How Do Things Work In Academia?

This speech was made with the contributions of research assistant Gökçe Topluk, who has just joined our department, and senior student Beyzanur Kılınç, in order to help the one’s who have similar ideals but do not know which path to follow. I would like to thank Gökçe Topluk for these sweet informations I received from this sweet person.

I hope it will help you. Have fun…

Beyza: How did you decide to pursue an academic career? What’s the main reason for this decision?

Ms. Topluk: Okay, so the first reason that I’ve ever thought about having this career was because of my father because he is working at a different university right now. So he was like a role model for me. And there was another reason that motivated me and that was of course Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Because he always favored when the girls studied and worked a lot. So as a representative of the modern Turkish woman, I think it is important to be an academician. 

Beyza: Where did you have your bachelor’s degree, and are you satisfied with the school you came from? 

Ms. Topluk: OK, so I had my bachelor’s degree at Hacettepe University, Ankara. And it was actually pretty well. Except for the fact that almost all the time we were doing online because of the COVID pandemic and the earthquake that happened and except for that there was no problem with it. I’m pretty content. 

Beyza: What are the criteria for becoming a research assistant? Can you tell us a little bit about how you met these conditions? 

Ms. Topluk: Okay, so the first one is having a great GPA in your bachelor’s undergraduate studies, you have to get great grades. For example, you are now having your forth grade, right? 

Beyza: Yup.?

Ms. Topluk: You have to get good grades so that you get a good GPA at the end of your studies. I had 3.70, about 70ish grades, and I worked a lot. 

Beyza: That’s too much.

Ms. Topluk: And then you got to get a good grade from the YDS, from languages, examination. I had one from Yökdil and it was 97.5. It is pretty important. But I think the most important one right now is ALES, which consists of the Turkish language and the mathematics knowledge. If you get good grades. Unless there is a high possibility that you’re going to get into a good work environment. So you have to get all these good grades. 

Beyza: So you studied a lot?  

Ms. Topluk: I’ve studied a lot.

Beyza: What about the difficulties you’ve faced in achieving these goals? For example, if you went back to that period again, is there anything you would never or possibly do? 

Ms. Topluk: Okay, so of course there are problems. I think the biggest problem is to maintain your stress level in an average level. It is pretty hard because you are in a competition with all of your colleagues. Because there are lots of people that are unemployed right now. So you have to achieve some level to get a job at this period. So you have to maintain your mental well-being. And then you have to take care of your grades while maintaining your mental health. And except for that I think you have to live your younghood too because you’re not gonna be young after like 10 years so you got to spend all these years in a positive environment with having a lot of experiences about life which also contributes to your mental health being. There’s no such a thing as something I would never do but there may be any advice for me to you guys that you have to take care of your stress level, your anxiety. Please keep in mind that there’s nothing more important than who you are, even the employment stuff. First take care of your mental health and then you may consider about your studies.

Beyza: I can’t do it. For example, I am a KPSS student and sometimes I think about the stuff I haven’t studied yet, and I feel like ‘I can’t do this anymore, I won’t be able to do it’, sometimes I say to myself ‘The next year I will study better, I will do better.’ But reality hits me and I say, I can’t let my one year to go away and I can’t stabilize my stress level. I can’t think of social life right now. So, I want to ask you, how did you maintain social life and studying together?

Ms. Topluk: I think the best part of doing this is to have good colleagues and good friends that have almost the same ideas as you because you study with them as well as having your social relations for example you can meet with your friends and then study together in this way you can socialize and then work at the same time and also you can boost your mood with your friends I know that you’re gonna do it, you’re fine with it and then the friend can do the same for you. And as well as that, when you feel like you’re down and when you think that you can’t do anything, I think it is good to have some walk alone. When you walk you feel way better. This is what I did. 

Beyza: Do you think it’s important to be successful and/or the best student at an ELT department to advance in academia or can anyone do it? 

Ms. Topluk: Actually. Of course it is important to be successful, but I think being successful doesn’t mean that you have to be the best student at the department. I wasn’t the best student at the department, but I still managed to be in here right now and have a master’s degree. The important thing is to believe in what you can do and to work for that. 

Beyza: When you progress in academia, is there any major you would like to specialize in and why? 

Ms. Topluk: I would definitely want to specialize in technology, especially in artificial intelligence. Because I’m a Gen Z and we grew up with social media. And artificial intelligence has become a part of our daily life, so I think it is important to blend all this together with the foreign language accuracy. so I would like to work in that in the future. 

Beyza: That’s great because I feel like some of our professors are like very behind the time and as a Gen Z I feel very bored at their classes so I’m glad to hear that. 

Beyza: So what happens after that? I mean, what is the next step after becoming a research assistant, how will you proceed?

Ms. Topluk:Time will show us what’s next but in the meantime I’ll try to do my best to contribute to the literature of the ELT department, trying to provide articles that are relevant. I’ve been trying to learn a second foreign language nowadays, so maybe for the not-so-distant future, I’d love to have my doctorates.

Beyza: And the last question is if you have any advice for teacher candidates we would appreciate to hear it?

Ms. Topluk: Okay, the best thing is taking care of your mental health. I’m saying it again. Because I see that lots of the university undergraduate students are having some breakdowns. Same as how Hacettepe it doesn’t matter where you are studying. The people, the youngsters are having lots of mental crisis right now. Take care of your mental health first, and then your studies. When you can do both at the same time, I’m sure you’re gonna do great in the future. 

Beyza: Hocam, thank you so much.  

Ms. Topluk: You’re welcome.