Professor Jill Dickinson delivers inspiring inaugural lecture exploring professional identity and career transitions

Recent reports indicate that we spend on average around 80 to 90,000 hours at work. Professor Dickinson's lecture drew on her research into professional identity and its impact on career development, and she shared her own advice on how to make sure we enjoy such a large proportion of our lives.

Taking place on Wednesday 12 November, the lecture explored the importance of being yourself and finding your people within the workplace, with a holistic look at professional identity and career transitions.

A former lawyer turned academic, Professor Dickinson uses creative methods in her work - from participatory sketches to the power of objects to tell stories - to explore how individuals experience and navigate professional change.

Jill's lecture also reflected on stories from her own career journey, offering insight, encouragement, and practical advice for those managing transitions in their own working lives in the modern 'squiggly' career paths.

Professor Dickinson said: "It is an honour to have delivered my inaugural lecture as Professor at Leeds Beckett University. Thank you to everyone who came along.

"Work is a huge part of our lives and our identities, so it is important that we can find a place where we can be ourselves and enjoy - rather than endure - our careers. I am fascinated by that process of transition and discovery, and hope to help others with it, too."

The lecture forms part of Leeds Beckett University's inaugural lecture series, which celebrates new professors and showcases the real-world impact of their research.

Find out more and book onto future Inaugural lectures.