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Career Options for PhD StudentsWednesday 1st February

13.00 – 14.00

Dr. Tracy BussoliCareers Adviser for Researchers

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Today’s Topics

• What are my choices?

• How can I choose?

• What to do next?

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Possible Careers

Customarily PhD graduates either go into:

• Academic careers• Alternative Careers• A combination of both

– Academic career with ‘real world’ input– Non-academic career with research

credibility

An Academic career?

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Academic Roles

• Lecturer (Professor/Assistant Prof (US))

• Postdoctoral Researcher• Teaching Fellow • Research Fellow• Research Officer/Project Manager• Academic Administrator (e.g. head of

research degrees office, research grants officer, development advisor)

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Career-building opportunities during your PhD

• Research assistant or research officer (p/t)• Graduate teaching assistant (Law,

SEMS,SBCS and other departments) • Demonstrating (Lab- based PhD)• PhD Representative• Tutorial fellow or lecturer • Journal editor or sub-editor• Book reviewer• Consultant to outside bodies (govt or

others)

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How to stand out: Teaching

• Get experience:– Teaching– Designing courses– Supervising student

coursework/dissertations– Examining/assessing student work

• Undertake GTA training• Get PGCAP/CILT (need to be teaching

to do both)

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How to stand out: Research

• Publish articles in good refereed journals or book chapters in edited volumes

• Present papers at academic conferences to raise your profile and get feedback

• Review books for journals and act as consultant to outside bodies

• Get experience of research as an ORA, RA or RO

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Building an academic network

• Attend conferences and seminars in your field to meet the ‘big players’ and make contact with peers

• Look out for non-academic forums for relevant info/contacts as well

• Get involved – join postgradraduate networks, conference organisations, national and international professional bodies etc.

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What academic employers look for

• Publications, publications, publications!• Understand REF and the nature of HE

funding• Relevant teaching experience• Research experience, especially on funded

projects• Credentials – have they heard of you?• Presentation skills and admin experience

Alternative Careers

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Narrow Horizon Known and safe but insecure

A little wider But still university - based

Still research but transferring research toanother setting

Using knowledge and understandingbut not research

Using transferable skillsrather than specific knowledge

•Postdoc•Research Fellow•Teaching Fellow•Lectureship•Research Associate

•Research Institute•Charity•Consultancy firm•Think Tank•Independent Consultancy (self-employed)•Policy Advisor•Analyst (finance)

•Teaching schools/colleges•Publishing books/journals•Project Manager•Journalism•Management Consultant•Administrative roles

•Research Grant Facilitator•Grant Advisor, Public Engagement

Increasing risk and research effort to investigate Increasing likelihood of retraining

•Start your own business•Any grade graduate job•SME•Accounting•Marketing

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Alternative Careers

• Six months after graduating 53% % of QM PhDs went into academia (2009/2010 data)

• QM PhD roles are diverse and include R&D software developer, Early Modern Record Specialist, Lecturer, Power Systems Analyst.

N = 105All disciplines

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Jobs that evolve from your Subject

• Build on your specialist expertise– Direct pursuit of research interests in real

world– Applying subject expertise in other contexts– Continuing to evolve subject expertise

• e.g. Consultancy or policy development in your field (corporate, govt, or independent)

• e.g. Communicating your subject to lay audience

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Jobs where you can use your transferable skills

• PhDs have lots of transferable skills• These can be summarised into role types:

– e.g. researching, communicating, advocacy, problem solving, project management

• You might need to learn a new sector, but your core adaptability is high

• Broader opportunities generated by this search

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Sectors where PhD is rated• HE………academic and many roles outside of

academic positions• Banks ……in analyst roles as quants/financial

modelling• Patent Lawyers• Government• International Organisations• Your own business/consultancy• Consultancy Firms• Pharmaceutical/Biotech/Medical Communication

Companies/Science Publishing• Tech Companies/software developers such as

Google, Microsoft• Think Tanks

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How can I choose?

• Research – find out more information

• Talk – to your network

• Try – it out: intern, volunteer, shadow

• Reflect – think it over, is it right for me? Talk to a Careers Adviser

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Using your Network to find work

• Generate a network list then add your contacts’ jobs

• This generates individual roles, not just job types

• Do your contacts have jobs that interest you?

• Find out more – analyse for skills, challenges, opportunities

• Work outwards from specific roles

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What’s next?

• Researching your options is essential• Getting relevant experience also

really helps• Consider internships, work-shadowing

or volunteering– Full/part time; paid/unpaid; project or

ongoing• Use your network• Apply speculatively

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• Consider what you want from an internship• Source organisations to offer useful

experiences• Consider what you can offer them

– Full/part time; paid/unpaid; project or ongoing• Lots of formal internship schemes exist –

are they right for you?• Use your network to source opportunities• Apply speculatively – create what you

want, where you want

Internships

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One to One Appointments

Dr. Tracy Bussoli• 30 minute appointments (up to three a

term)Mondays: 11.00 – 14.30Tuesdays: 11.00 – 14.30

Call 020 7882 8533 to book an appointment

• Look at events calendar on blog http://qmresearcher.wordpress.com/

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