Following their presentation at the SGSAH Welcome Event 2025, guest blogger Dr Sarah Mackay shares their journey from a SGSAH-funded PhD to becoming a library curator.

Being invited to contribute to a series about post-PhD careers is both lovely and something which has triggered a fair degree of imposter syndrome, since I had an unusually smooth transition from my PhD into my current (dream) job! I was a SGSAH-funded History PhD student from 2018-2022, and began my current role as Curator (Government and Civic Literacy) at the National Library of Scotland (NLS) in 2022, a few months before I submitted my thesis.

When I look at my CV, I can see how people could assume that ‘becoming a curator’ was always my end goal. In reality, this was absolutely not the case! Like lots of PhD students, I started out thinking that a traditional academic lecturing position was my ‘dream job’. I began my PhD in September 2018, and I spent the first two years or so fully immersing myself in conferences, teaching, pursuing publications, and generally trying to position myself for the academic job market as best as possible.

I was aware of how tough the job market was, and always knew that an academic position was never going to be guaranteed. Watching the ECRs in my department experience the realities of academic precarity, including the stress, financial instability, and what felt like permanent calls for industrial action, definitely played a big role in me trying to keep my options as open as possible, in case things didn’t work out for me.

Throughout my PhD, I worked part-time at the NLS. I started there during my Masters, and had briefly considered leaving the NLS when I started my PhD, but stayed because I loved my role in the reading room. By the mid-point of my PhD, I was starting to think more seriously about trying to stay in the heritage sector at the end of my PhD, instead of pursuing an academic job. I wanted to try and strengthen the non-academic side of my CV, so I applied for Foundation Membership of the Archives and Records Association (FMARA), which helped me to demonstrate the skills and experience I had developed in my 3+ years of part-time library work.

At the same time, I hadn’t fully turned my back on the academic job market, and I was also really interested in pursuing roles in Widening Participation. In fact, by the end of my PhD I had completed my FMARA, Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA), and worked as a widening participation tutor for three summers, so I was doing my best to keep my options open! It’s really important to acknowledge that having the option to keep all of these doors open was largely down to being a fully funded PhD student, so I could be quite selective about taking on work and teaching opportunities that aligned with my potential career aspirations.

As it happened, I applied for one (yes, just one) job in the end. I was immensely fortunate that a curatorial position at the NLS, which aligned with my PhD research interests, opened up a few months before I was due to submit my PhD. I almost didn’t apply, but I knew I would regret it if I didn’t give the application a shot. I applied, was interviewed, and then … didn’t get the job. I received a very kind rejection email, telling me I had been their second-choice candidate for the position.

Honestly, I was pretty happy to have got so far in the application process, and to have been so close to getting a role like that. Of course, luck was on my side again, as the panel’s preferred candidate declined the job offer a few days later, and I then received a very different (much happier!) email.

I was absolutely thrilled to be appointed Curator (Government and Civic Literacy) at the NLS in June 2022, and have stayed there ever since. It’s a hugely varied and exciting role, and one that I’ve had a great deal of freedom to shape based on my own interests and expertise. I find myself using skills I developed during my PhD all the time, whether it’s teaching, applying for funding or grants, attending conferences, or writing articles about our collections.

So much of the post-PhD job market comes down to luck, and being in the right place at the right time. I had an exceptionally swift transition out of academia and into an adjacent career that allows me to do all the things that I loved about my PhD, and I couldn’t be more grateful for it.

Sarah Mackay (nee Thomson) is a Curator at the National Library of Scotland (NLS) in Edinburgh. She completed her SGSAH-funded PhD in History at the University of Edinburgh in 2023, and was an AHRC-RLUK Professional Practice Fellow at the NLS (2023-2025). Sarah is the Curator of Rain, the special exhibition at the National Library of Scotland, in 2026.