It is important to start planning ahead for your future career early on in your research journey. Whether you have a chosen career in mind or if you are still unsure, you need to be proactive in making yourself employable and preparing yourself for making the transition to a career within or beyond academia.
The University of Huddersfield’s Careers and Employability Service is located on level four of the Student Central Building and provides comprehensive support for PGRs including:
Look for emails advertising the dates and times of events or contact the Careers and Employability Service on 01484 472 124 or visit them on the floor 4 of the Student Central Building next to iPoint for further information.
Reflecting on yourself and what you have to offer including your research, knowledge, experience and skills; both specific to your research and transferable; is essential for you to be able to market yourself in the future for roles in academic and beyond. Being aware of what you have to offer can also help you to decide what you want from a role and whether or not you match what employers are looking for. Explore the following links to learn more:
Resource | Link |
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Early Career Blog |
Specialist careers advice for doctoral and post-doctoral |
FindAPhD.com | Careers beyond academia |
Jobs on Toast | Unlocking the value of your PhD |
Natural Science | |
NCUB | A report on what businesses want from postgraduates |
University of Huddersfield Researcher Environment blog posts | Life after thesis and A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single PhD |
Vitae | Understanding yourself |
Vitae | What do doctoral graduates do? |
Vitae | What do researchers do? |
Vitae | Pursuing an academic career |
Vitae |
What employers look for, focusing on research careers beyond academia |
Wellcome Trust Report |
-Find out how to and access the many useful resources on offer as a PGR.
-Consider attending an to learn new skills and broaden your experience.
Once you have identified your strengths and areas for development at the beginning of your degree using the Skills Audit, create a plan to address the gaps. Vitae's RDF desribes knowledge, behaviour and attributes of successful researchers. The Getting Started In Research Lens is particualry relevant for PGRs.
Vitae provide a host of useful information about researcher careers, both within academia and beyond academia. The Vitae website features:
It is important to build your profile and networks both face to face and online.
For those who have, or are about to complete a doctoral degree, there are a small number of organisations with very competitive PhD entry employment programmes, which recruit annually. These include: Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey (both management consultancy companies), Astra Zeneca and GlaxoSmithKline (pharmaceutical companies), British Petroleum, Microsoft Research, the Bank of England and JP Morgan (investment bank).
This is a unique teacher training programme to recruit and train researchers who are completing, or who have completed a doctorate. The programme targets maths, physics and engineering first and foremost but may be of interest to those in other STEM subjects. The programme is designed to run over three years, with participants achieving Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in their first year and completing their Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT) year in year two. Participants are supported to become excellent new teachers and research leaders, and have access to Research Associate status at a selective university.
For more information visit the Researchers in Schools website.
Useful job sites for both academic posts and roles outside academia requiring or benefiting from PGR/doctoral qualifications:
-The Research Professional Jobs website and the Research Professional Funding website (for postdoctoral and similar opportunities)
-The Times Higher Education UniJobs (global jobs in universities including academic, research related, management and professional services).
-ECM (recruitment consultants in various technology fields with a section dedicated to graduate/PhD roles).
-Findaphd.com and Targetpostgrad.com (For masters’ graduates looking for doctoral opportunities).