Author Archives: Sarah Blackford

You’ve heard of Research & Development (R&D), but what about Researcher Development?

It’s all too easy to think that once you’ve qualified to postgraduate level, gained experience or have reached a certain age, further professional development isn’t really necessary. And while that’s true up to a point – you don’t necessarily need to undertake formal training and courses, with certification and qualifications – it’s important in these days of fast-paced change to keep up to date with new technology, methodologies, theories and innovations.

Having said that, with a multitude of publications, social media posts and other communications hailing new findings and trends in this, that and the other on a daily basis, it can be somewhat overwhelming to stay ahead of the curve!

My monthly newsletter from the Career Development institute (CDI) popped into my email box today (see above), reminding me about keeping up to date with my own professional development. With regular newsletters, free courses and an invaluable network, membership of the CDI has been well worth the money, not to mention their formal register of career professionals, which means I can reassure my clients of my professional status and adherence to an ethical code of practice.

Most research disciplines and professions have a membership association, institute or society with a website, social media presence, newsletter and/or discussion list, that can assist you with your current personal development or help you to find out more about another profession or career sector. They sometimes even offer recognition of your professional status, for example you can apply to the Royal Society of Biology and the Higher Education Academy (AdvanceHE) for Fellowship status.

Before I became an independent PhD career consultant, I worked for a learned society. These are academic ‘clubs’ which cater for a whole variety of different disciplines, from Biochemistry to Anthropology, Microbiology to Ecology, Physiology to Physics. They are (usually quite wealthy) charities with a very reasonably priced membership fee, whose mission is to support academic researchers with their personal and professional development. Whether it’s organising an international conference, giving out awards or offering members the opportunity to get involved in outreach, policy or other research-associated activities, learned societies can help researchers to develop their careers in all sorts of ways, whatever their career ambitions. In my learned society, I witnessed many of our early career members benefit from the advocacy and informal mentoring  they received from more senior and established academics, which helped them to secure permanent positions.

Summer schools are a great source of professional development. Usually organised and hosted by universities or research institutions, they sometimes offer bursaries to attend and cover a wide range of subjects. If you’re a member of a learned society, you might be able to apply for funding to attend these courses. Ones I’ve seen recently include ‘Advanced Proteomics’ at the CRG in Barcelona, the LERU PhD Summer school and there’s a regular programme of courses run by EMBO. More informal lab visits can also be a great way to upskill if you want to learn a particular methodology or technique or make use of facilities that aren’t housed at your institution, with the added bonus of connecting and networking with the host research group.

Many universities offer external online courses, which are either free or very reasonably priced. These can be especially useful if they are centred around programming, bioinformatics, machine learning, AI and other non-wet-lab skills. On the other hand, learning about totally new topics that will help you to transition to a non-academic career sector might include regulatory affairs, quality assurance, clinical trials, patent law, finance, etc. These theoretical courses won’t be enough for you to become a professional, but the fact that you’re making the effort to get an insight into the profession can demonstrate to a potential employer your commitment and interest.

So, the next time you’re developing your research, don’t forget the researcher too!

Related post – Keep learning to keep earning

Have you ever lived in another country? It’s common practice for researchers to move around either on a short-term or long-term basis. It’s almost embedded into the research culture.

However, until you’ve done it yourself, you don’t ever really appreciate the challenges associated with transferring and translating everything from your own country, culture and language into a new one.

When I moved to Germany (over 5 years ago now), it was a daunting prospect. Not only had I never lived in another country, I knew nothing of Germany or its language. When I was at school (many years ago), we’d had the choice of learning two languages – I chose French and Latin. As it happens Latin has been more useful to me than French or even English in learning German, what with its complex cases such as the accusative and dative, and the preference for placing verbs at the end of many sentences!

And it wasn’t just the language. Coming from the UK, I had to learn to drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road. Again, a daunting prospect that I put off for about four months, until cabin fever took over and I finally took the leap and got into the driver’s seat. Actually, it wasn’t so bad after all (although I still avoid motorways as much as I can). Even my language skills have now improved to the point that I managed to pass my B1 German exam (equivalent to half an A-level) last year.

Very interesting, I hear you say, but what’s this got to do with careers?

Well, the point I’m trying to get across is that if you can do something in one setting, the likelihood is you can do it in another. OK, you may need time to settle in and get used to your new environment and you may need to get some extra training, but basically if you can learn something in one setting, you can usually learn it in another.

Everyone’s heard of transferable skills, but you also need to consider translating those skills into the language of your new employer. Just as you have to adapt to the culture and ways of a new country, so you will need to adjust to your new work environment and the people within it.

But before you even get to experience a new work culture, you need to get the job in the first place! Usually this is by applying with a CV and covering letter, which, if successful, will take you to an interview. Of course, as many researchers, who have successfully secured jobs in industry and business, will tell you; researching the career sector, companies and employees is crucial to help you to capitalise on your transferable skills and to translate your academic terminology into your targeted employer’s language. Take a look at LinkedIn and you’ll find lots of posts and advice about this (e.g. Matteo Tardelli and Ashley Ruba).

