#DearMe — Advice to One’s 20-year-old Self

It started as a request to a few academics. It then exploded into a twitter trend with hundreds of responses.

We asked 6 academics what they’d tell their 20-yr-old selves about choice of career. What would be your advice or warning? Hashtag: #DearMe

— TimesHigherEducation (@timeshighered) February 6, 2013

Earlier today, in preparation for their forthcoming issue, Times Higher Education (THE) asked academics what advice they’d tell their 20-year-old selves. THE then posed the question to their twitter followers, “What would be your advice or warning?” they inquired, followed by the “#DearMe” hashtag. In just a few hours, there was an outpouring of hundreds of responses. Pursuing any sort of higher education offers a variety of challenges.

A career in academia can mean many years of writing papers, attending conferences, and being cloistered in libraries and laboratories. The HE options are always changing, and as many British students already know, funding is just one of the prominent concerns. It is no wonder that many academics would choose to offer advice to themselves before going following such a path.

Have you considered a career in academia? Do you want to teach? Lecture as a professor? Do research for a major institution?… Consider the advice that these academics would have impressed upon themselves given the chance. Even without academic ambitions, much of the #DearMe advice seems relevant to just about any forward-thinking or career-driven 20-year-old (or approaching-20-year-old). Here at MovingOn magazine we are always on the look out for words of wisdom, so we paid close attention to the #DearMe tweets and picked out some of our favorites.

Moving On magazine’s 10 favorite #DearMe Tweets:

1.

#DearMe (and former students of mine) do what you love; success will come from that (true in my case too) @timeshighered — Dr Raul Pacheco-Vega (@raulpacheco) February 6, 2013

2.

#DearMe Not all intellectuals are academics. Not all academics are intellectuals. Remember that. — Schuyler Esprit (@schuyleresprit) February 6, 2013

3.

@timeshighered #DearMe Work hard, make your own luck, it generally all works out in the end, and you’ll have a great time doing it.

— AntarcticGlaciers (@AntarcticGlacie) February 6, 2013

4.

#DearMe Don’t get fixated on one career path - it will lead to a dead end. Be flexible and you never know where your talents might take you. — H Dolby (@Hannah_Dolby) February 6, 2013

5.

#DearMe you should’ve learnt a building trade - then you’ll have a proper job and feel manly, not ponce about in a glorified school. — Phil Purnell (@PhilPurnell) February 6, 2013

6.

@timeshighered Language opens doors. Learn more than one. Fluently. #DearMe — jeanette (@jeanettekramer) February 6, 2013

7.

#dearme zoologist and ecologists spend a lot of time in front of computers

— Gina Maffey (@ginazoo) February 6, 2013

8.

.@timeshighered What would I advise my younger academic self? “Always.. always, be nice to the librarians and the administrators” #DearMe — Matthew Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) February 6, 2013

9.

#DearMe Show Up: Speak Up: Team Up: Looking up: Not Giving Up, ie presence, voice, partnership, principles, persistence blogs.hbr.org/kanter/2010/09…

— Prof CatherineHarper (@ProfCathHarper) February 6, 2013

10.

#DearMe: People will be disappointed by your career decisions. That’s OK, as long as you are happy with your career decisions.

— Robin Wharton (@rswharton) February 6, 2013

If you are interested reading in more #DearMe tweets Times Higher Education reporter Chris Parr collected a whole bunch of them on Storify here. Enjoy!