc.)

Where can you nd what?

InformaPon about conferences, workshops etc.

los-L (hep://list.vu.nl/mailman/lisVnfo/los-nl)
philos-L (hep://listserv.liv.ac.uk/archives/philos-l.html)

ScienPc prole (papers, topics etc.)

heps://www.academia.edu/
heps://www.researchgate.net

Academic posiPons (internaPonal)

www.academictransfer.nl
www.academictransfer.org
www.career.edu

See also the universi/es websites and h3p://www.hetpnn.nl

Planning your career

What we have: (sketch of) a research proposal
What else?

areas of experVse and areas of competence

interdisciplinarity and valorisaVon
publishing and networking
mobility and supervision
SWOT