Here’s two example CVs (below) to show how a researcher specialising in biofilm research has translated her academic CV (top) into one that’s targeted to a biofilm position in industry (she got the job by the way!).

You’ll see how the content, language and even the layout changes to align with the employer’s job description (not shown here). Words such as, “delivering scientific content”, “preparing project progress reports” and “analysing large data sets to convert into deliverable results” have replaced the usual academic descriptions of these activities.

It’s not a perfect CV (no CV is), but I hope it gives you a flavour of how to transfer and translate your skills, experiences and achievements into a new language that is understood by your potential new employer. It shows that not only have you understood the job requirements and matched yourself to them, you are instilling confidence that you will also be able to adapt yourself to your new work environment and culture.

So, the next time you see a non-academic job of interest to you, underline the key words in the job description, take a look at the company website and see what types of words and phrases they are using. If you connect with the organisation on social media, you’ll see what’s important to them, as well as their latest news, and you can even link with employees and ask for an informational interview. That way, you’ll be fully armed to make a successful application, as well as assessing if this new ‘land’ is right for you.

Related blogs:

Think ‘Skill’ not ‘DPhil’
Put your skills to work
Skills and Thrills – what motivates you?

When you’re a researcher, information can be gathered in all manner of ways – reading papers, browsing websites, engaging in social media, email exchanges, conversations and attending conferences. This last avenue of information – conferences – is usually a heavy investment in terms of time and finance, but many researchers under-prepare and under-use this potential source of information, new connections and even career opportunities.

Whether it’s in-person, online, large, small, local or international, any conference worth attending is worth preparing for, so that you get the best return on your investment of time and money.

My advice for avoiding wasting time and money is to get conference ready! Here are some tips to help you:

• Choose wisely – there are many interesting conferences organised each year, some large, some small, some nearby and some in distant lands. Consider why you want to attend, what do you want to achieve? Will you benefit more from a large conference, or a smaller one? Does the programme look compelling? Who’s speaking? Are there opportunities for networking? Take advice from your supervisor, collaborators and peers, as well as considering your own motivations.
• Write a great abstract! One of the best ways to get noticed at a conference is to present a poster or, even better, give a talk. Writing a compelling abstract will help to get you noticed and attract people to attend your talk, especially when there are many parallel sessions. Use Google (or attend a workshop) on how to write a good abstract. Here’s one example from a previous blog.
• Enter your abstract for a competition, such as a ‘Early career researcher’ best talk/poster award. Even if you don’t win, it’s a great experience to practice promoting yourself and your research.
• Examine the programme and identify sessions of interest to you. You should aim to use your time wisely at any conference, so, much like preparing for a holiday, plan your itinerary so that you can navigate the conference efficiently, as well as factoring in flexibility in case of those (very likely) happenstance encounters.
• Identify speakers or delegates of interest in the programme or attendance list (if they have one) that you’d potentially like to connect with. Consider contacting some of them ahead of the meeting, if you think it’s appropriate – you can do this by email or social media. Say you’re looking forward to hearing them speak/meeting them.
• Follow the #. The majority of conferences will create a # for their meeting, which you can follow on X (formerly Twitter). Many of them also have a Facebook page that you can connect with (you can always create a new FB profile for professional purposes in case you don’t want to link your personal page).
• Sign up for pre-conference or side-programmes, such as career workshops and other sessions that will bring you into contact with delegates in a more informal setting. Many of these types of events are smaller and interactive, with more opportunity to meet your peers and get to know other delegates.
• Sign up for social/networking events. You don’t have to attend them all – consider staying for an hour and aim to meet one or two people. Standing events can more amenable than seated ones and, if there are tall tables to stand and eat your lunch with 3 – 4 others, this can be quite a nice way to get chatting with others.
• Do your research – if you’re interested in speaking with someone in particular, read up on them beforehand or attend their talk and then aim to approach them with a question about their research or a favourable comment about their talk – people love to talk about themselves.
• Prepare your pitch! Any good conversation is a two-way process, so be prepared to talk about yourself and your research. To avoid bombarding people with a 5-minute monologue, think about what you will say within about 30 seconds – that’s enough to oil the wheels of the interaction and your conversation partner can then ask you further questions to find out more.
• Examine the exhibitor list – there may be some exhibiting organisations that are of interest to you in terms of your research and even your career. Many companies are represented by staff who have PhDs and are even former postdocs. It can be interesting to do some research about how they transitioned into this line of work and what the role is like.
• Check your online profile! Make sure it’s in good order – up to date, fully completed, looking professional and consistent with your career aims. It’s likely that when you meet people at the conference, they will look you up online and even invite you to connect with them, so you want to look your best!
• Get some business cards printed – it may sound a bit commercial and even old-fashioned, but many delegates at international conferences carry business cards with them and offer them to other delegates. It’s not necessarily a ‘must’, but it’s easy and cheap to produce them nowadays, displaying your name, position, contact details, institution and logo.
• Prepare to dress to impress. You don’t have to be formal and you may feel confident and relaxed in your jeans and T-shirt. However, if you want to ensure you’ll be taken seriously by more senior delegates, choose something smart-casual, as your supervisor might dress. You never know, you may even have the opportunity to be interviewed for your next position during the conference!

