Final Thoughts: A Fulfilling Scholarly Career

As Early Career Researchers (ECRs), we face many competing demands in our work that require distinct skillsets to effectively be involved in research, acquiring funding, teaching, mentoring, service, professional development or any of the other numerous demands placed on us. We may encounter imposter syndrome. We may want to work towards better work-life balance. We may find ourselves suddenly thrusted into the limelight to talk about our research with the media. This book is foremost an acknowledgement of the challenges that ECRs face, and we have therefore sought to put together a compendium of hacks that you can use to deal with those challenges. In this chapter, we share main themes that have emerged throughout this book: self-discovery, building your support team, having a career strategy and having an impact. These key issues were highlighted by our contributing authors as some of the key drivers to their career success.