Don’t despair!

Humanities PhDs do develop challenging, satisfying careers but your job search strategies probably need to differ from many other graduates or PhDs.

The “average” humanities PhD (including arts, humanities and social sciences subjects) is very different to the “average” science or engineering PhD.

There are fewer of you and you’re more likely to be older, with previous employment and life experience to draw on. There are also fewer non-educational settings where you can directly apply your subject knowledge. This all has an impact on job hunting for humanities PhDs.

*Humanities PhD – I’ve used this term to include all doctoral researchers in arts & humanities (A&H) disciplines and social sciences (SS).

Note: If you would prefer to download or print this information, it is available as a 2 page pdf here.

What do humanities PhDs do after graduating?

The following information is taken from data on the employment circumstances in 2010 of 2,505 UK and EU PhDs who graduated in 2006/7, ie ~3 years on from graduation (Vitae, 2013)

The majority of humanities PhDs were working in Higher Education (A&H: 57.5%, SS: 67.6%) or education outside universities (A&H: 11.2%, SS: 3.5%). This is much higher than science or engineering. Unlike science & engineering, only a small proportion of humanities PhDs were working in research roles outside HE (A&H: 3.2%, SS: 3.4%).

Outside research and teaching roles, humanities PhDs were in a wide range of “other” roles (A&H: 36.5%, SS: 29.9%). The only other sector which stood out was “Finance, business & IT” (A&H: 4.8%, SS: 8.5%).

A significant proportion of humanities PhDs were working in more than one job concurrently ie “portfolio working” (A&H: 27.3%, SS: 19.9%). Whilst for some, this may be an unwelcome reality of establishing an academic career, the majority (~60% of A&H PhDs) said it was a positive choice.

Over 90% of humanities PhDs said they were very or fairly satisfied with their careers, 3 years after graduating.

If you want some more inspiration, Beyond the PhD has examples of the interesting, often serendipitous, career paths of arts and humanities PhDs.

A few starting points to consider

Academia and education – research and teaching roles will be familiar (An Academic Career has example career paths and sources of jobs). Universities also employ PhDs in many “administration” roles – roles which, outside academia, would be called “professional and managerial” but inside academia are given the same label as data-entry jobs (don’t make the mistake of assuming they’re the same). Also consider other education roles, including on-the-job school teacher training such as Teach First or School Direct.

Consultancies – the major management consultancies target PhDs from all disciplines. You do need to demonstrate commercial awareness and interest, but don’t need a management degree. Depending on your field and previous experience, there may be other specialist consultancies worth considering, such as educational, environmental or health consultancies. For more information, see our career sector pages for management consultancy.

Policy and campaign jobs – consider civil service, local government, government agencies, NGOs, research institutes, think tanks, policy organisations and campaign groups. For more details, see our career sector pages for government).

Social research organisations – the Social Research Association has some useful careers information.

What does this mean for job hunting for humanities PhDs?

If you don’t want to work in a university or other education role, or the roles described overleaf, there are very few generic sources of “humanities PhD jobs”. The jobs which humanities PhDs do are as individual and wide-ranging as humanities PhD graduates themselves. “Humanities PhD employers” come in all shapes and sizes and may only recruit one or two PhDs a year (which explains why they don’t want to come to recruitment fairs). This means you need to seek out individual roles, employers and jobs. You could consider:

• Jobs which draw on your skills

Assess the skills you have developed during your PhD and previously. By the nature of a PhD, this will include highly polished analytical, communication, information management and organisation skills. You will certainly have shown determination, self-motivation and the ability to use your initiative as an integral part of your PhD. You may also be a great influencer, negotiator, leader, team worker or innovator. Many of these skills are transferable to a wide range of careers, either related or unrelated to your research topic.

• Jobs which draw on your knowledge

This may be discipline knowledge, but unless you are targeting academia, you may need to think laterally. Who is interested in your topic, outside academia? Who would pay you to apply your knowledge, either as an employer or client? What sort of output would they expect to see from you applying your knowledge?

