The Difference Between Academia and Business

Thanks to xkcd for this:

Interviews & Assessment Talks

Quick reminder that I’m doing two more talks this week in the “Career Essentials for Postgrads” series:

• Interviews for Masters Postgrads – today (Monday 2nd Nov) at 1.00pm, LT 1.4, Kilburn Building
• Interviews for PhDs – Thursday 5th Nov, again at 1.00pm, LT 1.4, Kilburn Building

Next week is the last talk in this series, on Assessment Centres. As there’s normally a smaller audience for this talk, I’ve combined Masters and PhDs into one talk:

• Assessment Centres for Postgraduates – Monday 9th Nov, at 1.00pm, LT 1.4, Kilburn Building

Again, I’m aiming to make a version of the Interviews and Assessment Centre talks available on-line (audio plus slides) after the face-to-face talks.

 

Finding a Job For Postgrads – Audio & Slides

At last, I’ve managed to find a way to put not only the slides from my recent talks, but also an audio commentary, on the web and link the blog directly to it.

I’ve split the talks I’ve been doing this week into three parts, but you can also skip forward and backwards in the presentations as you watch and listen, so you don’t have to listen to the whole thing all the way through if you don’t have time.

Part 1 gives you some real data on the state of the job market, what employers think of postgraduates and some ideas of the types of jobs you could target. Part 2 looks at how employers fill jobs, and gives you strategies for finding jobs beyond just looking at adverts, including (the most important careers secret, I think) how to use your contacts to get the lucky breaks. Finally, Part 3 tells you about the further support we can give postgrads, including answers to some of the questions I got this week when I did the Masters and PhD presentations in person.

Feedback

If you watch/listen to these slidecasts (as they’re called), I’d love to have your feedback on whether they’re worth doing in future. They take a bit of time to do, but if they’re useful to you, I can have a go at the other talks (eg. on CVs, Interviews and Assessment Centres). Alternatively, I can just continue to upload the slides on their own. As ever, just drop me a comment (or a tweet) if you’ve got something to say.

So, without further ado, just don your headphones or turn your speakers on to hear all about how to get a job for postgraduates.

Part 1 – Postgrads and the Job Market

Note: If you want to click on the links on the final slide, you’ll notice that you need to click in the centre of the slide, or the little hand changes to skip backwards or forwards to the next slide.

Part 2 – Finding the Job You Want

Part 3 – Careers Support For Postgraduates

Careers Talks For Postgraduates

Finally, we’ve got the dates, times and venues sorted for our careers talks for Postgraduate Masters and PhD Researchers (that includes EngDs and all the other professional doctorates as well).

• The Essential Guide To Getting A Job For Postgraduate Masters:
  • Date:  Monday 5 October 2009
  • Time:  13:00 – 13:50
  • Venue:  Mansfield Cooper G19
• The Essential Guide To Getting A Job For PhD Researchers:
  • Date: Thursday 8 October 2009
  • Time:  13:00 – 13:50
  • Venue:  Chemistry G54
• CVs and Applications For Postgraduate Masters
  • Date: Monday 12 October 2009
  • Time:  13:00 – 13:50
  • Venue:  Kilburn 1.4
• CVs and Applications For PhD Researchers
  • Date: Thurday 15 October 2009
  • Time:  12:00 – 12:50 (note: earlier time than other talks)
  • Venue:  Kilburn 1.4
• Interviews For Postgraduate Masters
  • Date:  Monday 2 November 2009
  • Time: 13:00 – 13:50
  • Venue: Kilburn 1.4
• Interviews For PhD Researchers
  • Date: Thursday 5 November 2009
  • Time: 13.00 – 13.50
  • Venue: Kilburn 1.4
• Assessment Centres For Postgraduates (Masters and PhDs)
  • Date:  Monday 9 November 2009
  • Time:  13:00 – 13:50
  • Venue:  Kilburn 1.4

It’s helpful if you can sign up on the website for the ones you’re planning to attend (so we can assess numbers). However, the first people to arrive get the seats, so even if you don’t sign up, you can still attend. See you there!

