The ABC of research across career stages

How to navigating the - sometimes choppy - waters of research (and academia) across career stages

Anne-Wil Harzing - (updated Tue 29 Apr 2025 15:40)

© Copyright 2024-2025 Anne-Wil Harzing. All rights reserved. First version, 4 March 2025

We are all aware that research is a crucial element of our academic careers. But what we are often less clear about is how this plays out across the various career stages. So, in this white paper, I take a bird’s eye view on what mindsets are needed to navigate research in different academic career stages. As such, I will not be focusing on detailed tips and tricks. However, below I have included further guidance for a wide range of topics related to research in the form of blogposts, videos and books.

Table of contents

Connections matter
Marathon, not sprint
Blogposts
Youtube channel
Career guides		 Early Career stage
- Ask, ask,ask
- Believe in yourself
- Cultivate the ground
- Keyword: Survival		 Mid Career stage
- Adjust trajectory
- Balance plates
- Create profile
- Keyword: Identity		 Late career stage
- Amplify voices
- Build bridges
- Contribute to eco-systems
- Keyword: Legacy

Connections matter across all career stages

The above image gives you a quick overview of what we will be discussing in this series. The design is no coincidence: Connections, networks, and collaborations matter. These could be:

  • research collaborations,
  • being part of a team of PhD supervisors,
  • meeting other academics at conferences,
  • joining a special interest group, research cluster, or networks central to your demographic identity such as gender or ethnicity,
  • building your network of mentors,
  • or simply building up your network on social media.

Even though in academia we spend much of our time working on our own, the best research outcomes are usually achieved by interacting with others.

A marathon – not a sprint

Before I go through the various career stages, it is important to remember this: Academia is a marathon – not a sprint. This is especially important at ECR/MCR stage, but also at a late career stage. Your race isn’t run once you have reached a full professorship. It is just a different part of the marathon. First, research careers can span 4-5 decades. So just like with a marathon, the key is endurance and pacing yourself. Not everything needs to happen right now. Moreover, just like in a marathon different stages require different mindsets.

Second, everyone has a different reason for running a marathon. This may include personal growth and pushing yourself to overcome obstacles. Very few participants run a marathon to win. It is about realisingyour potential, there is no “one best model”. The same is true for academic careers. Marathon runners also have different starting points and abilities. Again, this is true in academia too: Even apart from demographic differences, those who – like me – were the first in their family to go to university have a different start than those growing up with family members who are academics. Likewise, those who – like me – grew up in a country where education was not only high-quality, but also largely free have a different starting point than those who had to work two jobs to go to university.

Third, persistence is key, both in marathons and as an academic. Yes, in academia, like elsewhere, it sure helps to be intelligent and lucky. But most of all being successful in research simply involves bloody hard work, as well as being persistent and resilient in the face of constant rejections. So, I would suggest you don’t scatter yourself too thin and focus on quality not volume.

Blogposts

If you’d like to know more about navigating academic careers, my blog includes more than 450 postings on a very wide range of academic topics, including writing and publishing, impact and funding. You can find a structured overview of all postings here: Harzing.com blog posts by theme.

Youtube channel

Moreover, my YouTube channel has more than 200 videos on different aspects of academic careers. Here are just a few examples.

Career guides

Finally, I recently published five academic career guides that draw on my white papers and blogposts. This series is a collection of books dealing with various aspects of crafting your career in academia. You can find more information about each of them here:

These books are reasonably priced to make them accessible for individual academics, as well as universities who would like to bulk-buy books for their staff members. Here is a flyer with details for all five of the books that you can send to your Research Deans or University librarian.

Early career – Ask, Believe, Cultivate

So, what are the key issues early on in your career? This is the stage where you prepare the ground for your future career and learn what being researcher is all about. This means you need to take every opportunity to learn and experiment.

A - Ask for advice: learn as much as you can

First, ask, ask, ask. You can do this in many ways. You can ask more senior academics, a mentor, a co-author, a colleague. Or you can simply go online, there are many dozens of websites dedicated to advice for researchers on any imaginable topic. You could also participate in peer networks aligned to your area of interest. And why not consider representing your ECR colleagues in university or professional fora? We often learn more when we represent others.

Remember, even though most of us think we are unique, we really aren’t, at least not in terms of the problems we are experiencing in academia. Whatever you experience in academia, someone else will have experienced this before. So, please don’t struggle alone!

B – Believe in yourself: don’t give up on your ideals and research passion

Don’t listen to people saying you need to “spot a gap in the literature”. This often results in doing research that leaves you completely cold and is just an exercise in publishing. You might be able to do this for a few years, but ultimately it will destroy your intrinsic motivation. And without intrinsic motivation your academic soul dies.