Is there other knowledge which you have which might be the basis for a career? This might be an understanding of groups you’ve dealt with during field work or services you’ve used during your research. You may be able to apply your newly-honed skills to knowledge gained from previous work, to explore more senior posts.

• Jobs which draw on your passions

An alternative approach to finding a career is to focus on something you care about and explore what sorts of jobs people do related to that field or topic. Enthusiasm and passion, some knowledge of a topic or field, coupled with an ability to learn fast and all those other PhD related skills might be an attractive package for a prospective employer – particularly if they meet you instead of just receiving a CV in the post.

How to investigate career options and find jobs for postgraduates

Job websites can be useful but before you jump straight in and start browsing, consider that

the most common way humanities PhDs first found out about their jobs (3 years after graduating) was through “professional, work or educational contacts or networks”.

This was particularly strong for those in higher education roles. The most effective way of uncovering those individual niche jobs suitable for humanities PhDs is probably through using your contacts.

To help with your job search, have a look at some of our career guides (there are 18 in total) on our Postgraduate Careers website with tips, techniques and links to support all postgraduates, whatever your discipline. These include:

• How to explore postgraduate career options in person
• How to explore postgraduate career options online
• How to find jobs for postgraduates which are not advertised
• How to find adverts for PhD jobs outside academia
• How to network without hassling your contacts
• How to find potential career contacts
• How to find academic jobs

So, even if you think you’re an expert, have a look at this infographic from Hackcollege.com:

Source:
http://www.hackcollege.com/blog/2011/11/23/infographic-get-more-out-of-google.html

Click on the image to get larger, clearer version, courtesy of Brett Jordan on Flickr

And many thanks to @AJHemingway for finding this on Pinterest and posting it on Twitter.

(Phew – hope I got all my attributions right!)

We’re always wary of doing this beforehand because things change daily. Therefore, they come with a health warning that you can never absolutely predict who will turn up on the day!

So, here’s what to expect (all being well):

What: Pathways: Career Options for Doctoral Researchers (or see previous blog posts)

Where: Renold Building, North Campus, University of Manchester

Who can attend: Any University of Manchester doctoral researcher or member of research staff – registration strongly recommended (otherwise we might not have enough food!)

When: 8.30-9.00am registration; 9-9.30am Introduction; 9.30-10am Choose your sessions; Panel sessions at 10am, 11am, 12noon, 2pm and 3pm; 4pm Close

All attendees will get a pack of information on the day, but if you’d like to look at the pdfs beforehand and plan your time, here they are:

• What are the sessions about?
• Programme timetable
• Profiles of panellists
• Panellists by areas of work covered

Here’s a taster of what we’ll cover, in case you’d rather not open a pdf:

Academic roles for…..
Our panels comprise those who’ve pursued their careers within an academic context including those who have research roles and teaching positions, at all stages of progression.

Broadening your horizons – working overseas
Panellists will talk about their experiences of pursuing careers in different countries, working cultures/environments and the advantages and disadvantages in comparison with working in the UK.
Relevant to all disciplines

Commercialising research, entrepreneurship or starting a business
If you already have a business idea or simply an entrepreneurial spirit and want to find out more, this panel will discuss the processes and advantages of turning your research into something profitable.
Relevant to Engineering & Physical Sciences; Medical & Human Sciences

Going solo – consultancy, self employment & working freelance
If you like the sound of being your own boss or more flexibility about the work you do, this session is for you.  Our panellists have taken the brave step of going it alone and have lived to tell the tale.
Relevant to all disciplines

I’ve been a postdoc – here’s my story
Our panel will talk about their experiences of working in Postdoctoral roles – the highs and the lows.
Relevant to all disciplines

I’ve done things that aren’t related to my PhD – so can you!
Whether they planned to or simply have found themselves taking a ‘scenic’ career path, our panellists will talk about the positions they have held which are not related to their specific discipline of study.  A session for anyone who wants to change direction or simply wishes to find out what’s possible with any PhD.
Relevant to all disciplines