BP Eurograduate Programme for Masters

I’ve been waiting for the 2010 BP Eurograduate programme to be announced and at last the webpage has been updated to indicate that they’ll be open for applications from 1st September, with the next assessment centre taking place in mid December 2009 in Brussels.

This is a 5 year European programme for Masters in business or technical subjects, where you get to work in three different business functions in two or three different countries, starting with somewhere which isn’t your home country. In addition to having a Masters level qualification, you must be fluent in at least two European languages, of which one must be English, and be prepared to be mobile around Europe. This does sound like a remarkable fast track programme if you aspire to an international career in the oil business. You’re even offered the “Temporary International Relocation Policy” for the duration of the programme, which sounds like one of those sought after expat deals to me (from my time in HR in industry, the expats were always looked at with envy, conveniently forgetting the upheaval caused by regular relocation).

For more info, have a look at their webpage, including a video about the programme (I suggest you try Internet Explorer for this as I had problems with Firefox).

If you aren’t interested in this programme but still want to look at jobs with BP, their UK recruitment site will also be open for applicants from 1st September (some of the info currently there is still from last year). For 2010, BP are planning on having 150 UK graduate and postgraduate vacancies (plus 100 internships) in Engineering, Science and Business roles. The closing dates are Friday 12 February 2010 for most vacancies, or 13th November 2009 for the vacancies in Trading. However, in common with several other employers, BP have pointed out in an e-mail to us that they will start processing applications as soon as they are received, with 1st round interviews starting in October and Assessment Centres in November. They say

“We endeavour to make both Graduate and Intern Offers as soon as applicants have successfully passed the assessment process and therefore early applications are strongly advised”.

This early opening for next year’s vacancies is becoming increasingly common. Check out Holly’s post on the Graduate Careers Blog on the latest employers to open early for business.

Want To Get Into HR?

This is one for our MSc HRM postgrads, or anyone who wants their first break into an HR job. Tesco have asked us to advertise 30 places on their new Personnel Graduate Training Scheme – and as these aren’t on their website, I’d get in there fast. In fact you’ll need to be very fast as the closing date is 14th June (this Sunday).

Here are the details (just cut’n'pasted for speed, hence the formal “HR speak” – but you’ll have to get used to generating that if you get the job!)

Tesco Personnel Graduate Programme

Tesco has a well established graduate programme linked to both the retail and Head Office sides of the business. This year, we are also introducing a specific Personnel Graduate scheme starting in September 2009 – at the end of this 18 month programme, candidates will be appointed as Personnel Managers in our Extra stores, the largest and most complex of all our store formats. Longer term HR career opportunities within Tesco reflect a variety of challenging and fulfilling options, both in the retail and Head Office environment, available in the UK and internationally.

This recent decision to introduce a specific Personnel scheme, is reflective of the key role this population is considered to play within our business – we recognise that a great Personnel resource can make the difference in the challenging times all businesses currently face, and that their focus on building capability, driving performance, and developing culture is pivotal.

The 18 month scheme will support candidates to develop a broad understanding of the store environment, through experience as a departmental Line Manager. Following this, a robust development programme will enhance the technical and behavioural skills relevant to a Personnel role, before experience as a Personnel Manager instore. Candidates should have the drive and flexibility to work in a challenging and fast paced retail environment, have excellent communication skills, and be passionate around the development of people.

Candidates will also need a 2:1 degree, in any discipline, the right to work in the UK, and national mobility – positions on the programme will be based in the South of the country for the duration of the 18 months.

Interested candidates should complete the application form (available for download here – Word document) and send to graduate.recruitment@tesco.co.uk no later than 14th June. Candidates should also be available to attend an instore interview and assessment centre, to be held throughout July.

Please note that it is not possible to apply for this scheme via the Tesco careers website.

Masters Required…

We’ve had a flurry of posts and information about events aimed just at PhDs recently (and more to come – including a new recruitment event), but I haven’t forgotten about all our Masters postgrads.

Here are some of our current vacancies where a Masters or “postgraduate degree” is specifically mentioned, just to prove that there are still jobs out there and that a Masters degree can give you the edge, particularly when it allows you to specialise in a sought after area.