Two extra tips that deserve special attention:

Note 1 – The BAD news!
Beware predatory conferences! (and journals too for that matter). These are exploitative meetings with the sole aim to make money from the academic community. Google ‘predatory conference’ for more information, but here’s one explanation from Wikipedia.

Note 2 – The GOOD news!
Many conferences are organised by learned or professional societies, which also have a large membership. If you join them, they will give you a discounted registration to their conference, and they may also have lots of other membership benefits that you can enjoy throughout the year, so make sure to take a closer look at their website and even consider joining longer-term.

Having worked for a learned society myself for almost 20 years, where we organised one large international and smaller meetings each year, I’ve witnessed many in the academic community – PhD students, postdoctoral researchers and even professors – benefit from the experience, whether it was giving a talk and getting noticed, making connections with other delegates, having useful discussions with more other scientists, or even being offered to have more involvement in the society by taking part in their events or joining committees. Attending conferences can be both time consuming and expensive, so be sure to make the most of these great opportunities to meet and connect with others. Most of all, of course, have fun and see the world!

Related content

The invisible delegate
Learned societies

Researchers are great at analysis – you scrutinise research papers, you analyse methodologies, you deep-dive into complex data sets, you evaluate conclusions and you use a wide and sophisticated set of tools to achieve all of these analytical activities.

But what about you, the researcher? How about your self-analysis? Are you investigating yourself and wondering where your researcher journey is headed? Are you curious to know what types of careers will be best suited to you, your values, interests, skills and personality?

Taking time out of your research to analyse yourself and find true purpose in what you are doing might be the hardest research project you ever take on. Despite the challenges faced when carrying out your PhD or postdoctoral research, designing and conducting experiments, drawing conclusions, publishing your findings, etc., the art of self-discovery is a much more tricky and subjective process.

I say ‘subjective’ and this can have more than one meaning: First, many researchers wed themselves to their research subject of interest, ignoring the very personal aspects that constitute their true and authentic selves. Secondly, self-analysis can be very difficult to do when you’re inside yourself. Sometimes, others can see things in you that you cannot see yourself. This is why career counselling, guidance and coaching professionals can help you to figure out where your strengths and passions really lie, as well as helping you to achieve your aims. In addition, there are a variety of assessment tools that can assist you individually to reflect on your  

On that note, I thought I’d share with you two self-analysis tools that I use to help researchers to recognise aspects of themselves beyond their subject interests, so that they can apply this knowledge to creating a fulfilling career for themselves.

If you wish to try them out, it may help you to consider a wider range of career options or confirm to you what you already were thinking with regard to potential careers of interest.

SKILLS AND INTERESTS

Adapted from Holland’s theory of career choice, my PhD Career Choice Indicator pictured above consists of six skills/interest categories: FUNCTIONAL, INVESTIGATIVE, ARTICTIC, SOCIAL, ENTERPRISE and MANAGEMENT. Depicted as a hexagon, each of the categories has a descriptor that allows you to understand more fully what each of them means. The assessment is very simple – you just need to rank the categories in order of preference, in terms of what you enjoy doing. Your top 3 choices will start to give you an idea of what really interests you, as well as the types of tasks and activities you want to take with you to you in your next role. The least enjoyable category will also show you the kinds of work you might want to minimise as far as possible in your next job.

Have a go and see what you think – it’s really just a starting point, as it only considers skills and interests, however it can help you to start focussing your options more accurately, and some of the descriptors can also be useful to use as keywords when searching for future roles, whether within or outside of academia.

VALUES

I use an abridged and adapted version of an original values assessment created by Edward Schein and published in his book ‘Career Anchors’. I’ve altered the questions and descriptors to make them more relevant to doctoral researchers and made use of the questionnaire that I published in my book, ‘Career Planning for Research Bioscientists’, along with another assessment focussed on personality, adapted from the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) – not included here.

Some of the values that Schein includes in his assessment map quite nicely onto the skills in my PhD Career Choice Indicator, such as FUNCTIONAL and GENERAL MANAGERIAL COMPETENCES, whilst others, such as SECURITY/STABILITY and PURE CHALLENGE, are more related to lifestyle and preferred ways of working. To see more about the Values Assessment and to take the test go to my Googledocs for the pdf.

There are many other assessment tools, such as MyIDP and the Vitae RDP, so why not spend some time over the holiday period on you, so that going into the new year you’ll feel more confident and assured about where you want to take your career next. And don’t forget, this is just a starting point that only takes account of your skills, interests and values. A career professional will be able to help you with your self-analysis more fully, as well as supporting you with other parts of the career planning process.

Related content:

Decisions Decisions

Skills and Thrills – What motivates you?

The Skilled Researcher

Value Added Careers

“Today, I was able to spend time with Sarah Blackford – an early start train trip was definitely worth the journey 🙂 LinkedIn and online professional development webinars might have connected us professionally during the pandemic, but they have also helped us to keep in touch and become friends.” Jenn Barfield  

And what a great day out in Würzburg we had! It was a chance conversation over LinkedIn that made us realise that we live close enough to actually meet up in person, rather than just messaging online.

