New Biology Jobs Board

Another quick biology update – the Society of Biology has introduced a new jobs board. You don’t have to join the Society to view the jobs, but to see the details, you need to register. However, it’s free, and seems to be instant access. Several of the jobs on offer ask for postgrad qualifications so probably one to keep an eye on if you’re a life or medical scientist.

Bioscience Careers Blog

I’ve just found a really nice blog on careers for bioscientists from Dr Chris Willmott at the University of Leicester.

It includes slide presentations from previous careers seminars, video profiles, plus articles and links covering subjects such as clinical trials coordinator, cosmetic scientist, manufacturing scientist, science journalism and more.

In particular, I’m going to be making time to watch a video presentation from Dr Mark Pearse from the Forensic Science Service, something we’re often asked about from keen “Waking The Dead” devotees.

Visit To The Guardian – Guest Post

If you’ve got any ambitions to work as a journalist in the world of newspapers, this one’s for you. My colleague, Louise Sethi, recently visited the offices of the Guardian and Observer – here’s the inside information she gleaned about the changing face of journalism:

Newspapers – “read all about it!”, but for how long?
by Louise Sethi

For me, nothing beats Sunday mornings in bed with the papers and a mug of tea. It’s pure bliss. But, last week when I visited the Guardian and Observer newspapers, I left with a sense that one day newspapers will be a thing of the past. Perhaps not in the next ten years, thank goodness, but after that who knows?

Newspaper sales, or ‘circulation’, continue to fall and this, combined with reduced advertising revenue caused by the recession, is putting newspapers under huge pressure. While, the Guardian and Observer websites attract millions of readers, making money from them isn’t easy. Johnston Press announced this week that it will start charging for some its online content.  Rupert Murdoch’s news corporation has been considering doing this for some time and has proposed putting ‘paywalls’ round sections of its websites.

However, those I heard from at the Guardian and Observer didn’t think this was the answer; they believe people like you and me will simply look elsewhere for their news. I learned that newspapers are currently without a viable business model and are searching for one to secure their future.

From print to podcast

This is nevertheless an exciting time for journalism. I was fascinated by the Guardian and Observer’s new integrated approach to news gathering. Their journalists now write both for the web and the newspaper.  Many also produce podcasts using state of the art audio-visual equipment in the papers’ own studios. All this means that the term ‘print journalist’ is now meaningless.

Mentors in China

Amanda, our international careers guru, has just posted an outstanding opportunity for our Chinese students to be linked with a mentor back in China. The mentoring will be done on-line (no “all expenses paid” trips back home unfortunately) with mentors based in Beijing, Shanghai, other areas of China (eg. Shenzhen, Hangzhou etc) plus some of our other Chinese alumni now working in places like Germany and the USA.

Some of the areas which our mentors-in-waiting cover include research, IT, finance, law, HR and project management. There are only 25 places available, so read the rest of the information on Amanda’s International Careers blog and apply straight away – they’re starting to match mentors and mentees next week.

This is another one of Amanda’s initiatives to support our international students, many of whom are postgrads. For example, we’ve now installed video conferencing facilities in the Careers Service, and this week, successfully held another “over the web” event with a recruitment expert in China, following on from previous events such as the Citigroup video conference shown here.

Twitter Timewasting

Definitely no careers link here – just thought some of you might want another reason to try out Twitter.

When not using Twitter to keep up to the minute with all things postgraduate, in my other world, the one where I really live, my secret Twitter faves are:

• 

  Dr Samuel Johnson – the 18th century writer and compiler of dictionaries who gives frequent updates and commentary on such things as, oh, Jedward (“Whiten’d Homunculi JEDWARD do raise their HAIR whilst flattening their NOTES”) and Children in Need (“#ChildrenInNeed does beseech me to sit in a Bathing-Tub fill’d with FRENCHMEN & Porto WINE for the Sum of Ten GUINEAS”)

• 

  molesworth – a pupil at st custards preparatory skool for boys who gives us a 1950’s view on daily life (“hav desided to uppgrade skool COPUTER to windoes ‘58 it come on 6x 78rpm rekords and instalation take 2 wekes”)*

And if you get drawn into the Twitterverse with these, who knows where you may end up?