It’s OK to change your mind!
Very few people have a job for life these days. Moving between organisations, roles and sectors, are increasingly common. It is possible to change your mind no matter where you are on your career journey. If you’re feeling trapped, confused about where to go next or just want to see what’s possible, come and listen to the positive stories our panel has to share about trying new things.
Relevant to all disciplines

Marketing yourself and your PhD to employers
How do you articulate the benefits of having studied for your PhD and convince employers that you have the skills they are looking for?  Our panel will draw on their own experiences and through providing skills training to PhD students to discuss how you can ensure you give yourself the edge over other applicants.
Relevant to all disciplines

Should I stay or should I go? Options for international students who wish to work in the UK after their studies
Our panellists have all chosen to remain in the UK since finishing their PhDs. They will talk about the challenges, the opportunities and compare what working in the UK is really like.
Relevant to all disciplines

What can I do with a PhD in Humanities/Engineering & Physical, Human, Life or Medical Sciences?
More things you can do with a PhD in Humanities/Engineering & Physical Sciences…
We’ve brought together panellists who are connected by discipline area (EPS/Humanities/MHS/LS) but who’ve followed a range of different career pathways to give you just a flavour of the options available to you.  We’re sure you’ll be inspired by the wide range of pathways you could follow.

What do employers look for in PhD applicants?
From CVs and applications through to job interviews, what are recruiters looking for when they are assessing PhD candidates?  We have invited panellists with lots of collective experience of hiring PhDs who can give honest insights and share their tips and advice on how you can stand out from other applicants.
Relevant to all disciplines

Which is better – industry or academia?
Our panels will compare and contrast their experiences of working inside and outside Universities. Which have they enjoyed more? What are the benefits that each can offer? How have they moved between the two areas?
Relevant to all disciplines

You don’t have to be an academic to work in a university
Enjoy being part of a University environment but not sure you want to pursue an academic, research or teaching career?  Have you ever thought about the wide range of non-academic jobs within universities?  Come along and find out more.
Relevant to all disciplines

You don’t just have to work in academia to be a researcher
What are the opportunities to continue a research career outside Universities?  How do these roles differ? Where do you find them and how do you get them?
Relevant to all disciplines

360+ doctoral researchers have already registered – look forward to seeing you all there.

Wrong!

If you’re going to find a job at a recruitment fair starting this year, the fairs you need are the summer Graduate Recruitment Fairs – next week.

Why?
There is a big difference between the types of jobs advertised at these fairs.

• The autumn fairs are primarily aimed at larger employers looking to fill their “graduate schemes”, normally a year in advance. Therefore, the majority of jobs on offer at the autumn fairs start in the autumn of the following year – October 2014 – which is a long way off if you graduate with a Masters at the end of 2013.
• The summer fairs are mainly full of employers looking to fill posts immediately or in the next few months. Some are large employers, where they are looking for a few new recruits, sometimes because they haven’t filled all those vacancies first advertised last autumn. However, most of the recruiters at the summer fairs are medium-sized employers with immediate vacancies. For these employers, it’s very hard for them to predict whether they will have vacancies in 12 months time, but they do know they will have job vacancies over the next few months.

What if I don’t want a job until after I finish?
This can sometimes cause a problem, if the recruiter wants someone to start straight away. However, it’s worth discussing with them whether they are prepared to wait until you’ve completed your dissertation or project. They may be more interested in the right person than an immediate start date. Also, in some cases, they may be more than happy to look at a slightly later start date – the summer fairs might have come around a bit early for them too! This is the time to practise your negotiation skills.

Will there be the right jobs there for me?
For some of you, yes. For others, definitely no.

You really can’t generalise about Masters postgrads.

• If you’ve come straight from an undergrad degree with little work experience, the fairs may be a very good starting point for you.
• If you’re an experienced professional, you probably won’t find the perfect job at these fairs, though you may be able to get some good inside information on employers in which you’re interested.
• If you are looking for a very specialist role, or one in a highly competitive sector like museums, the media or consultancy, the employers you’re looking for may not be at the fairs – though it’s worth checking beforehand … you never know.

Will it be worth my time coming to the fairs?
Try reading my advice on the main postgraduate careers website and make your own mind up.