This is one example of a formerly remote and unknown contact who’s now become a friend. I have many more examples! Some are people that I’ve worked with, some are delegates of conferences I’ve attended and some, like Jenn, are people that I’ve only known through social media. Obviously, it’s not something that happens with everyone in your network – nor should it be, otherwise you’d never get any work done! – but it’s a really nice experience when you not only connect with someone professionally, but socially too.

And, of course, it can also be very rewarding in terms of setting up, developing and maintaining collaborations. I recently ran a career workshop for young academics, where we were discussing how to create and make the most of collaborative opportunities. One of the academics had been considering inviting an expert data scientist to collaborate with them, however on reflection she decided to approach a research group with which she’d already built up a good relationship, following a research visit. She had concluded that working with people you like and with whom you have a good rapport is more likely to be successful than taking a chance on a stranger – and it would be more fun too!

Maybe she was right, we will never know. However, when you’re at a conference and you see your professor and other senior ‘more seasoned’ academics shaking hands, hugging, smiling and inviting each other out for dinner, etc., you’ll appreciate that having collaborators that are friends is a definite bonus. And remember, they started where you are now as an early career researcher, with no network of any consequence – these things take time to build so it’s never too late to get started.

Research is an international endeavour, with researchers in the same field based all over the world, which is why it’s important to reach out and make contact. Whether it’s remotely, with in-person visits or meet-ups at conferences, these connections are vital towards you developing your own academic profile. If you read the biographies of academics, you’ll see them referring to various people with whom they’ve worked over their career and I’m sure if you asked them, they would probably count many of them as friends. This is why academic mobility is so important to research – sharing ideas, discussing data, mulling over problems with experiments and, yes, forging, sometimes life-long, friendships.

I recently delivered my ‘Power of Networking’ career workshop, in which I identified the wide range of people with whom you can build relationships throughout your career. Using a spider’s web to illustrate this, I put family and friends at the centre, with acquaintances, peers, mentors and work colleagues, former work colleagues and alumni further away and, at the very edge, those on social media. Depending on your career aims, you’ll want to create connections and build your network accordingly. For example, for me, as an international career consultant, I have many contacts, acquaintances and friends in my professional network. People I’ve met online, include my digital co-partner, Virginie Siret, who manages all my online career workshops – We have never met in person (although I am hoping to one day, as she lives in a very nice part of France), but, having worked together now for over 2 years, I would definitely count her as a friend. Similarly, many members of a LinkedIn group I co-created for PhD career coaches with Barbara Janssens have become firm friends over the years.

One of the questions at the end of my recent networking workshop was around how to build relationships with the contacts in your network. I replied that for most of your career you’ll only build close relationships with a few people, but that you can stay in loose contact with people more easily nowadays using social media, simply by liking or commenting on their posts and showing a virtual presence. If, like Jenn, you see an opportunity to get closer, then it’s up to you both to agree to set up a meeting (virtual or in-person) to have a quick chat or something longer like we did – spending a day out including coffee and cake followed by a walk and talk and a shop till you drop, as well as agreeing to find ways to work together in the future 🙂

For related content go to my blog archive and search in the Networking column: https://biosciencecareers.org/blog-archive

Guest Blog alert! 

We don’t hear much from professors when advising on careers, so it’s with great excitement that I introduce my guest writer for this month’s blog – Professor Dale Sanders (former director of a major UK research institute).

Much has been written about securing a permanent academic position, not to mention surveys, statistics, podcasts and career stories, for example this blog from The Node. So, if you’re very talented and/or lucky enough to land one such post for yourself, how do you make a success of your new academic career?

Last week, I ran a session for junior academics in which we discussed the challenges of pivoting from a largely autonomous and hands-on role as a postdoctoral researcher, into a leadership position in which you are responsible for activities of which, generally speaking, you have no experience. In addition to the challenges of managing your time so that you can accommodate a variety of new collegiate responsibilities, such as recruitment, administration and committee representation, you remain under pressure to demonstrate your productivity in the form of publications and funding (for which, in many cases, you will be ‘measured and judged’).  

In my workshop session, the junior academic leaders identified a whole host of personal and professional ‘hidden extras’ that are key to academic positions. They are never advertised, but they are vital if you’re to succeed – without having some kind of meltdown! Having coached many junior leaders and witnessed the stresses and strains of the academic world, I feel I have a good objective sense of what these hidden extras are – as portrayed as an iceberg above.

However, on the basis that it’s always really valuable to receive mentoring and advice from experienced academics, who have witnessed the changes and challenges of academic life first-hand, I hope you will find the following guest blog a very useful guide to some of the ‘hidden extras’ that are not articulated in job advertisements, but that will be helpful in your achieving and maintaining a successful academic career.

________________________________________________________________________

GUEST BLOG: Professor Dale Sanders
(former Director, John Innes Centre, UK)
10 Key Skills and Personal Qualities that can help you to be Successful as an Academic in Science

I have listed 10 of these key skills below. Ability to write great research manuscripts and grant applications is essential, of course, and is subsumed at various places in the list below that relates more generally to inter-personal attributes. 

