Sorting out your career is nobody else's job

People have started asking my opinion on job searching recently: Here's what I had to say to King's Graduate School on their blog...

I’m sorry to break it to you, guys, (and this is something I only really realised recently) but there is no-one out there that will be able to tell you exactly what job you should be doing and how to get it: that includes careers consultants. (Clearly they can help with your thinking and the processes of applying and so on but read on….)

About a year ago I started to realise that maybe the career in industrial research that I’d planned for the last 10 years wasn’t what I wanted. I confess it was partly initiated by the difficulty in getting a job but the more and more I thought about it, the more I realised I probably didn’t want the jobs I’d been applying for anyway.


Phew. Bullet dodged. Now what?

Well, first I started to complain. "My supervisors have never talked to me about what other careers are available", "No-one wants to talk about jobs outside of research", "I haven’t been given the opportunity to do anything else", I whined to the very nice careers consultant at KCL. I was quite whiny at this point, looking back on all the missed opportunities during my PhD and PostDoc and basically blaming other people.

Then I went to the Nature Careers Expo last September and realised things had to change. Every presentation I went to seemed to start with, "So I created this forum..,", or "I started this blog" and I sat there thinking "I can barely use my phone for email, how the hell am I going to blog?". It was at this point that the penny dropped: if I wasn’t going to take responsibility for getting myself a new career path, why should anyone else?

So I started a blog on my career search. I write down what I found out and shared it with other people. Almost every link and image I uploaded for the first month was broken and I’m still convinced that only my mother reads this but it gave me a start that lead to a free place at a SciComm conference, new contacts (yes, networking), a new understanding of the field around research and the jobs therein, a chance to blog on Speakers of Science, involvement in ScienceGrrl, the opportunity to do some public engagement with schools, joining twitter…but not necessarily in that order. Fundamentally, if you don’t know what you want to do, that’s fine: but you’re the only one who can find out.

During your PhD you can easily feel like you don’t have time for extra things but you will never get less busy, I promise you. The wonderful thing about your PhD studies is that there are lots of things you can try for free and if you don’t like doing them, you can stop. Here are some examples of things you can try…

1. Offer to write your PI’s research paper or review, even if it’s not on your specific area of work. This will help you decide if you want to do medical writing, where you have to summarise other people’s work, clinical trials and even the inserts that go in medication. I’ve written (and published) two papers this year and have two more underway. This is helping me get the most out of my PostDoc and making me practise my scientific writing.

2. Enter writing competitions to see if you like writing about science for a mainstream audience. I entered Access to Understanding with an article on arthritis (not my area) and got lots of feedback from friends and family.

3. Write news articles about cutting-edge science and submit them to the university paper/a blog/your boyfriend to see if they’re any good, to see if you like doing this and to see how long it takes you. I wrote something on antibody-drug-conjugates (sort of my area) in application for an internship at The Economist.

4. GO ON COURSES They’re free for many students, you probably have to go on some and you’ll definitely never have access to so many experts. I did a public speaking masterclass, public engagement course with King’s, science journalism at The Guardian and science writing at OBR. I paid £50 for the Guardian course, but the rest were free and it was a great way to meet like minded people for advice and support.

5. Talk to new people at every conference, meeting and seminar. If you’re absolutely awful at this then a job that requires networking is probably not for you. If you’re good at this then you will have made new contacts that could be invaluable. I ended up at a ScienceGrrl brainstorm, teaching kids about oxidation and sitting in on meetings about Science Museum lates all because of ‘someone’ I met ‘somewhere’ – not through my supervisor.

6. Read some patents. Properly. Is this something you find interesting? Patent law is a popular and competitive choice for graduates. It’s not easy so you should know what you’re getting yourself into. (I worked for a patent company as a chemistry consultant for a bit as part of my PhD – I’m pretty certain I find this dull)

7. Seriously think about how much money you’d like to earn and how little you will settle for: this will have a massive impact on what jobs you will apply for. My current job (which I love) is less than half my PostDoc wage and less than my PhD stipend.

8. Start a Twitter account or blog for yourself or your research group This is a great way to see what’s going on outside your research institution. If you do this for your research group you MUST ask permission from your superiors/head of department.

9. Plan something complicated from start to finish. A work party, a conference, a hen-do, a football tournament. The organisation this requires will tell you if you’re cut out for planning or project management and if you like doing it. I got married during my work search. I’m pretty sure I can now organise the hell out of most things. (Disclaimer: I’m not suggesting you get married purely for the project management experience, maybe just an engagement party…)

10. Apply for some jobs.  Even if you don’t know what you want to do. At least browse the job boards to see what’s out there. Some applications that I made steered me towards positions that I was better suited to. If you want a wake-up call, check out the picture below. It’s a screen shot of my ‘Applications’ folder. It doesn’t include those applications that were speculative or required only an online form…there are over 60 individual applications in less than a year. Don’t moan, just do something.

