Even though many of our graduates will have progressed in their careers since completing a case study, they are still of interest to students who wish to gain an understanding of the world of work.

Teaching and advising students (3 classes per semester, 2 semesters per year), Research (producing scholarly papers for publication in peer-reviewed journals, attending conferences, refereeing for journals, etc.), Service (various department-, college- and university-level committees working on everything from assessment to climate issues within my discipline and university)

I write and teach lessons (75-minute discussion sessions, 2 per week for each class, 40ish students per class); I meet with students to advise them on their studies and potential careers; I write a great deal of email responding to students and colleagues on a very wide array of issues; I read papers and try to write some of my own (I only manage an hour or so of this every day on average, most of this happens during summer and winter 'holidays')

Contact with students is almost entirely rewarding; some days researching the hardest problems in history is amazingly exhilarating (every bit as much as it is teeth-grindingly frustrating on other days); having very smart colleagues who are great teachers; attending research conferences and colloquia.

As in every organization, there is a lot of politics in academia, and it's just as challenging and frustrating to navigate this as it is everywhere else; Many of my students don't come prepared (that is, with the right skills) to study philosophy and I have to fill the gap somehow; I work at a state university under constant threat of funding cuts.

Some deep flaw in my character? I say that because I could not imagine doing anything other than philosophy, and believe me, I tried for many months seriously to entertain quite a lot of alternatives.

All of them... But in particular, those I got from my PhD studies and from the experience I got teaching (tutoring and lecturing) while I was a student at Sheffield.

Not a great deal - about a dozen workshops run by various educational or IT specialists on teaching techniques, research tips and academic service.

University of Nottingham (one semester as a lecturer)

University of Sheffield (several temporary appointments as a lecturer)

University of Hull (a part-time lecturing job worked while I was teaching at Sheffield)

Unemployed (for about 6 months) and desperately seeking any kind of teaching work

Right now I am focusing on getting tenure at my current workplace. I may consider moving to another university should the opportunity present itself in the future.

Seriously consider going on the US market, as there are simply a lot more jobs in the USA, provided you are willing to move anywhere. Publish, publish, publish.

I am very grateful to all of the staff in the philosophy department at Sheffield for being immensely supportive and encouraging in a very, very tough job market.