This list is not prioritised in any sense – all are important and indeed are inter-related.  And, of course, the list is not intended to be exclusive: many other skills and qualities could be addressed.

Collegiality. The days of a one-person lab-leader and their little group are long gone; thinking big about research nearly always involves collaborating with others to address the issue you are investigating. This applies within your own research field nationally and internationally. For those with whom you do not collaborate, you need to keep in touch with what they are doing, so keep them as friends even if you disagree at an intellectual level. And at home, it is just as important to be collegial with the many other academics in your department who work in different fields. Remember this is in your own interests: support others within your department to achieve collective excellence to make your department world-renowned. Departments don’t run by themselves, and good ones require democratic participation of their academics. Perhaps think about how you can help by improving standards in teaching and more generally the way your department is run.

Tolerance. We are all social animals, and it is inevitable that colleagues (whether within your research group, your institution, or wider in your national or international communities) will occasionally irritate you – or worse, offend. When this happens (it will!), you can take a step back to ask where they are coming from and to try to understand, even if you do not agree with their position. You might find that if you open up a discussion you will find common ground and they will not irritate you so much after all!

Inclusivity. The best academic activity – whether this is teaching or research – gets done by seeking wide opinion for decision-making. Our inherent biases will sometimes prevent diverse input. We need to recognise that each of us has those biases and enable that recognition to accommodate new thinking that might appear a first sight to be contrary to your instincts.

Resilience. You will have periods of low self-esteem. Perhaps a grant application or a paper get negative reviews or students feed back with negative comments on some lectures you have given? There is not an academic this hasn’t happened to. But coping with external negativity is part of your job. Try to de-personalise this and then question objectively where this negativity comes from. If you then feel comments are justified, you can act. If you still feel that comments are unfair, you can discuss with colleagues to get advice.

Big Picture Thinking. You were hired in a competitive environment because of your amazing achievements. Don’t lose sight of that in the day-to-day of running a lab and interacting with the rest of your department. Ask yourself: what are the major research problems I can solve? Can I develop a testable hypothesis? Who will I involve? And, if appropriate, how can I improve human health of the environment we live in?

Recruitment. You will want to recruit the very best and most committed grad students, research assistants, and post-docs to your lab. Ensure that you have your vision right when you recruit: it’s not just about the science the interviewee has done, but about their interpersonal skills. At this stage it is always useful to get second, informal opinions with respect to recruitment.

Mentoring. This will become part of your job. You owe it to those that you recruit, almost all of whom will be either students of researchers on fixed-term contracts, to help them develop their careers, whether this be inside or outside of science. Remind them when appropriate that there is a world outside of research science, and that the analytical skills that they learn as part of their role are transferrable to so many other areas of society where they can contribute to their careers as well as more general contributions.

Communication. You will need to communicate with your students, your lab, your departmental peers and externally to your institution even less frequently.  The key to good communication is to remember your audience: where are they coming from and what is their baseline knowledge? What are their expectations of you? This doesn’t mean telling people what they want to hear of course: you can, as a scientist challenge, beliefs. But be respectful and clear. Know exactly what you want to say before you say it.

Willingness to learn. You will make mistakes: all of us do. This can be at the level of appointing an inappropriate graduate student or saying something you later regretted.  Temporarily, apologies can retrieve a situation. But in the context of wider thinking, it is never too late to self-question: did I get that one right? 

Motivation. It’s OK to question every now and then why you ever thought to get into academia in the first place. “Was this just something I fell into given some excellent scientific results?” After all, positions in government, the commercial and charitable sectors might be similarly attractive.  It helps sometimes to look around at what else is on offer – and then perhaps re-invigorate yourself that you have one of the best jobs in the world: inspiring young minds and pushing back the boundaries of discovery.

Related blogs: It’s all academic
Principle ways to become a Principal Investigator

If you hadn’t noticed, it was National Postdoc Appreciation Week (#NPAW) last week. Held each year during the third week in September, all kinds of initiatives and activities are organised to highlight and celebrate the invaluable contributions made by postdoctoral researchers and to support them in their careers.

You only need to do a Google search or enter the hashtag into social media platforms, such as LinkedIn to find a whole cacophony of events taking place in recognition of the crucial role played by postdocs the world over. Perhaps you’ve been involved in such an event.

As we enter this new week, post-NPAW 2023, it’s clear that the plight of the postdoc is still very much an issue in terms of the career challenges faced by contract researchers. So, for my September blog, to acknowledge this fact, I’ve decided to focus my blog on postdocs, who will at some point in their careers be facing a future ‘post-postdoc’.

Your post-postdoc ambitions

Whether you’re a postdoc considering your career trajectory towards a permanent academic career or you’re a postdoc thinking of moving into business or industry, one thing’s for certain: You can’t postdoc forever.

There will have to be a crossing point in your career when you move into other roles. I say roles because it’s likely that you will not remain in your first post-postdoc role for the duration of your career. You’ll get promoted or you’ll move sideways or along and across and into other positions, as you find your ideal career path.

