Careers outside of Academia

An image of researchers at one of the workshops on the Careers outside of Academia Day

The Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers encourages the exploration of researcher careers in a broad range of careers and employment sectors.

The Faculty Researcher Career and Development (RCaD) Groups had identified the need for more support around this - leading to the hosting of a day called, 'Careers outside of Academia.' The day was attended by around 25 researchers, some who were actively pursuing a career outside of academia and others curious to know more.

The morning workshops had interactive sessions on CV development and exploring career opportunities. The workshops were facilitated by a colleague from the University of Liverpool through the Prosper Exchange. The excellent resources within the Prosper Hub were used within the workshops. Lancaster was an initial partner in the development of Prosper.

Summaries and top tips from the workshops is given below and the PowerPoint slides are available.

Tab Content: Exploring Career Opportunities

In this session we looked at:

  • Identifying and using your 'warm' networks
  • Exploring organisations that you may wish to work for and what to look for
  • Using LinkedIn and AI to assist with your exploration
  • Networking
  • Preparing an Elevator pitch - there was 2 minutes to prepare a pitch and 30-60 seconds to try it out with colleagues and get their feedback
  • Rabbit Holes and the STOP rule!

Tab Content: CV Speed Reading

CV's has been submitted in advance of the session. Working in a small group there was 30 seconds for an initial review of each CV and then 3 minutes for a more detailed review. It was highlighted that many recruiters had only spend 30 seconds for reviewing a CV, so it needed to have impact in this space of time.

Top tips from this session included:

  • Needs a clear layout
  • Summary at the beginning should be tailored to the role - ¾ lines easy to read in 30 seconds
  • Rest of CV can be more generic
  • Think what you really want to showcase e.g Public engagement and make sure that takes centre stage
  • Describe what you got out of a role/activity etc focusing on transferable skills
  • Keep ORCID ID up to date - could include a QR code to this or other relevant information
  • Don't include a list of publications if not relevant to the role could put publications in bullet points in an 'experience' section, summarising the output e.g. X publications in .....
  • Stress collaborative working on research projects and publications - stressing transferable skills and helps to mitigate against 'lone researcher' stereotype
  • Swap CVs with others and act as 'critical friends'
  • Revisit CV often to keep up to date

Careers outside of Academia Panel

Five former postdoctoral researchers now working for private and public bodies kindly gave up their time to provide insight, to explore what is gained and what is lost by moving out of academia and to respond to questions from researchers.

It was an engaging and informative and challenged some of the myths around work on the outside of academia.

Information about panel members and their insight shared at the panel is below.

Headshot of Rachel Mason

Dr Rachel Mason

Rachel is a Data Scientist with the UK Civil Service

Headshot of Dr Calum Carson

Dr Calum Carson

Calum is a Senior Policy Advisor at Acas

Headshot image of Dr Will Dancer

Dr Will Dance

Will is a Senior BBC Policy Advisor at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
Headshot of Dr Alexa Cleasby

Dr Alexa Cleasby

Alexa is the Scientific Director with the Bioscript Group - a medical communications agency

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I liked the feel of the event. Quite informal but very purposeful and supportive. Being among a lot of other people in the same precarious employment situation felt like a safe space to talk openly. The structure and content was well balanced.

A quote from Postdoctoral Researcher