Any of the extra things on your CV will make you seem more well-rounded and not just another fed-up researcher. I was told on a forum that I was just another ‘desperate PostDoc that couldn’t make it in academia’ – you need to make sure your CV shows that that’s not the case and that you have other skills! And remember, if you try something new and you don’t like it or you’re rubbish at it, that’s fine, just stop and try something else. Then you can also add ‘perseverance’ to your CV.

I was ridiculously busy during all of this but I’m now at a job I love. I work for Sense About Science, a charity supporting projects that equip the public to make sense (get it?) of science. We create guides for the public, run events for researchers to train them in the best way to talk about their work, address bad journalism and put writers in touch with scientific experts whenever we can to make sure that science is clear, well-represented and useful for the public and policy-makers alike. It’s fast-paced, responsive, dead-line driven and no-one has cried for the whole eight weeks I’ve been here. So far, it’s wildly different to academia.

A version of this post was first hosted on the King's College London Graduate School blog. If you're affiliated with King's I strongly urge you to check them out as they are really helpful.

Negotiating a job contract.

I've recently got a new job and, in doing so, I had to negotiate the contract. This was not something I'd ever experienced before so I thought I'd share what happened and some hopefully helpful tips.

The job is an internship that results in a large pay-cut for me (something I'll write about later) so I thought about what I could do to make the situation a bit better for me. The original job advert stated:
      "We can be a little bit flexible with hours, if the person is finishing writing up their thesis for example."
I also knew that my current boss wanted me to continue working for him in some capacity (even if that meant collating data and papers for free) so I went about approaching both parties with some ideas. After a week of back and forth e-mails I negotiated a contract that kept one day a week at my old job (which pays more per day) whilst keeping my full salary at the new job for four days as week.


It wasn't something I felt particularly comfortable doing at the start but it worked out really well in the end and here are some guidelines on how I managed it:

Be realistic. There are always going to be things that you want in a job contract: more pay, a larger bonus, better benefits, etc., but focus on what can realistically be done within the terms of your employment. For example, I knew that the salary for my new internship would be a financial struggle and I also understood from my interview that there would be no further funds in the charity's budget to increase my pay. Faced with this, I didn't ask for more money but, instead, asked if I could work for somebody else for one day a week and boost my pay. My new bosses were very understanding of my situation and have been very helpful in allowing me to arrange having two different jobs.

Be honest. My negotiations involved two other parties so there was no point or benefit to over-complicating the situation by not being completely honest. There's always the temptation to push your luck to get extra but I found it paid off to be completely open. I found this particularly important as I was discussing money.

Be focussed. I wouldn't recommend asking for more than one or two changes to your contract. If you're asking for more money, different hours, extra pension, every second Thursday off and a company car then I think you start to look a bit 'grabby'. Stick with what you really want and you'll usually be taken more seriously.

Time off. I wrote my PhD thesis in 6 weeks (pretty much from start to finish) in order to start my Post-Doc on time. I worked out that I could work on 5 hours sleep, didn't need to shower and my then-boyfriend-now-husband would bring me meals when I didn't have time to leave my desk. I submitted on a Friday in mid-November, started work the following Monday and took two days off to prepare for, and attend, my viva just two weeks later. In retrospect, this was a mistake. The PI had wanted me to start in September and I was so keen to get a job straightaway (I'd never not been enrolled or employed) that I gave myself very tight deadlines and started my Post-Doc exhausted. In the long-run, an extra week would've made absolutely no difference and I should have gone back to them and asked for a week later start date.This time, although I knew that my new employers could take me on as soon as possible, I made sure that there was a week in between my jobs. I still ended up replying to a few e-mails and had to dodge a thinly-veiled request to work for free for a few days (old boss, not new!) but it made a huge difference to me to start my new job fresh and ready to go.

Ask for advice. In deciding how best to approach this situation I approached the career's service at my institute for some guidance. I'm very lucky to have this resource and I know not everyone is so fortunate. Try not to 'straw-poll' your friends and family on if and how you should ask for something. Their likely to be on your side (you'd hope) and won't be the most objective. If you do ask someone you know personally, make it a manager or an employee that has had to deal with similar situations before. Advice like 'Don't ask, don't get' is fine when being dished out by a friend but being reasonable in a professional environment is a different situation altogether.