Try not to grieve too much for the postdoc that you leave behind when you finally move on. Did you grow up wanting to be a postdoc? Did you aspire at school or even university to be one? I doubt it very much. Perhaps you were curious, inquisitive about the world, you wanted to make a difference, were inspired by scientists on TV. You most probably wanted to be a scientist.

Whenever I look up ‘Scientist’ on LinkedIn with the ‘People’ search, the results I get hardly ever include scientists working in academia, only those working in industry. Scientists in academia call themselves postdocs or research associates, lecturers or associate professors.

You don’t have to badge yourself in the outside world as a postdoc – you can title yourself something more meaningful such as Bioscientist, Evolutionary Biologist, Astrobiologist, Developmental Biologist, Biomedical Scientist, Bioinformatician, etc. You can even add in other descriptors of yourself such as creative, solutions-oriented, technology-focussed, resourceful problem-solver, etc.

Think about a more suitable title and then add it to your LinkedIn profile.

Your post-postdoc transition

I see a lot of postdoc CVs and many of them are not fit for purpose. Don’t get me wrong, they usually contain loads of great experiences, technical skills and achievements. The problem is that when you are applying for a new position, you need to present yourself not as you are in your current role – a postdoc – but as the person you’re aiming to be next.

For example, if you’re aspiring to be an independent researcher – include information about your research ideas, where you see yourself creating a new research niche as an emerging researcher in the field of XXX, focus on funding successes and collaborations, rather than listing your technical skills. For permanent academic posts, do the same but include collegiate activities, such as resource management, committee representation or reviewer responsibilities.

On the other hand, you may be looking to become a senior scientist in a biotechnology company. In this case, change your language to match the industry, tell them about your experiences relevant to their job requirements, leave out long lists of publications and teaching (or just add in a link). Make sure to mirror their job requirements, especially including examples of your interpersonal skills, personal qualities and experiences.

If you’re moving to an entirely different type of role, such as science administrator – you will need to re-organise your CV quite dramatically. Your scientific knowledge and skills need only be mentioned briefly and more broadly to show that you are an experienced scientist. More central to the application will be managerial, communication and organisational skills. Perhaps your attention to detail, ability to meet deadlines and write reports.  

If your CV is successful and you are called for interview, continue to present yourself in terms of your future role so that you’re taken seriously by your prospective employers.

Imagine yourself already being a post-postdoc.

Your post-postdoc addition

Looking at post-postdoc roles can be a bit daunting when you see that perhaps you don’t ‘tick all the boxes’. Don’t be put off by this though. Employers don’t expect you to be able to satisfy more than perhaps 50 – 60% of their criteria. What they’re looking for is someone with the right attitude who will fit into and contribute to their work culture and community.

For some jobs, however, you may need to up-skill and get some career development in areas that are central to the position. In this case, look for opportunities to bolster your CV with whatever outstanding experiences or expertise is required. And if you can’t manage this, then look for jobs that interest you and make use of the skills that you most enjoy using and want to develop further.

Whatever you do, you can look forward to a bright post-postdoc future by considering getting support from a qualified career coach or adviser. Beware of paying too much – if the fee seems to be too high look elsewhere; there are plenty of reasonably priced or even free services and courses for you to make use of. Better still, contact the research support centre at your own institution, which may host career development workshops (such as my own) or offer funding to support researchers with their professional development.

Related blogs:

My Archive contains many useful blogs, including the following:

It’s all academic

Appreciate your career

Keep learning to keep earning

Think Skill not DPhil

Are you a member of a learned* society or academic organisation?

Maybe you are, maybe you’re not. Or maybe you are, and you don’t know it!

When I ask this question in my career workshops, usually only one or two hands go up. However, on further questioning, it turns out quite a lot of researchers belong to some kind of learned society, even though they don’t immediately realise they do!

Why is this?

Learned societies are academic ‘clubs’ that have memberships ranging from a few hundred to many thousands. They are associated with particular academic subjects of interest, for example, the Biochemical Society, the American Society of Cell Biology, the Genetics Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry. Some of them are very old and have even recently been celebrating their 100^th birthdays.

Depending on your own academic research field(s), there is bound to be one or more learned societies that match with your interests. In fact, you’ve probably attended one of their conferences and were offered a reduced registration fee if you joined as a member. The membership then usually lasts for a year, after which you can continue to pay your subscription fee or not.

This is how many researchers become learned society members, but soon forget that they are ‘in the club’.

Advantage Club membership!

My advice is: Keep your membership going, especially if you plan to stay in academia. In fact, look around and see if there are other learned societies that you could join.

