Title this job

July 5, 2017 7:58 AM

What should this job title be? The employee performs independent academic research as an "emerging professional" within their field. The work is at a non-profit humanities company. The employee may be finishing their PhD or recently graduated in the last 5 years, but the work is more advanced than an internship. The contract is for 1-year, non-renewable. The goal of the job is to end with a research product like a panel discussion or published paper in a journal. We want to avoid the word Temporary (like a temp?) in the job title. I am looking for terms like Special Projects or scholar-in-residence, to convey a sense of prestige but also the temporary nature of the work. We hope the job title looks good on their CV.
posted by Jason and Laszlo to Work & Money (16 answers total)

Research Fellow.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:00 AM on July 5, 2017 [9 favorites]

Laszlo research fellow. (where Laszlo is your org name or the name of a big donor or something along those lines)
On preview: jinx!
posted by SaltySalticid at 8:01 AM on July 5, 2017

Nthing "research fellow".
posted by Fish Sauce at 8:04 AM on July 5, 2017

Response by poster: Fellow implies a cohort or mentorship? none of that provided here.
posted by Jason and Laszlo at 8:05 AM on July 5, 2017

Fellow implies a cohort or mentorship? none of that provided here.

I don't think it has to. My nonprofit hires people as 'fellows' all the time, and they aren't part of a cohort or receiving mentorship - they're just doing highly skilled consulting work for a limited amount of time.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:11 AM on July 5, 2017 [2 favorites]

Fellowship does not necessarily imply that, no. Independent researchers often hold fellowships. It might be easier to think of it as a post-doc "rank" rather than being completely descriptive. In the business world "coordinators" don't often coordinate anything and "managers" often don't manage anyone; the titles are mostly used to convey career level rather than the exact nature of the role. "Research Fellow" or even just "Fellow" is a pretty common academic title for people doing that kind of work at that stage in their career, afaik.
posted by Fish Sauce at 8:12 AM on July 5, 2017

Fellow doesn't necessarily mean cohort or formal mentoring; I've been a lone Fellow.

Research Analyst or Research Specialist works.
posted by sockermom at 8:12 AM on July 5, 2017

It implies a cohort or a mentorship if it's an academic position at a university, certainly. But in the humanities nonprofit world, I most often see consultant positions like this termed "Research Fellow" or "Senior Research Fellow." My nonprofit has a position just like this.

(The convention of calling this sort of professional consultant position a "fellowship" is further well established thanks to programs like Mellon/ACLS Public Fellows.)
posted by desuetude at 8:19 AM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Folks like this in my field (nursing/medical research) are also sometimes called Research Associate. There's nothing about this title that conveys temporary in particular, but in any case the jobs are commonly contract based.
posted by snorkmaiden at 8:26 AM on July 5, 2017

"Research Fellow" sounds, to me, more senior than "Research Associate" or "Research assistant"; if that's not just me, and if that's what you wantt ot convey, then, nthing "Fellow".
posted by thelonius at 8:38 AM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

We've had Fellows at our nonprofit, with no cohort or mentorship involed - they just did research and produced papers.
posted by rtha at 9:01 AM on July 5, 2017

I came in to say Research Fellow!
posted by Snarl Furillo at 10:22 AM on July 5, 2017

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, or just Postdoctoral Researcher or Postdoctoral Fellow? In my field (engineering & science), postdocs are a well-understood thing that the vast majority of people do, and they are exactly this: temporary research positions for recent doctoral graduates. Everyone would understand the position perfectly if the word "Postdoctoral" was used.

If the person has not received their Ph.D yet, then Postdoctoral makes less sense. In that case I'd go with Research Fellow.
posted by snowmentality at 10:34 AM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Visiting Researcher/Scholar/Etc. What would this position be called if it wasn't limited duration?
posted by yeahlikethat at 2:15 PM on July 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

Visiting Researcher/Scholar or Guest Researcher.
posted by Ender's Friend at 7:40 PM on July 5, 2017

I would definitely leave out "postdoc" unless it was specifically qualified for grant-supported postdoctoral support (which expires after a certain number of years after being granted the PhD).

Not a fan is "fellow" as is comes with a whole host of associations.

In biotech/health sciences, I'm not a fan of the blanket tech/technologist designation. To me, that's the entry level grunt title.

For team members who have a certain amount of autonomy, I prefer the term associate. For example, Associate Scientist I to V where there is an alternative track Scientist I to III (where a PhD is required to enter the Scientist ladder; entry into the Associate ladder is BSc and/or experience).

That said, an "Associate Researcher" is a reasonable early career title for a humanities PhD, with promotion tracks into "-/Senior/Lead Researcher" or somesuch.
posted by porpoise at 12:04 AM on July 6, 2017