We meet a lot of PhD students and have based this section on the common questions they ask – feel free to send me any suggestions for content or links to recommended sites via my twitter feed.
There are two main themes to this section
- being a more effective researcher
- thinking about your career post-PhD
Being a more effective researcher
There are many online resources to support your development as a researcher. We’ll link to these here as we use them in our sessions.
For advice on planning your PhD project and links to useful resources, see the Planning and Managing a PhD blog post
If you are involved in a cohort training network, such as a DTC or ITN, you might find the page produced for the ESSENCE ITN interesting.
For insights into creativity and links to useful resources, see the Creativity blog post
For advice on networking for professional development and links to useful resources, see the blog post on the benefits of Networking for young researchers and the post which includes our workshop on Confident Networking
We’ve written a time management guide to help you understand your approach to deadlines so you can identify which of our time management tips is going to have most impact on your productivity.
During the last time management workshop we also talked about the #phdchat stream on twitter as a source of advice and support from other researchers; we looked at Professor Pat Thomson’s blog for advice on writing; Dr Nadine Muller’s blog for insights and survival guides to academia (like the one on remaining focused) and the Scrivenor software to help tame the thesis.
For a range of links to useful resources selected for new PhD students and based on our PhD Launchpad programme, see the Launchpad page.
The Ready to Research site contains a wealth of self-directed learning resources on a range of topics relevant to research students.
PhD Careers
If you are interested in learning about the wealth of opportunities available to doctoral graduates, “What Do PhDs Do?” was the first ever analysis of PhD destination statistics. Dr Sara Shinton was commissioned by UK GRAD (now Vitae) to write this in partnership with Graduate Prospects and also wrote the methodology to the study. Dr Keith Morgan wrote the second edition “What Do PhDs Do? A Regional Analysis”.
You can find both of our reports and many others in the “What Do Researchers Do?” section of the Vitae website.
Academic
- An Academic Career – the page supporting our workshop on academic career planning
- Academic Careers insights and advice
- Academic vacancies
International Careers
- International research vacancies and funding
- Resources for international researchers interested in the UK
Academic Careers:
University of Manchester – An Academic Career – a great site with interviews, advice and links
Vitae – Developing your academic career
Jobs.ac.uk – Career Tools and Advice
Prospects – Your PhD, What Next?
Making it in Academia – an article from Paige Harris, written for a US perspective, but the insights are spot on
Advice to PhD students from Professor John Hutchinson
For academic vacancies in the UK
jobs.ac.uk Quick access to all jobs in the academic sector: lectureships, research posts, but also administrative, student support and management posts.
Times Higher Jobs Jobs listing from the Times Higher Education Supplement.
For international academic vacancies, funding and opportunities
US Chronicle of Higher Education Vacancies in the US academic sector – the American version of THES.
Euraxess For researchers planning their next move in Europe: career opportunities, relevant information and assistance.
The Great Escape – jobs outside academia!
If you are happy to hang up your lab coat or give up that seat in the library that has moulded itself to your curves, then you aren’t alone. A PhD can be a gateway to almost any career, provided you can identify evidence of having the right skills and attitude.
setting up a researcher blog has a section on career planning which includes examples of plans for moving into non-academic careers.
Prospects has a staggering range of job profiles – some of which were written by us. Each links to further information and related jobs so you can quickly build up a list of potential careers to investigate further.
ScienceCareers – search for the job you’re interested in and chances are, they’ll have an article on it.