Why? Because learned society membership is usually very good value, both financially and, more importantly, professionally. Your outlay is more than compensated for by the following advantages:

• Access to funding
  Many learned societies offer PhD and postdoctoral researchers the opportunity to apply for travel grants (e.g. 500 euros or more) to research conferences and lab visits. This can help to expand your networks and horizons. It also gives you a degree of independence, as well as practice at writing for competitive funding.
• Awards
  Poster and talk presentation prizes, best young scientist, writing, photo and other media competitions give you opportunities to showcase yourself and your research and to highlight your achievements;
• Networking
  A learned society generally comprises students and early career researchers through to distinguished professors, as well as research stakeholders such as industry, NGOs and publishers. Unlike in your own academic research institution or university, where there are few researchers working in your particular field, a learned society brings together all manner of people who have an interest in your research field. It’s a prime opportunity to connect, engage, network, share ideas, create collaborations and even find your next position.
• Communication
  This is a BIG one! Many large learned societies get their funding from the journals that they own. Because they are charities, they re-invest the profits from their journal subscriptions back into the organisation. This means that they have the means to organise subsidised conferences, where their members and other researchers can present and discuss their research. Many of them also run education, policy and career programmes, offer academic mobility opportunities and invite members to join their committees.
• Mentoring and patronage
  Having worked for a learned society myself, as the head of education and public affairs (for nearly 20 years), I have witnessed many early career scientists benefit from interactions with other more senior members. Because learned societies are so specialised, members have lots to talk about and it’s inevitable that useful discussions take place, such as suggestions about your research, being exposed to role models and even being offered a position.

And if this hasn’t yet convinced you of the benefits of being a member of a learned society (and, better still, getting involved in some way), the new narrative CV** includes a section about your contribution to the wider research community; guidance suggests that you provide evidence of, for example, being involved in a learned society, organising a meeting, being a member of a committee or initiating a collaborative project.

So, think about learned societies as your learned friends. Whether you’re aiming for a career within or outside of academia, the benefits are there for the taking. I took on one early career researcher science communication intern per year whilst working for the Society for Experimental Biology, all of whom went on to forge amazing careers. Equally, I know of other researchers who have benefitted from internships in policy, conference organisation, journal editing and publishing, to name but a few!

*Note that ‘learned’ is pronounced as if it has an accent on the second ‘e’ – ‘learnèd’. Or imagine that it as a hyphenated word: Learn-Ed.

** If you want to find out more about narrative CVs contact me to discuss my trainings

Related blogs:

Learned societies
Learned societies – a party worth joining

31^st July 2023.

Today marks two anniversaries for me: On this day in 2017, after 30 years of full-time employment at five different universities, I decided to set up independently as a PhD career consultant. Then, one year later, on 31^st July 2018, after living in the UK for the whole of my adult life, I moved with my partner to Germany and have been here for five years.

Looking back now after 5 – 6 years, I feel very positive about the changes I’ve made. But change is never easy, even if you’re excited about the prospect and are very motivated to move. Working independently and living in another country were two very big firsts for me and they weren’t without their challenges.

For example, I panicked a bit when I first set up my business, thinking I might not get enough work to support myself. So, in the first few months, I never said “No” to any opportunities, with the consequence that I overloaded myself with too many jobs, to the point where I almost had a breakdown!

When we first moved to Germany, I thought it was so exciting and different. The people were really friendly, the countryside was there to be explored and the festivals were in full swing. However, after a short time, I started to feel depressed and disconnected from my family and friends. I knew I needed to sell my car and house in the UK, which made me feel even more that I was losing my ‘anchor’. Despite the support and encouragement of my partner, I had a bit of a meltdown and was seriously contemplating moving back.

I never did act on those impulses and, after a few months, I started to feel more positive about the changes I had made. Developing more confidence in my business and taking a more strategic approach helped me to build my ‘Unternehmen’ (small business) here in Germany, whilst the kindness and friendship of our new-found friends here helped me finally to settle down to the Bavarian way of life.

More than that though, I always kept in mind a very important and enlightening model of change that I use in my PhD career workshops. First proposed in the 1970s, it illustrates the rollercoaster of emotions such as anxiety, depression, elation and denial that people experience during change. After a time (note, no scale shown, so this can happen over a very short or a very long period of time), the model shows how a person starts to come to terms with the change and move forward.

Because science is such a global and international endeavour, it means that ‘academic mobility’ is a necessary part of many researchers’ careers, so that they get to work with the people and facilities that are most relevant to their field of interest. However, moving to a different research group or institution, moving to different countries, or changing careers represent major disruptions to the lives of PhD and postdoctoral researchers.

So, from my own and other’s experiences, I would recommend some of the following advice to increase your resilience regarding change:

1. Contact people ahead of moving to find out how they have coped and get advice from them, e.g. research group or university colleagues, alumni and social media;
2. Get support – join groups in person and online, e.g. Facebook groups;
3. Use the university international office and other institutional administration support;
4. Try to learn the local language and immerse yourself in the culture of the region;
5. Be open about your concerns and anxieties – it’s nothing to be ashamed of.

After 5 – 6 years, I have plenty of clients (enough, but not too many) and my business has been thriving, even through Covid. I now work with a great partner, Virginie Siret, who provides me with excellent professional digital assistance whenever I deliver my workshops online. On a more personal level, I’ve had lots of great experiences since I moved to Germany – we have a lovely apartment in a small village in Franconia with lots of friendly neighbours. We’ve been to beer and wine festivals galore, experienced the Christmas markets and rather bizarre ‘Fasching’ extravaganzas and have eaten many a bratwurst!