• How to make the most of careers events as a postgraduate

If you decide to come to the fair, this will also give you some clues about the right questions to ask, to avoid that “well, that was a waste of time” feeling (something I often hear from postgrads who have taken the wrong approach at recruitment fairs).

How will I know if the right employers will be at the fairs?
By looking at who’s coming and what degree subjects they’re looking for (pdf). Make sure you come on the right day, as there are different employers on each day of the fair.

Details of the Graduate Recruitment Fairs in Manchester:

When: Wednesday 12th and Thursday 13th June, 2013, 10.30am-4.00pm
Remember: Different employers each day

Where: Armitage Centre, Fallowfield, Manchester

Register in advance to avoid the queues on the door: Graduate Recruitment Fair – registration and further information

What is the job?
You provide a crucial service to our students (or recent grads) by giving feedback on CVs and applications, to help improve them.

It’s quick fire, only 15 minutes per appointment, and they’re booked back-to-back. You could see a 2nd year undergrad Nigerian electrical engineer looking for a placement, quickly followed by a UK mature art history masters looking for a job after graduating, followed by a Chinese final year economics undergrad applying for a masters, followed by … (you get the idea).

To see what we offer students, have a look at our Applications Advice page.

What are the hours?
You would do four shifts of two hours a week (morning, lunchtime, afternoon) during semester 1 (initially) and would need to be flexible, so we can provide a full cover service to our students as part of our team of applications advisers.

Is there training?
Yes – you’ll get training and mentoring from our careers staff, alongside the others we recruit. However, we hope it won’t all be new to you, as we’d love to find people with some prior relevant experience (see below).

Who are you looking for?
These posts are open to University of Manchester students only. Ideally, we’re looking for people who have some experience working before starting their current degree, preferably with some exposure to recruitment and/or counselling. As you will need to be available before the start of the next academic year for training, you will need to be a student already, and not expect to graduate before 2014.

This means you are probably a PhD who is not yet in your final year, but we could consider others. The main constraint on non-PhDs would be flexibility (and graduation) – you would need to be available at various times during the day, so it probably wouldn’t suit anyone who has to attend fixed lectures/tutorials.

You also need to be a skilled communicator, with excellent written English.

What is the pay?
£8.84 per hour (you would also get this rate for any time spent on training).

Why would I want to do this?
It’s a tough job (careers consultants also provide cover for this service, so I know what it’s like!) – but there’s nothing like helping someone see themselves and their capabilities in a new light, and helping them get that message across to potential employers. It’s also a real privilege to meet some fantastic students – and frankly can be pretty humbling when you find out what sort of stuff they’ve already done.

Want to know more?

• The advert – Applications Adviser (pdf)
• Further particulars – Applications Adviser (pdf)
• When it says on the advert, “we strongly suggest that you experience our Applications Advice Service or talk to Sarah Mallen or Dominic Laing about the role” – we mean it!

Hope to see you as part of our team for the next academic year.

• When?
  Wednesday 12th June 2013
• Where?
  Armitage Centre, Fallowfield, alongside the first day of the Graduate Recruitment Fair
• Who can attend?
  Any current or recent PhDs or doctoral research staff, from any university
• How do I book a place?
  You don’t have to! However, if you register beforehand, it will make it much quicker to get into the event (otherwise, you’ll be made to register on the door)
• More info here: PhD & Researcher Career Zone

Who will be there?
At the moment (be warned – we sometimes have drop-outs on the day!), the employers signed up to attend are:

• Adelphi Group Ltd – pharmaceutical consultancy and medical communications
• AMEC Power and Process – engineering
• BAE Systems Detica – information systems, business & technical consultancy
• Complete Clarity (part of McCann Complete Medical) – pharmaceutical consultancy (update: cancelled, 6/7/13 – sorry!)
• GVI – Global Vision International – volunteer abroad opportunities
• IBM UK Ltd – IT and business services
• The Institute of Physics – careers and employment advice for physicists
• Instrument Design Technology Ltd – beamline engineering and technology company
• Jaguar Land Rover – automotive design, manufacture and sales
• Nucleus Central – healthcare communications
• Pentest Ltd – IT security consultancy
• Praesto Consulting – Customer Relationship Management and Business Intelligence consultancy
• Schlumberger – global oilfield services company
• SRG – scientific recruitment agency and scientific services employer
• Tessella – scientific and technical computing
• Unilever – FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) multinational (including R&D)

There will also be a stand for careers and employability advice, staffed by me and other careers and researcher development colleagues, to answer any general careers queries – or give you an extra confidence boost before you go and tackle all those employers.