* Was in two minds whether to share this one, but I know of at least one Indian PhD who went into raptures when I mentioned the Willans and Searle classic 1950’s Molesworth books – and hey, retro is so now…

Assessment Centre Talk Now On-Line

A slidecast (slides plus audio soundtrack) on Assessment Centres is now available as the final instalment of my “Essential Guide to Careers for Postgrads”. If you want to know about

• how to tackle aptitude tests
• some hints and tips on how to look good in group exercises
• what’s an e-tray exercise
• some advice on “the informal dinner” on a two day assessment centre

you can either listen to it below, or find it alongside the other talks in the On-Line Talks page on this blog, or the playlist on the Postgrad pages on the Careers Service website.

If these talks are any use to you, or you would like me to tackle other topics, just let me know with a comment.

The Difference Between Academia and Business

Thanks to xkcd for this:

Public Sector North West

Just to prove that I’m not fixated on chemistry (got that out of my system a looooong time ago), if working in government, the public sector or other regulatory bodies is more your thing, and you want to stay here in the North West, we’ve got a list for you too – all here in a pdf.

It includes links to regional and local government websites, and links to those parts of the Civil Service which have offices in the North West of England (though the links are generally to the main website – they won’t normally have a direct weblink about their NW offices). Some of the “other and regulatory bodies” with presence in the NW include the Equality and Human Rights Commission, Charity Commission, the Information Commissioner, English Heritage and the Audit Commission. Finally, there are links to Health related organisations. This obviously includes local NHS Trusts, but it also includes the General Medical Council, NICE, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and the Health Protection Agency.

The document also includes a link to the Civil Service recruitment portal, which allows you to filter jobs by region. However, for non-Civil Service jobs, another resource which might help is a website which gives direct links to the jobs pages of  government and “other publicly funded organisations” – Government Jobs Direct.

We’ve got loads of other resources on employers in the North West or in specific occupational sectors, but they’re all being reorganised at the moment, so I’ll do another post to highlight what’s there, once they’re ready to be relaunched.

North West Chemical Companies

Yes, I know the last post was also for chemists, but I was asked yesterday to update our list of chemical companies in the North West of England, so before it goes on our website as a pdf, I thought I’d let you see it as a Word document – TheChemicalindustryintheNorthWest.

It’s not meant to be an exhaustive list, but I do try to make sure that the companies mentioned are more than just a sales or distribution arm of a larger company, and that they employ more than 3 people in the North West. Some of the companies listed have full blown research labs  in the North West, though many more have manufacturing plants.

As manufacturing plants are potential sources of jobs for chemical, mechanical and electrical engineers, as well as chemists who are interested in process development or quality assurance, I make no apologies for including them on the list (plus I still have a soft spot for companies who make things, from my own time in manufacturing). I’ve tried to make it clear on the list which are research labs and which are manufacturing plants but if you spot any errors, please do drop me a comment here so I can change it.

I should point out (though it should be obvious!) that it’s not a list of who currently has vacancies. However, if you have a specialism which might be in line with a company’s work, you could keep an eye open for ads from the company, consider making a direct speculative application, or see if you know anyone in the company who you could talk to as a contact.

Is The Chemical Industry Dying?

This is a question which should be bothering you if you’re thinking about working in R&D, engineering, patents or other technical or business functions in fine or bulk chemicals, the pharmaceutical industry, the environmental sector, petrochemicals, food, brewing, polymers, nanotech …

In other words, it could affect a lot of postgrads – and of course, there’s no easy answer to the question.

The best way I’ve found to keep up to date with what’s happening in the chemical industry is to follow the “The Commercial Chemist” posts in the Chemical World blog from the RSC.

In the most recent post, I’ve learnt that:

• Merck are due to shed 15,000 jobs worldwide now that the Schering-Plough merger is complete
• Novartis is planning to build the largest R&D institute in China, increasing jobs from 160 to over 1000
• Ineos Bio is doing a feasibility study into a new bio-energy plant in the North East
• Shell is cutting 5,000 jobs (though they are still currently looking for new postgrads – see recent tweet for details)
• Cost savings at Rhodia have led to increased 3rd quarter profits (up year on year by 19.5%) on reduced sales (down 15% year on year)

There’s a new update every Friday, plus lots of other chemical content in between.

For instance, you can watch a student “singing” all the elements of the Periodic Table, in order to a Russian folk melody – though I admit I prefer the old standard :

Courtesy of Harvard academic, Tom Lehrer. It dates back to 1959 which is why there are some elements missing, including the latest new element on the block, Copernicium.