Change is not easy, but it’s inevitable for most of us, especially when you’re a working professional. So, if you’re ever feeling emotional about the prospect of changes in your life, don’t feel embarrassed as it’s a perfectly natural reaction. Consider how best to navigate changes in your life and to keep a positive, if not, philosophical, mindset. Most of all communicate with others!

And on that note, I can very happily tell you that I just received an email whilst writing this blog to say that I have passed my B1 German exam 🙂

Related posts:

Change talk
Academic mobility
Academic mobility: the long and the short of it

Originally posted on the University of Glasgow’s ‘Expert Voices‘ as part of their Pathfinder initiative, my June blog is about how you can intentionally direct your career, rather than leaving it to chance. I hope it’s useful for you to find your own career path.

Intentional or Incidental ?

“I just happened to be in the right place at the right time”, “I was lucky”, “I happened to find out about this opportunity by complete accident”. When people tell their career stories, these types of statements come up a lot, and can even represent a major positive turning point in someone’s career. Perhaps you can think of one or two examples from your own career journey.

Powerful as they can be, however, these incidental experiences are usually the result of intentional actions. For example, in order to find yourself in a situation where an opportunity comes your way, you also need to be ‘out there’ networking, stepping outside of your comfort zone, getting involved and being proactive.

What’s the ‘right’ career development for me?

For postgraduate researchers and research staff, time is very limited during the 3-4 year period of your doctorate or short-term research contract. With the pressure to design and conduct studies, generate and interpret data, publish papers, teach, supervise, etc., there is little opportunity to consider other activities that may play a vital role in a researcher’s career progression and success.

Whether aiming for an academic position or a role in other career sectors, such as industry or business, it is important for researchers to be able to demonstrate specific skills and experiences required by the employer. For example, whilst you may have acquired high-level technical or programming skills needed to conduct your research project, you may not have had the opportunity to develop other capabilities important to progress to your next role, such as working in a team, thinking innovatively, communicating to non-specialists or taking a leadership role. Intentional career development weaved into a researcher’s role can make the difference between a researcher being a strong candidate for their next job application or being overlooked.

With this in mind, whilst investigating researcher career development programmes during my master’s degree a few years ago, I created a useful framework to address, in part, this dilemma. Taking a well-known (at least, to careers advisers) career decision model that was first proposed in the 1950s (Holland, 1959), I adapted the six key areas of Hollands’ RIASEC model to suit a researcher’s core role, so that it could be used as a basic guide for their career development (see Table below).

The ‘PhD Career Choice Indicator’, as I’ve called it, is made up of the following categories:

1. Functional (the practical stuff)
2. Investigative (curiosity and discovery)
3. Artistic (creative communication)
4. Social (people engagement)
5. Enterprise (innovating ideas)
6. Management (organising people/things)

Of course, many of these skills and interests overlap with each other and many other factors are involved in the process of career decision-making. However, this simple model can help researchers to structure their experiences and use the information in whichever way they prefer (for example, to discover personal motivators). The model is used in this blog to identify potential career development opportunities.

Taking intentional steps to prepare for “chance” events

Depending on your own preferred skills and interests, particularly those you enjoy using, you can start to distil out those you would like to take forward in your future career and those you want to minimize. This can help you to start thinking about types of careers that may be of interest to you (you can also use these skills as keywords to find jobs and to connect with professionals), as well as to identify potential intentional experiences/opportunities that can contribute to your career development. Depending on what motivates individual researchers, this can help to make good use of the limited time and resources available for the purposes of personal and professional development, as well as creating potential happenstance opportunities along the way.

For example, I was coaching a postgraduate researcher, who was interested in a teaching-focussed academic post, recently. After some discussion, she decided to apply for Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy to add weight to her (social) teaching experience. In addition, she identified two learned societies that would help her to engage more fully with researchers working in her field of interest, with the goal to network and create collaborative opportunities. Compare this with another early career researcher, who had recently been appointed as a junior professor. Newly exposed to the constant competition and pressure associated with academia, he understood the need to continue to grow his, less developed, enterprising and management skills by finding a supportive mentor, attending a leadership course, and nurturing collaborative relationships.

With the majority of researchers exploring careers beyond academia after completing their PhDs, spending time on their career development is vital to help them to make a successful transition. Getting involved in activities related to your preferred skills and interests, such as upskilling your functional expertise, taking on managerial responsibilities or work-shadowing can be the difference between you being called for interview or being constantly turned down due to insufficient relevant experience. For example, a recently graduated PhD researcher told me she had succeeded in securing a position as a Medical Writer due to her engagement with outreach activities during her PhD, which demonstrated she could communicate with a wide range of audiences.

Universities are a rich source of intentional career development opportunities, with scope for researchers to get involved in outreach, policy, executive committees, sports and a wide range of social and student-related activities on their own doorstep, as well as looking further afield. By associating yourself with a range of communities, you will start to find yourself in incidental situations that may turn out to be the ‘lucky’ turning point in your career that you can relate to the next generation of researchers, if you’re invited to tell your own career story.

Related posts: Career development – it’s personal