I think this is the strongest range of employers we’ve ever had at the PhD Zone. We normally have a good selection of employers looking for physical science, engineering and IT specialists, but this time, we’ve also got 3 employers targeting life and medical sciences researchers, and several consultancies and other employers who will consider any discipline (some – but not all – will expect you to be interested in applying technology, maths or statistics to business problems but that doesn’t mean you have to be a programmer).

Will they all have current vacancies for PhDs?
No. They are all interested in recruiting people with PhDs – at some point, but not necessarily right now. This means that even if you’re not actively looking for a job imminently, it’s worth coming along to talk to them, for future reference.

The aim of the PhD Zone is to allow you to quiz them on how they view PhDs, the value that PhDs can add to their organisations, and how they recruit PhDs, when they need them.

Why no public sector/arts/social sciences employers?
Unfortunately, those organisations either recruit PhDs in such small numbers or have such tight budgets that they can’t afford the resources to send someone to recruitment fairs. (Believe me, we try, including offering them the space for free!)

So not worth my while coming?
Hold on there! If you want to see if your skills could be put to good use in a business setting, come along with an open mind and see what the PhD Zone employers say – or see which other (non-business) employers are coming to the main fair. Talking of which …

Are there any other employers I can talk to?
Keep an open mind and come and talk to the 70+ employers in the main Graduate Recruitment Fair downstairs. They are looking for people who have degrees – and that includes you. A lot of the employers in the main fair look for graduates (including postgraduates) from a wide range of backgrounds, including humanities.

If you come to the first day of Pathways (Friday 7th June), you’ll probably hear from PhDs who started employment by using “graduate entry” points – and then hear about how they progressed much faster than other graduates, because of their maturity and advanced skills. Of course, the “graduate route” is not for everyone. This is our advice on deciding whether or not you should consider a “graduate job” after a PhD.

If you are open minded, on Wednesday 12th, other employers include Her Majesty’s Government Communication Centre, the Information Commissioner’s Office, News Associates (journalism courses), Teach First and the Teaching Agency, Creative Support (care provider) as well as lots of retail management, engineering, finance, IT and science employers and general recruitment agencies – the full list here.

And there’s more – on Thursday 13th June, we have a whole different set of employers (but no PhD Zone that day). Employers on Thursday include the UK Civil Service, Government Operational Research Service, the Co-operative Group, the Local Government Association, the National Health Service Leadership Academy, Language Empire (interpreters and translators), and loads more retailers, engineering, finance, IT and science employers and general recruitment agencies – full list here.

Want to know how the make the most of these recruitment events?
I know lots of you will have attended these fairs and come away saying they were pretty useless. If you’re not interested in jobs with any of the employers attending, or any similar employers, then there’s probably not a lot of point wasting your time.

However, I’m going to be controversial, and say that some of you were just asking the wrong questions – or expecting the wrong information.

Before you dismiss the idea of attending, try reading my advice on How to … make the most of careers events as a postgraduate. Then make up your mind!

What do you need to do to stand out over all the other graduates and postgraduates looking for jobs?

How can you improve your chances of being the one to move into an interesting, challenging career, shortly after graduating?

Well, we wondered that too. Everyone’s talking about “graduate employability”, but it’s a bit of a vague term, and frankly, most graduates are “employable” – but how long before you become employed, and employed as what?

What have we done about it?

We’ve worked with Robertson Cooper (a business psychology consultancy led by Profs Ivan Robertson and Cary Cooper) to find out what makes the difference between those graduates who make a swift and smooth move into a great job on graduation, and those who struggle or take longer to get there. (You can find out how we went about this further down.)

