Beyond Your Research Degree
By this stage, you will hopefully have invested a certain amount of time in building up your transferable skills through attending PRDP courses, participating in seminars, presenting at conferences and maybe even publishing. Obviously, the final stage of your research degree should be devoted to completion and submission of your thesis and preparation for the Viva. However, even spending a small amount of time working to enhance your employability at this stage can be of tremendous benefit. The current section offers guidance on applying for jobs regardless of the area of employment you decide to pursue. It will begin with general advice on career planning and job applications, relevant to both academic and non-academic environments. It will then proceed to focus firstly on the intricacies of academic job applications and secondly on the potential non-academic career options available to a doctoral research graduate.
What to do next?
Click titles below to expand each section
‘The End is Nigh’
There are two main career routes that a research student can take: the academic route and the non-academic route. It is possible that you may still be unsure at this point as to which route to take. Don’t worry, this is natural: a research degree spans a considerable length of time during which life and career choices may change.
Advice and Guidance are Available from a Number of Sources:
Your Supervisory Team
By this stage, your principal and/or secondary supervisors should be better acquainted with you, intellectually, academically and personally and are equipped to provide you with some insight into what it’s like to work in academia.
Fellow PhD students
It is useful to chat to your PhD colleagues about their career plans. They might be able to advise you of options you’ve never heard of or considered before.
Queen’s Careers, Employability and Skills
This free careers service offers advice, information and assistance to all Queen’s students and graduates. Information on managing your career and pursing your career choices is available on their website and in the Student Guidance Centre. There is a dedicated Careers Adviser for Postgraduate Research Students who specialises in helping research students to plan their career pathways. She can be contacted by e-mailing r.boyd@qub.ac.uk or phoning 02890 975199 for a 1-2-1 appointment. These appointments can be used to discuss any aspect of your future career planning including writing CV’s, completing application forms and preparing for interviews and are available to you no matter what stage you may be in the PhD process.
Researcher Development and Labour Market Information
Use the RDF to assess your current level of preparedness for a research career. Click here to consider the findings in Vitae’s ‘What Do Researchers Do?’ report which outlines the career paths of Doctoral Graduates.
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