How To Navigate Passion versus Hireability: Dr. Siân Echard talks Advice for Arts Students, Life as a Medievalist and Work-Life Balance as One of the First Women in her Department to take Mat Leave
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Google Podcasts, or on your favourite podcast platform. You can watch the conversation on YouTube here.
"Study what you are passionate about. There's nothing wrong with being passionate about something that has a very obvious and straightforward line from undergraduate education to employment. But if you take something only because you think it's going to get you a job, that's not a recipe for lifelong success or happiness."
- Siân Echard
Dr. Siân Echard is a Professor of English and Distinguished University Scholar at the University of British Columbia. She completed her Master's and PhD at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of Toronto in 1990.
Since then, she has taught courses in Middle English Literature, medievalism, book history and the Arthurian tradition, and she has published over 40 works on these topics. Among these, she has published several books including Printing the Middle Ages, released in 2008, and The Arthur of Medieval Latin Literature, in 2011.
Dr. Echard is one of two general editors of The Encyclopedia of Medieval Literature in Britain and has just finished co-writing a history of the book in Britain. She has been awarded the prestigious UBC Killiam Research Prize and Teaching Prize, has been the Head of the English Department at the University of British Columbia, and is now a member of the governing council of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Note: this episode was recorded in fall 2021.
SCROLL BELOW FOR VIDEO, ACCOMPANYING IMAGES FROM DR. ECHARD, AND A NOTE FROM VITA…
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Google Podcasts, or on your favourite podcast platform. You can watch the conversation on YouTube here.
Vita’s Personal Learnings
I think Dr. Echard highlights one of the most pressing topics for students today: when university finishes, and I have the power to choose what’s next, what will I do with the rest of my life? Personally, approaching my final year felt like approaching a cliff edge - you feel wobbly, and uncertain, and you can’t quite see what’s beyond the edge.
It’s increasingly tricky to go through school and university without thinking about hireability - we all know it: getting an undergrad degree often isn’t enough to get you hired, let alone secure you your dream job.
Hearing Dr. Echard talk about her passion for medieval literature, her path to academia, and her advice for students, it becomes incredibly clear that she has thought a lot about the passion vs. hireability dilemma for students today. My interpretation of her message is this: that you can and should have an eye on hireability - what skills are you gaining, and how will they translate into your future career? - BUT entering a career purely because someone says it has “better odds” is just as risky as pursuing something you love. The worst-case in the latter is being unemployed; the worst-case in the former, as Dr. Echard puts it, is being “miserable”.
I also found it fascinating to hear Dr. Echard talk about her experience as an academic and as a mother. There’s a touching moment where she talks about her young children referring to her not as “Mom”, but as “Bye” - because they were always saying goodbye to her as she worked and attended conferences. Listen to the episode to hear her speak about navigating this, and about her views on work-life balance.