The work’s continuing but we’re excited about the results so far, and if you talk to one of the careers consultants, chances are it won’t be long before they whip out a picture, a bit like this:

So, what makes the difference?

The key differences were seen in 5 behaviours. Those who were successful in getting a good job quickly tended to:

• Explore – keep their options and their eyes open; stretch themselves by trying things ‘outside their comfort zone’; take every opportunity to gain lots of varied experiences;
• Connect – build their network and maintain contacts (peers and social contacts as well as experienced professionals); use information from their contacts to research jobs and career paths;
• Communicate – adapt their communication to different audiences; learn from others how to engage audiences; introduce themselves effectively; practise;
• Reflect – recognise their own skills and can illustrate with examples; differentiate themselves from the competition;
• Persevere – learn from setbacks and constantly adapt; start their job search early, learn from any knock-backs and approach the next opportunity positively.

Obviously, for some jobs you also need advanced synthetic organic chemistry experience, or an in-depth knowledge of SPSS – but we’ve all met people who have great specialist knowledge but who struggle to get a decent job.

Reasons I like this approach:

It doesn’t try to cover the whole of your career or define “employability”.
It’s practical, about getting a job after graduating – but to be honest, if you can do this for one job, I reckon it’s worth a try for future jobs.

It’s about behaviours.
These are “things you do” – and can probably learn to do, or do better, rather than personality traits, which you’re probably not going to be able to change.

It seems to be generic to a wide range of jobs.
Specialist knowledge and skills needed will vary from job to job. However, you still need to be able to reflect – to spot what you’re good at and find evidence which will convince employers – and to communicate what you can do and why that’s useful to an employer. These are both areas where graduates, and particularly specialist postgraduates, commonly struggle.

It highlights the importance of connecting, reflecting and persevering.
When most people think of careers, they think of “what job would I like”, “where are the job ads”, “how do I write a CV” and “how do I get through interviews” – which tend to fall under explore and communicate. These obviously are important, but this is the first time we’ve had such stark evidence that these other three behaviours make such a difference.

Reasons to be a bit more cautious:

It’s only based on undergraduates (so far).
I’d be surprised if postgraduates were particularly different, but the evidence so far comes from interviewing undergraduates. When we take it to the next stage, we can try and see if there are any significant differences for postgraduates.

It’s only based on graduates who were aiming to get into work.
We didn’t interview those who were aiming at postgraduate study or self-employment as a next step. However, again, when we take it to the next stage, we can see if these behaviours also differentiate between those who were successful in getting on to a postgraduate programme and those who struggled. We can also look at self-employment but our populations are likely to be small there, so that will probably take longer.

What happens next?

Robertson Cooper are developing a questionnaire for us to help our students understand how strong they are in each of these behaviours. When enough students and graduates have completed the questionnaire, we will also be able to let you know how you compare to others – in particular, how you compare to others who have been successful in getting into a good graduate job quickly.

Of course, the tough bit is devising a questionnaire which differentiates between those who do get into graduate jobs quickly and those who struggle, even if we do think we’ve got the right behaviours. (Really hope it doesn’t all unravel at that stage!)

“OK, once I’ve got the results of a questionnaire – then what?”

This is new, so new that we’re just starting to think of the implications of providing support to help you learn how to explore-connect-communicate-reflect-persevere, and what services and resources we should provide to help you put it all into practice. To be honest, a lot of what we offer fits neatly into supporting those behaviours, but we’ll work on how we can make it even easier for you.

If you’re a postgraduate, you’ve got a head start. If you’ve had a look at the new online postgrad resources I’ve written (“How to … careers guides” and “Careers for doctoral researchers“), you’ll spot that I’ve already written them based around explore-connect-communicate-reflect-persevere. (I was writing the resources just after we got the first look at the framework, so it seemed like a good idea to test it out – hope you don’t mind being guinea pigs/pioneers!)

Your views – very welcome

Expect to see a lot more on this in future, but I thought you’d like a preview of what’s to come. We’d love your comments on this – we’re “stress testing” this framework at every opportunity, talking to students and academics, finding where the holes might be, or how it might be used.

