Dr Jessica Jung

• Curriculum Development Officer Newcastle University

‘The importance of happenstance in planning (my) careers’

I completed an AHRC-funded PhD: ‘Truth and Honesty in Early Modern English Drama’ in 2008. Following teaching and other experience gained during my studies I was offered a part-time role teaching and developing the curriculum for optional work-related learning modules run by the University Careers Service (the Career Development modules).

Though this took me away from my original aspiration of becoming a lecturer/researcher in English Literature the role allowed me to use the skills and experience I had gained as a postgraduate Teaching Assistant, and to stay within a University environment and a city I love.

Following a period of portfolio working - including continuing as a TA in English, freelance proof-reading and part-time work as an Editorial Assistant for two English Literature journals - my role in Careers became full-time in 2011. Since then, I have developed my work to include leading on a new module, becoming External Examiner for work-based learning modules at another institution, presenting at a number of conferences and having a practitioner paper published in an education journal. In 2014/15 I covered a period of maternity leave leading the team within which I had worked, gaining greater responsibility and experience of management.