• Applied Economist, Cambridge – lots of working with large data sets to produce economic reports, presentations, forecasts and so on, focusing on UK & EU
• Development Chemist, Merseyside – developing innovative colour and other additives for the polymer industry, including R&D, formulation, project management and communication with internal and external customers and partners
• Energy analyst, London – a Masters in an engineering, science, economics, or analytical discipline, familiar with data analysis and modelling techniques, fluent in English and another European language, particularly Polish
• Occupational Psychology consultants – HR Consultancy recruiting for a range of locations (Malaysia, Shanghai, Singapore – see link, plus also see our other vacancies from the same employer)
• Process Improvement Engineer, Warrington/Manchester – 2½ year KTP programme leading a process improvement project in the food industry, linked to Manchester Metropolitan University
• Project Engineer, China – based in Shanghai, supporting the Business Development team in Europe, looking for a Masters in electronic or mechanical engineering – and you’ll need native level German, fluent English and preferably knowledge of another European language or Chinese. (There can’t be many of you who fit the bill there, so if you do, I’d get your application in pronto!)
• Statistician, Berkshire – applying statistical analysis to agricultural research, looking for an MSc in Statistics
• Technical programmers, Gateshead – computer games developer, looking for a range of roles (search our vacancies on employer name), the more technical roles asking for degree/postgraduate in Physics, Maths, Engineering or similar
• ESRC PhD studentship, Manchester Business School – looking at barriers to knowledge flows in the pharmaceutical sector. Includes hands on experience working as a member of a pharmaceutical company’s R&D Strategy Communications Team. Need “a Masters degree from an ESRC recognised research training course or which includes a substantial research element or professional research experience”

Plus all those jobs where employers advertise for “graduates” but might be delighted with a Masters (or PhD).

(Oh, and to continue my theme of “there are still jobs out there, really” – we’ve got 382 ads for full-time jobs on our vacancy lists at the moment. Get ‘em now while they’re still hot – there will be an awful lot of new graduates who’ll be pouring into the job market, starting as soon as their exams are over.)

Study or Research in the USA

If you’re a UK citizen and are interested in either postgraduate study in the USA (for example going for a PhD after your Masters) or in a research scholarship (if you already hold or will soon achieve a PhD), the Fulbright Commission award schemes are currently open for applications.

These are prestigious awards and naturally very competitive – but someone’s going to get them. You have to apply well in advance of the date you want to go the States. The deadline for both schemes is May 31st 2009 – but that’s for intended departure dates between July/August 2010 and April 2011. So, even if you’re not due to finish your current qualification for a while, it could be time to start putting your plans for “What’s next?” into action.

Further details of these schemes are at:

• Postgraduate Student Awards
• Distinguished Scholar Awards

Even if you don’t get one of these awards, if you have any interest in studying in the USA as a UK citizen, the Fulbright website has a wealth of useful information on everything you need to do to make that happen.

Job Market Update

It seemed inevitable, but the job market now seems to be getting noticably tighter, in terms of the number of new job ads reaching the Careers Service. It still hasn’t gone into freefall, but since January, the number of new full-time job ads coming in has consistently tracked below last year’s levels. However, it is still nowhere near the low point of 2002-3. 

Here you can see the number of new full-time job ads added to the Careers Service vacancy database, comparing this year, last year and 2002-3. There are still 343 full-time job ads currently active on our database so the total is more or less holding steady (I know it’s 11 fewer than 5th January but the total number of active ads fluctuates and has been higher, and lower, than this over the last few weeks).

Some of our current vacancies

Here are a few which caught my eye, either needing postgrads or where postgrads may have the advantage :

• Research and development roles in hardware and software for computer science and electronic engineering PhDs
• Graduate Analyst/Researcher for a transport consultancy, looking for a PhD, Masters or graduate in a relevant subject
• Post-doctoral Fellow at the International Rice Research Institute in Manila (PhD in a relevant life science)
• Post-doctoral Scholarship with the British Institute of Persian Studies in Tehran (PhD in relevant subject)
• Graduate Programme for a major telecommunications company (Masters in business, computer science or engineering subjects)
• Bioinformatics roles (sequence data analyst and scientific programmer) for a bioinformatics company (Masters or PhD)
• Public relations graduate trainee with a PR agency
• Graduate Editors (Maths and Science) for an educational publisher in Cumbria
• Graduate trainee posts for librarianship, being advertised through CILIP
• Election Campaign internship, based in Brussels, 6 month programme
• Strategy consultancy, based in Birmingham, with fluency in English and either German, Italian, Russian or Mandarin
• “Sports modelling opportunities” (or “how to make jobs for applied statisticians sound exciting”) – no, really, if you’re a mathematician or into stats and gaming, poker, sports betting etc, this is the one for you!