(For more on how the work has been developed, see below ↓ )

How this work has developed (for those interested in the background)

The work with Robertson Cooper is being led by Prof Ivan Robertson, Emeritus Professor of Work & Organisational Psychology at the University of Manchester.

Initially, they interviewed several careers consultants to gather examples of behaviours we have seen in successful and less successful graduates. They then conducted in-depth interviews with recent graduates who had made a quick transition into a range of jobs, including science, the creative industries, teaching (humanities), engineering and business. They also interviewed graduates who had struggled to get into the kinds of jobs they wanted. Most of these were working, but in more “transitional” roles and internships.

By teasing out examples of what these two groups had done during their degrees, Robertson Cooper produced a competency framework, to describe the positive behaviours (those which led to success) and negative behaviours (those which led into those transitional roles or unemployment), from which emerged the 5 groups of behaviours in the model above.

This framework has been refined with focus groups of graduates and careers consultants, and a questionnaire is now in development, and under initial testing. Watch this space…

Well, each year, we try to make it easier for you.

Instead of you having to find a load of contacts, set up meetings, and take multiple days out of your diary to talk to them, we find over 60 PhD qualified professionals and bring them to you – to Manchester, on campus, all on the same day.

Our Pathways event has been running successfully for 5 years, attended by hundreds of researchers each year.

When: Friday 7th June, 2013
Registration from 8.30am, 9.15 start, (free) lunch 1-2, 4pm finish (though you can come for part of the day if you have other commitments).

Where: Renold Building, North Campus
We’re back at Renold, now it’s been refurbished. It’s a nice venue for this event, with plenty of space for lunches and informal networking, and a wide range of flat rooms and lecture theatres (so less chance of running out of seats, as we did in some of our most popular sessions in University Place last year). If you don’t normally go to North Campus, think of it as an away day!

Want to attend? Online registration is now open
Important: If you want to be sure this event goes ahead, and that we book enough lunches to go round and venues large enough to seat participants, please register! We’ve just had to cancel a whole week of postgrad careers events for Arts, Languages and Cultures because registrations were so low, and I’d hate to have to do that again.

Who can attend? Doctoral researchers (current or past)
Any University of Manchester doctoral researcher, in any year, including those who graduated up to 2 years ago from this university, are eligible for a free place. If you attend another institution, there is a charge to attend (as the event includes catering), though your own university training department may be prepared to fund or subsidise you – ask them.

It is also open to any current University of Manchester member of research or teaching staff. Over half of the panellists normally started as post-docs, so this is as much a post-doc career event as a PhD career event. Having said that, the focus is on careers for those with a PhD, so if you’re a current member of research staff from an undergraduate or masters background, it won’t cover careers without a PhD.

This event isn’t open to either undergraduates or Masters – but if you decide to do a PhD at the University of Manchester, you’ll be welcome to attend from your first year onwards.

Who’s going to be there? We can’t tell you yet (‘cos we’re still contacting panellists)
But come with an open mind and you’ll find really valuable advice and tips from some unexpected places. There are always panellists working both inside academia and outside academia – and those who started in academia but then moved on. We’ll upload a list of the profiles of most of the panellists the week before the event, but for information, here are some of last year’s panellists (pdf).

Some panellists come back each year, others just come for one year – there are always panellists who are attending for the first time, so you definitely won’t have seen them all before.

Will I find a job there? Frankly, no.
This isn’t a jobs fair (that’s the following week – more later). It’s the chance to find out how other PhDs found jobs, decided on careers and what they wished someone had told them when they were in your position. As most of them aren’t representing employers, you’ll get a frank (sometimes brutally frank!) response from them about what they thought of jobs they’ve done and how to avoid some of the mistakes they’ve made – something you really can’t get at a recruitment event.

So no employers then? Well … maybe (we hope so)
For the first time, following a suggestion from researchers, we’re hoping to add an employer panel in the afternoon, to give you direct feedback from people who recruit PhDs (and others), about what they look for and how PhDs can market themselves to employers. I’ll update you on this blog if we manage to set this up – fingers crossed.