Keep in mind, you haven't signed anything yet. This goes both ways. Your new employers will learn a lot about you from this negotiation and, whilst it's unlikely that your requests will make them completely change their mind about employing you, it could affect how they think of you in the future. Going the other way, if a company reacts unreasonably to a fair request or a 'deal-breaker' for you, think about whether you're learning something vital about their practices and if you still want to work for them.

I'm aware I've been very lucky in finding two employers amenable to this situation but I was told recently by a friend I shouldn't feel too 'grateful'. I'm bringing something to both employers and simply trying to make the situation work for me, too. What I required from them was understanding of the situation and to have accepted less from them without a fair reason would have been selling myself short.

In short. In these situations, be prepared to fight your corner but just choose your fight carefully.

It's not just scientists who use 'jargon'

How often do you hear...

I'm in e-commerce...

I'm a web professional...

I work in emerging markets...

I'm in tax...

I'm in IT (urgh)

How are any of the above statements any more explanatory than:

'I'm a microbiologist' or 'I'm a solid-state chemist?'

As I've been looking at new careers, I've started to ask anyone (and everyone) what they do. They inevitably patter out three or four sentences that mean nothing unless you're already in their field. Then I ask them 'Ok, thanks, but what do you actually DO?' They ummm and aah, come out with a version of 'Well, it's difficult to explain...' or 'It's a really diverse role...' and then think I'm being a bit weird for asking again 'Sorry, I don't understand, what is it you DO?'

What I'd really like to hear is what people actually do with their day. Scientists are often told that we need to explain what we do and I do always try. For example, when people ask what I do, after telling them that I'm a research chemist (and then telling them that it's not the same as a pharmacist), I almost always tell them that what I do is very similar to cooking but instead of mixing food and producing a cake/lasagne/burnt useless blob, I mix 'chemicals' to produce bigger chemicals/a drug/the occasional burnt useless blob. However, I think most people are guilty of slipping into jargon rather than really explaining something, particularly (and frustratingly, for me) when it comes to their job.

I've just got back from a(nother) careers fair and left early. It was heavily populated with super keen undergraduates (so young!!!), edgy Novartis employees (for now) and me. Oh, yeah and that guy who won the Apprentice, you know, the other 'Ricky Martin'. He genuinely had a copy of Alan Sugar's novel as a prize if you submitted your details to his recruitment agency - you can see why he won with such high-end incentive schemes. Although to be fair, you could hand out barb-wire toothbrushes at these fairs and people would love it. You can see a selection of my swag below - yes, that is a stress ball shaped like an aeroplane. Natch. 

Whilst everyone there was very enthusiastic and very friendly, I'm not sure what I got out of it. I approached several stands to ask about what positions they had for more people-facing scientists, i.e. a job where I could talk to people. The exhibitors went on to describe jobs that they know aren't in the lab like 'Regulatory affairs', 'Supply chain manager' and 'Qualification technologist' (No clue). So when I asked, 'That's great' what do those people DO all day', I just got an awkward response and a 'Oh, that's not something I deal with, have you seen the website?' 

I completely appreciate that it's not their responsibility to coach me through this early mid-life crisis, but apart from titles, it would be really useful if people could start talking to job-seekers about their jobs in terms the 'uninitiated' could understand and not assume that the listener has prior knowledge - much like scientists are constantly encouraged to do. 

For example it took me four versions of the same question to get:

         'I decide what forms of media (radio/tv/print) are best to promote particular UK businesses', 

and pushed on to get:

         'I do this on the phone, by email, go and meet lots of different directors and then I tell my team what/how to broadcast/publish something in-line with what I've decided.' 

The first three attempts to get this information yielded "I work in promotion', ' I deal with UK businesses' and 'Well, it's hard to explain...'

What I'm saying is, next time someone asks you what you do, try actually telling them, who knows, they might actually be interested! There's a whole new lingo to understand when looking for a job, particularly if, like me, you might be considering an alternative career. I'm aware that job adverts aren't designed to cater for all and have their own agendas, but, when discussing what we do, could we all try to stop speaking in job-advert-ese, please?

I still don't really understand what my brothers do all day (one regulary sends me funny pictures by text), my friends are in tax, project management and e-commerce. I have no idea what most of these things mean and I'm going to start trying to find out. By force if necessary.

In the meanwhile, I'm off to apply for 'Evaluations Manager', 'Downstream Process Development Team Leader and 'Transdermal Manager' 

What do you mean 'What are they?' - Don't you know?