And finally – unpicking the media reports

One of the reports which received widespread coverage in the press was from High Fliers, which resulted in articles claiming “This year’s intake of new graduates is to be cut by 17%”. I’ve now had a good look at the report, which is available for download, and it appears that the cut of 17% refers to how much recruitment targets for this year were over-estimated. Key points to note, once you read the report are :

• Back in September, the graduate recruiters polled were wildly optimistic, estimating that for September 2009, they would be recruiting about 20% more graduates than they actually recruited in September 2008. (I’d guess there was some strategic posturing going on there.)
   
• 17% refers to how much these estimates have now been revised downwards. Interestingly, something similar happened last year. The recruiters polled ended up recruiting about 17% fewer graduates in September 2008 than they had planned, as estimated in September 2007. (Can you see a pattern here?)
   
• So, the number of graduate recruits now planned for September 2009 from employers in their sample is 16,559, down 0.33% from the 2008 total actually recruited (16,614).

I assume you can spot the other, overwhelmingly important point - sixteen and a half thousand jobs isn’t a lot to go round all of this year’s, or last year’s, graduates. That’s because it’s a sample of “one hundred of the UK’s best-known and most successful employers”.

Give them their due, High Fliers are clear about this in the very first paragraph of the report, but the employment picture for both graduates and particularly postgraduates extends way beyond these 100 employers, a point lost to many who reported the poll. Given that there are over a quarter of a million new undergraduates alone produced each year in the UK, only a tiny proportion of them were ever going to get one of these positions. It’s also some comfort to many postgrads, particularly Masters students, who sometimes feel affronted if they don’t land one of these high profile, but in practice, very rare, graduate training schemes.

Careers Q&A for Life Scientists

We’re running an event next week for anyone interested in careers for life scientists (which includes all those postgrad scientists in MHS, not just our FLS Masters and PhDs). We’ve got a panel of graduates and postgraduates now working in areas relevant to life sciences who will be answering questions about their careers and the type of work they do :

• When : Wednesday 29th October, 2008, 2.00-3.00pm
• Where : Stopford Building, Lecture Theatre 1

It will be pretty much like a mini, “one-panel”, version of the Pathways event (the one we ran in June for researchers). However this one is open to undergrads and Masters as well, although PhDs are also welcome to attend (in fact, there will be a couple of current PhDs on the panel, so you could also chip in from the audience with your own comments on doing postgraduate research).

Currently lined up are representatives from

• patents
• pharmaceutical development
• science communication
• medical sales
• NHS clinical science
• technology transfer
• business development in life sciences
• European project management in a clinical research organisation

There’s a good range of people with first degrees, Masters and PhDs amongst the panel, so if you’re a life or medical scientist wondering which career path to follow (or despondent at the lack of life science companies at the recent recruitment fairs*) this one is just for you.

* How To Find Life Science Employers

I know it’s a bit disappointing that we don’t get many life science companies at our autumn fairs. I guess the big pharma’s know that you know who they are, and so they don’t need to attend a generalist fair, and the smaller companies often don’t recruit a year in advance (or can’t afford a stand). We often get more life science companies and agencies attending our summer fairs, which tend to be for jobs to start immediately/soon, so we do know that there are organisations out there who want to recruit life scientists.

If you’re looking for life science recruiters, two good resources to help you target your speculative applications or web searches are :

• Pharmaceutical recruiters in the UK from the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry careers website (the whole website is a great resource for anyone interestes in pharma-related careers).
   
• Links to biotechnology and life science companies in the North West of England on the Careers Service regional web pages – and believe me, there are far more than just AZ out there if you’re keen to stay local.