Where can I get more information?

• Pathways – our official website, www.manchester.ac.uk/pathways, with online registration and further detailed info on panellists and sessions, closer to the event (normally a few days beforehand)
• Pathways blog page – a page on this blog, manunicareersblog.com/pathways, with lots of informal detail on the event, including links to all Pathways blog posts leading up to the event (once I’ve written them!)

If you want any more info on the event, want to put in a plea for us to try and find someone for a panel (always a challenge but we try), or if you know anyone who’s now in work after having completed a PhD who would be prepared to attend (we do pay reasonable travel expenses and feed you) – just drop a comment here or email anna.lomas@manchester.ac.uk

You know what I’m going to say about career success now, don’t you…?

OK, cut to the chase – I’ve written a major new section on the Careers Service postgraduate website to support doctoral researchers, wherever you are in your research degree, to improve your chances of career success.

At the start of your doctoral research degree
Includes finding support to help you through your PhD, exploring your strengths, applying for teaching or part-time roles, starting to establish your academic reputation (including winning academic funding and prizes), learning to get your message across to academic and non-academic audiences, as well as starting to explore the wide range of careers open to you.

Those tough “intermediate” years
Some topics are similar to first year, but now there’s more emphasis on starting to build your contacts, actively researching different careers or building your academic reputation, building up your CV and reflecting on what you’ve done, so you can tell your story to people you meet (who may help your career later) – and a whole page on keeping going, including the challenges of “Imposter Syndrome” (seems it’s quite common in academia).

That hectic final year (and beyond)
You probably won’t have much time for adding extra skills unless they’re directly related to your PhD, but there’s lots of info on deciding which career to go into, finding and applying for jobs, getting through interviews, making contacts and using careers events, plus finding support to get you through the final hurdle.

There’s a lot more in each section, including links to further resources where you need them – those are just some of the highlights.

How should I use this?
You can use this resource whenever you’ve got a moment to think about your career, but it’s also intended to support your annual career development discussion with your supervisor.

What do you mean, “What’s one of those?”

To be fair, they’ve only been introduced this year, but they’re now part of your officially monitored progression (through eProg). If your supervisor isn’t familiar with them and isn’t sure what to talk to you about, send them to our Careers for Doctoral Researchers resource.

Feedback
As ever, I’d love to get your feedback on the resource, including suggestions for development or things I’ve forgotten to include. Either leave a comment here or send me your suggestions at careers@manchester.ac.uk with the subject line “Careers for doctoral researchers”.

Sorry to announce that we’ve had to cancel/postpone (most of) these events – the number of people who signed up didn’t make them viable.

However, as far as I know, the Placements session will still go ahead, as it’s part of a longer programme that day, specifically for the museums and arts admin MAs – check with your lecturers to confirm.

We’ll offer individual bespoke help to those who did sign up, and I’ll turn up at what would have been the start of most of the careers service sessions, to explain and offer quick “drop-in” advice if anyone doesn’t get the message about the cancellation and just turns up anyway.

We’ll work with the School who will survey their postgrads to see why there hasn’t been the interest they hoped for, and with a bit of luck, this will be a postponement, not a full cancellation.

The events, as they would have been!

The Graduate School in Arts, Languages and Cultures is running its inaugural Postgraduate Careers Week, from 22nd to 26th April.

We’ve got some great alumni returning to talk to you, practical workshops and talks from academics and careers staff and a firm emphasis on the kinds of careers which typically interest humanities postgrads.

Alumni confirmed include the Head of Fine Art at a major museum, the Artistic Director and CEO of a theatre production company, and the Chief Executive of a community-led healthy living centre – all former postgrads.

With several hundred postgrads in the School of Arts, Histories and Cultures (SALC), and some of the events limited to around 40 places, I’d strongly recommend booking in advance to be sure of your place.

You can book through CareersLink – just login using your usual university IT login details, and if you’re in the School of Arts, Histories and Cultures (SALC), you’ll see all the events listed under the tab “Careers Fairs & Events”.