Category: Career and Personal Development

 

1. You will not be able to acquire every skill for every research job. Attempting to do everything will just leave you not very good at anything. However, there will be a core set of skills that apply to most jobs in your area of research, and it is a good idea to make sure you can do most of these.
2. Attend student seminars and learn what techniques others are doing.
3. Look for courses in techniques and ask your supervisor if you can attend.
4. Before your interview, spend extra time researching skills you are less practiced at.

 

My PhD was quite strange because the techniques I learnt were not overly related to each other. When I applied for jobs, I often found that I had some of the required skills but not all. If you don’t want this to happen to you then make sure you possess a good set of complementary skills.

 

1. Building a network of friends and colleagues through attending events can help you find jobs simply by knowing more people who know about jobs, but it can also be a good introduction to the people offering them.
2. Being involved in committees and organising events shows managerial skills, which are important to many jobs on the non-academic side of research.
3. If you keep to your own lab, work hard, obtain lots of lab skills, and publish high then you will probably be fine. However, if things don’t work out as you intended then you may have very little to show for your time. A few extracurricular activities, if nothing else, can be a failsafe against disaster.

 

I got involved in several activities during my degree, including an educational game and student welfare committee, and went to several of the university talks and events meeting many interesting people. Not only did I enjoy all these things, but it made my CV more impressive, and provided me with experiences to discuss in answer to some of the questions I got asked in interviews.

 

1. If you have the guts, you could state at the end of your talk that you will shortly be looking for a new lab.
2. After you have done your talk, seek out the people you would especially like to work with and talk to them about their work (and yours), asking if they might have any open positions.
3. This guideline doesn’t only apply to people about to publish in Science or some other top journal. Your work may not be of such high calibre, but showcasing it at conference gives it credibility and is not without power to impress.
4. At earlier time points when you may have very little data, don’t lie and submit to do a talk on data you don’t have. This is dishonest and can result in a lot of stress coming up to the talk if you haven’t progressed as far as you thought. It is much safer to submit to do a poster under these circumstances.

 

I got my post doc from presenting my work at a conference. After my talk, I started talking to a lady about the food, and she told me she had a position opening up that I should apply for. Job done.

 

1. Don’t ignore conventional interview questions. Think about your strengths and weaknesses before you enter the interview.
2. Use the internet to research potential questions, and ask your supervisor the sort of things they might ask.
3. If they ask you about your weaknesses, don’t say you don’t have any. Pick something that would not inhibit your ability to do the job, and show how you overcame it.
4. Prepare examples of times you achieved things against the odds. Examples of team work, independent thought, and idea generation are also important.
5. If you can come up with ideas of the direction you might take the project, this will be impressive.
6. Never assume they already know your skills from your CV and cover letter. Repeat what you can do and add to it as much as possible.
7. If there are specific advantages to hiring you over someone else, then state them. Don’t assume they are implied.
8. If they tell you about their research, don’t just passively listen and nod, occasionally muttering how interesting it all is. Interrupt with questions and ideas that demonstrate you have knowledge about the subjects.
9. Think up alternative techniques you could use to do the research you are applying for. They may ask questions about them, and if not you can suggest these alternatives.
10. Don’t simply state that you can do things. Offer experiences that show you can do them.

 
I have always struggled with interviews, and this is mostly because I find them difficult to prepare for. As they are without a syllabus and are generally short, it seems as if there is anything (and only so much) they could ask, thus making preparation pointless.

However, they always ask the same questions. They want to know primarily that you understand the techniques you would be using in their group, and that you have a good understanding of the surrounding science. Solid research into these areas will be beneficial.

 

1. In your cover letter, make sure you write down all the skills you possess in the essential and desirable criteria, giving examples where possible of how you achieved them.
2. Although putting more effort into fewer applications is more sensible than spamming multiple potential employers, don’t write only one high quality application and assume you’ll get the job. They may have internal candidates, or someone even more qualified might apply.
3. Link the paragraphs of your cover letter so that they fit together into a coherent story.
4. Talk about your own research and how it links to your potential employer’s research, paying particular detail to the overlap.
5. Prove in the cover letter that you have read your potential employer’s papers by discussing them.
6. If you know the subject area well enough you could suggest ideas of where you might take the research.
7. Discuss your interest in their subject area in the cover letter and give any examples that evidence this.
8. Read your CV and cover letter through several times on different days before sending them off. Make sure they read fluently. If possible, have a friend or family member check them over.

 

The first few jobs I applied for, I didn’t realise there was a further details link at the bottom of the job description page. Obviously, I got none of these jobs because my CV and cover letter were not as attuned to the job description as the people who knew more thoroughly what the job was about.

The CV and cover letter is all about showing that you have thought about the job, are interested in the subject matter, and proving that you have the specific skills to do it well.