Don’t listen to those saying you can’t do research on gender issues if you are female or on ethnicity if you are non-white. You are uniquely suited to study these topics. They are not minority topics: there are as many women as men; non-whites are the global majority. Remember, nobody ever blamed white male academics for studying white male managers.

If you have a big idea, pursue it. Many academics have made ground-breaking contributions early on in their career. Do listen though when a senior academic tells you your topic really isn’t novel enough, they have a better grasp of what has already been studied than you do.

Finally, don’t measure yourself up against others. We all have different research and career paths. We have all had our own struggles. And remember …, even senior academics get rejections all the time. In fact, they probably get more rejections than you do as they are working on a larger number of projects. Of my last three papers, two took three or four journals and more than 5 years to get published. As I explained earlier, resilience is key! (see also: Be proactive, resilient & realistic!)

C – Cultivate the ground for the future

At the early career stage, you need to cultivate the ground to ensure it is fertile once you start branching out your research career. So now is the time to try out many different things, different journals, different formats, working with different people. See a rejection as an opportunity to learn about another journal outlet. But do remember you need a research portfolio to balance your investments over different projects!

Finally, although your focus early on in your career will be mostly on publishing, start learning a bit about funding and impact. It is also a good idea to start building a network NOW! You can’t start publicising your publications, participate in a grant application, or diffuse your research to practice if you don’t know anyone. Building up relationships takes time!

Early Career Keyword: Survival!

We can summarize this career stage with one word: Survival! Don’t expect too much of yourself. Don’t compare yourself to others all the time. A baby elephant doesn’t expect to be able to run as fast or as far as their parent. Focus on survival. If you survive your early career stage, you have done well!

And remember: take every opportunity to ask questions. When you are an ECR, no question is stupid. Everyone knows you are still learning, so it is great time to ask questions. Of course, you can still ask questions later on in your career. But you may be a bit more guarded and embarrassed about doing so, feeling you should already know the answer. It is a bit like asking how to pronounce someone’s name, perfectly normal the first time you meet them, but rather awkward after knowing them longer.

Mid-career – Adjust, Balance, Create

In many ways, the mid-career stage is the toughest part of an academic career. Everyone thinks that being an ECR is the hardest part of your academic journey. For some it can be, but I don’t think it is true for everyone. As an ECR you often get lots of support. You can participate in networks that have been created just for your career stage. You get time allowances to get settled. Sometimes you even get start up budgets. And you can ask lots of silly questions!

Just like when you are a PhD student, you think you are extremely busy when you are an ECR. But then, once you are about 5-7 years into your career, and you are maybe a Senior Lecturer or even an Associate Professor, you realise that you only get busier when you get further into your career.

Yes, you may have a few of publications under your belt, you may have just that bit more confidence. But you are no longer junior, and are now expected to suddenly forge your own path, often without much support. That’s not easy at all. So here are a few things that I think are crucial at this stage.

A – Adjust your research trajectory

In your ECR stage you have tried many things. Obviously, we never stop learning and experimenting, but at the mid-career stage it is a good time to take stock and make some choices. What worked, what didn’t? What did you enjoy, what did you hate? Do you have a better idea of your strengths and weaknesses?

At this career stage, you will also be expected to take on some leadership roles, either in your own institution as PhD director or head of a research cluster, or in the academic community as an editorial board member or even Associate editor. This can be a great way to learn more about research.

With increasing seniority, you are now also expected to broaden your portfolio. It is no longer only about internal grants and publications. You need to get involved in external grant applications and think about the academic and societal impact of your research.

B – Balance the many plates in the air

By far the most difficult part of this career stage is that you are balancing so many different plates in the air. You are expected to take on higher-level teaching duties, managing tutors and programmes, and also take your turn in committees and leadership roles. These expectations mean that finding enough time for research might become harder.

This is often combined with balancing many plates in your personal life. You may have young children; you may still be facing precarity in your job or housing situation. Of course, ECRs face a lot of precarity too, but it is often a bit easier to cope with if you are still in your twenties or early thirties and without dependants. So, creating a sustainable career that doesn’t take over your private life may be hard (see also: How to create a sustainable academic career).

So, do keep talking to your mentors, they are as valuable in this career stage as they are at the ECR stage. But also feel free to ask them for sponsorship. Just be specific about what you need. Do you need invitations for keynote speeches, for editorial positions, for external connections? Do you want them to champion you for leadership positions? Do you need an introduction to an academic you want to work with? Just ask. They may not always be able to help, but if you don't ask you never find out. Finally, remember that mentors are often overwhelmed too. So, you may wish to consider supplementing mentor advice with a career coach or join networks for peer support.

