RESEARCHER CAREER PATHWAYS EVENT 14th JANUARY 2014

1. RESEARCHER CAREER PATHWAYS EVENT 14th JANUARY 2014 Dr Jo Moyle Careers Coach www.brookes.ac.uk/careers

2. What do Brookes PhD graduates do? Project Engineer, Aerospace Systems Secondary school teacher Lecturer – OBU and beyond Research Administrator Postdoctoral researcher Staff Officer, Health Intelligence, MOD Technical Director, IT company Training and development coach Senior Paediatric Officer, NHS Digital Forensics Specialist, Defence Industry Actor Associate Lecturer Research Physiotherapist, NHS Library Branch Manager Research Assistant Research Scientist, Pharmaceutical industry Freelance Landscape Historian

3. Directorate of Academic and Student Affairs Support for researchers through the Careers Centre • Full training and events programme to support ongoing professional development and practical career management skills • Daily one-to-one advice and guidance service • CV and application checks • Mock interviews • E-guidance service • See handouts in delegate packs • Details of all services including Same Day Appointments www.brookes.ac.uk/careers • Located in HKSC, soon moving to NLTB – come and see us!

4. My Top 3 Tips for Successful Career Transitions for Researchers Whether you are… Moving on in academic research Moving into research outside HE Moving into a new sector Moving back into a sector

5. Tip 1: Look ahead

6. Academic research roles • “Getting an academic job is a competitive business, so you should treat it as a campaign. Once you have got a job, the campaign is unlikely to stop, but will continue with more or less intensity for much of your academic career” • The Academic Career Handbook, Blaxter, Hughes & Tight (1998) • What is currently exercising the sector? • Look at job vacancies – record of research funding? What level of publications record? Ongoing research plan? Specific teaching requirements? • How likely are you to have to re-locate?

7. Wider options within and beyond HE I probably would have done career research a lot earlier, all the way through. With the general switch into IT, it would have made sense to think more. It didn’t occur to me that there was anything more than a set of skills involved and it would have made sense many, many years ago to find out more generally how that worked. And you know there was plenty of information out there that I just didn’t bother to hunt down. I think I would have paid more attention to the career aspect of connections I already had. All of that information was just waiting for me and people were good willed towards me and I think I ignored that a great deal at early stages www.beyondthephd.co.uk

8. Using your research skills to colonise the territory you want to move into… Job vacancies Making and talking to contacts LinkedIn Work experience and volunteering Information interviewing The internet Work shadowing Sector press Talk to a careers adviser

9. Tip 2: Cultivate the right attitude to spot and seize opportunity

10. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ahg6qcgoay4

11. The Psychology of Luck – Richard Wiseman • Studied psychological differences of hundreds of exceptionally lucky and unlucky individuals • Discovered ‘lucky’ people generated their own luck through distinctive set of attitudes and behaviours • Second phase – can you teach people to be lucky? • ‘Unlucky’ individuals taught basic principles and simple techniques – after 1 month, 80% more satisfied with their lives and experiencing more ‘good luck’

12. Techniques for becoming ‘luckier’ • Tension and anxiety disrupts people’s ability to notice the unexpected - adopt an approach of openness and curiosity whenever possible • Introduce variety and change into your life – even small changes in routine can increase the number of chance opportunities that come your way • Notice how you react to bad luck – ‘it could have been much better’ ‘it could have been much worse’ • This keeps your expectations about the future high and increases the likelihood of self-fulfilling prophecies… and greater ‘good luck’

13. Other findings about attitude… • Career learning theory of ‘Planned Happenstance’ (Krumboltz and Mitchell) • Approach / avoidance motivation research (Friedman and Forster) • Resilience research (Frederickson) • Mindset research (Dweck) • Plan for the unexpected • Cultivate curiosity, open-mindedness, experimentation • increases chances of serendipitous events • Positive emotions and expectations tend to increase creativity and bigger picture thinking • Beliefs about effort and responses to feedback alter outcomes

14. Tip 3: Understand the recruitment game

16. Getting shortlisted • Employer is looking for suitability and motivation for a specific role that matters in their organisation – advert, job description, person specification • Essentially a matching exercise – selection criteria define the ideal candidate, you supply the evidence it’s you! • Do you meet their requirements? • Are you speaking their language? • Does the information you give reflect its importance to the employer?

17. Activity • Look at the CV ‘Louisa Martin’ • Imagine you are shortlisting for the role of ‘Lecturer in Architecture’ • How would you rate the evidence for the given criteria: •  Met • ? Partially met • X Not met • If you were Louisa Martin, what areas of experience might you expand on in an application form?

18. University Teacher in Architecture, University of Liverpool – Sample Selection Criteria

19. 4 different ways of asking for research skills • “Analyse, distil and solve practical problems, generate new ideas and make sound judgements in complex situations” (Deloitte, Graduate Audit Training Scheme) • “A resourceful attitude to dealing with problems and queries and be capable of planning and carrying out research for new products” (Palgrave Macmillan) • “Give as much focus to the smaller details as you do to the big-picture, take the lead on decision-making based on evidence, think innovatively when investigating how things can be improved” (Civil Service Faststream) • “Creative problem solving supported by logical methods and appropriate analysis” (IBM)

20. Today • Opportunity for a one-to-one CV or application check with a Careers Coach – there are 16 x 15 minute slots • Sign up at lunch • Meet with your Careers Coach in Willow 08

21. Directorate of Academic and Student Affairs Support for researchers through the Careers Centre • Full training and events programme to support ongoing professional development and practical career management skills • Daily one-to-one advice and guidance service • CV and application checks • Mock interviews • E-guidance service • See handouts in delegate packs • Details of all services including Same Day Appointments www.brookes.ac.uk/careers • Located in HKSC, soon moving to NLTB – come and see us!