C – Create your unique research profile

This is also the stage where it is becoming really important that you start building your own unique profile. This means you need to start thinking about research agendas, not just a list of papers, and start working more independently. If you haven’t published without your PhD supervisor or first senior co-author yet, this is the time to do so.

It also helps if you start building up your public profile a bit more consistently. Remember you can do the best research of the world, but if nobody knows about it, they can’t appreciate it. Beyond populating the key social media profiles (see Social media to support your career), try to become more visible through talks at other universities, running webinars, or organising conference sessions.

It may help you to start thinking about what you would like to become known for, and what you need to do get there. Put yourself in your own shoes in 5-10 years’ time. If you continue like you do now, will you get there? If not, are you ok with that?

Mid-career key word: Identity!

We can summarize this career stage with one word: Identity! I see mid-career as finding your research and academic identity and leveraging your strengths. There is now a general recognition in talent management that we grow more by leveraging our strengths than by working on our weaknesses. Yes, some weaknesses need to be addressed, but focusing all your attention on those risks missing your biggest opportunity for growth. So do try to figure out what you are uniquely good at and develop this further.

Late career – Amplify, Bridge, Contribute

How do we define the late career stage? That very much depends on the personal, institutional and country context. But generally, I am talking about academics at professorial (Senior Associate Professor or full Professor) level who are around 20-25 years into their career. But some academics might still be at the mid-career stage, even after 20-30 years in academia, and that’s absolutely fine. They might still find some of the tips here useful.

So, what are the key recommendations at this career stage? Well, some things don't change; several of the ECR and especially MCR lessons will still apply. However, what I want to focus on here is an additional role that I think is very important for late career academics, which is switching from a focus on your own career to supporting the career of others.

A – Amplify the voices of junior academics

First of all, it is now your responsibility to help others in their research careers. You can do this in several ways. Here are some examples, but be creative, you might discover very different ways to support more junior academics:

  1. Collaboration on publications and grant applications, allowing juniors learn the craft through working with seniors. Make sure though that this is a real collaboration, going beyond just giving a few comments on their writing.
  2. Moving from mentoring to sponsoring your mentees. Really think about what would help them to progress in their careers. For instance, most senior academics receive far more invitations than they can accept. Why not recommend your sponsees for some of them? Your recommendation counts.
  3. Improving their visibility by sharing their work and achievements on social media, writing to their line manager, or writing a LinkedIn recommendation for them (see also Using LinkedIn recommendations to support others).

B – Build bridges between individuals, disciplines/fields, and communities

Second, I suggest you start seeing yourself as a bridge-builder. As a senior academic you have a large store of knowledge and are part of a multi-facetted web of relationships. Use that knowledge and these relationships to help others. You can connect individuals with each other, or you can even set up dedicated networks yourself. I have done this for instance with CYGNA (see About Cygna).

However, you can also play a role in connecting disciplines, research topics, paradigms, and methods. More generally you can afford to be a bit more adventurous in your research. Or you could be a linchpin in connecting academics and policy makers or practitioners, or simply connect academics in different geographical communities. The latter is particularly effective if you have worked in different countries yourself.

Whatever you choose to do, make sure you create synergies by connecting entities that would both benefit from these connections.

C – Contribute (more) to research eco-systems

Finally, I consider it a core responsibility for senior academics to take on a bigger role in sustaining and improving research eco-systems. There are lots of ways we can contribute. The mix of what we do will depend on our own skills, connections and preferences.

You can take on leadership positions in your own institution or the wider academic community. You can contribute to wider society as a public intellectual. Or you could focus on building up the next generation of academics through mentorship or sponsorship.

And remember that a late career stage can often span two decades or more. So, you can do all of these, but you don’t need to do all of them at the same time, or with the same intensity.

Late career key word: Legacy!

We can summarize this career stage with one word: Legacy! Towards the end of our research careers, we still have a bit of green and yellow in us, a bit of the early and mid-career researcher. We still need to ask questions, especially about things that – being older – we don’t relate to intuitively, such as new methods or technologies. We still need to balance many different plates in the air, both professionally and personally.

But we now have a more complete idea of what academic research and careers are all about. We can offer that as a gift to the next generation of academics. Give that gift before it is too late! There is nothing more beautiful than seeing your work live on in the minds and hands of others.

All posts in this series

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Copyright © 2025 Anne-Wil Harzing. All rights reserved. Page last modified on Tue 29 Apr 2025 15:40

Anne-Wil Harzing is Emerita Professor of International Management at Middlesex University, London. She is a Fellow of the Academy of International Business, a select group of distinguished AIB members who are recognized for their outstanding contributions to the scholarly development of the field of international business. In addition to her academic duties, she also maintains the Journal Quality List and is the driving force behind the popular Publish or Perish software program.

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