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…

FindAPhD Mug Shot

So, did anyone else get one?

Thanks to Andy from www.FindAPhD.com/www.FindAMasters.com for the freebie – and for producing a useful web resource which I do recommend frequently.

Their website is especially comprehensive for biological and chemical sciences but also has lots of opportunities for other subjects.

However, the one area which is less well represented is humanities PhDs, so I challenged Andy about this. He pointed out that for most humanities PhDs, you have to come up with your own proposal – so there are far fewer pre-defined PhD projects to advertise. Obvious really, if I’d only engaged my brain before asking.

Had Any Help From The Careers Service?

Can any postgrads or international students at the University of Manchester spare 30 minutes to talk to a quality assessor on Wednesday or Thursday this week? This is our 5 yearly assessment and our assessor wants to talk to students who’ve had some sort of contact or help from the Careers Service – that could be using our on-line services, our fairs or employer events, attending our talks or having a careers appointment.

He wants to meet students & graduates in small groups to ask about their experiences, so you won’t be on your own! It will give you the chance to have a say about us (but don’t worry, I won’t be there to prod you to say nice things about the blog).

You don’t need to do any preparation but you do need to have a view on the help that you received from the careers service. The times are as follows:

Wednesday 7th October

• 3.00pm meeting with undergraduates
• 3.30pm meeting with international students (undergraduate and postgraduate)

Thursday 8th October

• 10.45 meeting with postgraduate students
• 11.15 meeting with undergraduates

If you are free for any relevant meeting times, we’d really appreciate your support. If you can help, could you ring the Careers Service (0161 275 2828 and ask for Andrew Whitmore, regarding “students for the Matrix assessment”)? The meetings are confidential, will last for 30 minutes and take place in Crawford House Careers Centre.

Hope you can help!

Why Undergrads Use The Careers Service?

I know you’re all serious grown up postgrads, but thought you might like to see the video our undergraduate marketing interns have produced to promote the Careers Service.

I shied away from using it in my postgrad induction talks (I know, I’m chicken) as I thought it might give you the wrong idea of what the Careers Service can offer but … oh, go on, if you’re up for a bit of student creativity have a click.

Warning : May contain semi-clad (male) undergrad.

If you have been affected by anything in this video, please visit our website, http://www.manchester.ac.uk/careers for further help and support.

On re-viewing this, I do actually think it’s fun, so, should I have had the courage to use it in my postgrad talks? Any views, just drop me a comment.

New Here?

Welcome to our careers news and comment service for postgraduates of the University of Manchester.

You can find out more about this blog, who’s writing it, the Careers Service, and some general comments about postgraduate careers on the other static pages. However, the main ”Home” page is where you’ll get regular updates throughout the year on careers items of particular interest to postgraduates.

A Little Something For the Ladies

Or how, in one well-meaning easy move, you can completely undermine your aim and alienate most of your audience…

Lord Drayson, the science minister is in the news today with a debate tonight with Ben Goldacre on the state of science journalism in the UK – it’s also being webcast through the Times Higher website from 7pm.

However, it was Lord Drayson’s recent performance at the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (UKRC) Conference which came under scrutiny from someone I met recently who attended this event. The UKRC works to tackle the under-representation of women in science, engineering and technology, and whilst Lord Drayson had some positive things to say about presenting modern female scientific role models for younger girls, it sounds like he blew it within the first 5 minutes.

Here’s the report from my contact, who, for professional reasons, has wisely opted to remain anonymous:

“Looking forward to the upcoming Drayson vs Goldacre debate on ‘Science reporting: is it good for you?’. I have half-heartedly been following the debate about the state of popular science reporting in the mainstream media on Twitter. But I have to confess I am biased since I heard Lord Drayson, minister of State for Science and Innovation, speak earlier this year. Although the event took place in March (which I realise is the Middle Ages on blog timescales) my blood temperature still rises when I think of his address to the conference  of the UK Resource Centre for Women in SET (Science, engineering and technology).

That day we discussed the ‘leaky pipeline’: the fact that for many SET subjects there are now (almost) as many women at undergraduate level as men but that at higher academic levels the percentage come down to single figures and women are very under-represented in senior management roles in SET based companies. We lamented the lack of female scientist role models.

It was therefore bizarre that Lord Drayson opened the conference by telling us about the day he had fallen in love with his wife (he obviously thought that would go down well with the largely female audience). The irony that his wife WAS a scientist then, but now looked after his children and his racing team seemed lost on him. He also didn’t mention her by name, adding fuel to the role model debate. His comments are, not surprisingly, glossed over in the conference brochure. It will be interesting to see how he stands up in the debate against Ben Goldacre.”

Luckily, the UKRC website has lots of other inspirational case studies and blog posts on how women are being successful in science, engineering and technology (current blog post is from a vet who’s invented a haptic cow – go on, you know you want to click).

If you want to hear what Lord Drayson actually said (which starts and ends well, just dips a little with his lovely anecdote about looking like he was interested in his future wife’s research project while figuring out how he could get her to go on a date with him…) you can download the podcast here. Warning: it took an age for me to download it, but if you’re keen, he starts talking from about 10 and a half minutes in.

So, What Do You Do, Dear?

Couldn’t resist pointing you in the direction of “The Old Lady Job Justification Hearings” on the new series of “That Mitchell and Webb Sound”, the comedy sketch radio show, currently on BBC Radio 4. Each week, someone has to explain the job they do to a panel of “little old ladies”*.

After the recent surfeit of Lehman Brothers nostalgia, I couldn’t resist this week’s “Futures Trader” trying to answer, “what do you do, dear?” and “just tell us this, how does it help?”.

Sometimes, just sometimes, it’s the question I’m itching to ask the odd hyped-up new graduate recruit – but then I remember I have to be independent and non-judgemental and keep schtumm.

This episode is available on the BBC iPlayer here (around 5mins 30 seconds in) but only until 7pm on Tuesday 15th September (ie tomorrow at time of writing). Get it while you can, or as it’s a recurring sketch, if the series is still running, try the latest episode for a new Job Justification.

*Of course, these are comedy little old ladies, all soft voices, gentle concern and grandfather clock ticking in the background, whereas in reality, today’s little old ladies are surfing the web to get the best deals on new walking boots or submitting first-named papers to learned journals.

Mystery Visitors

There has been a welcome, but rather puzzling, massive increase in visitors to this blog over the last couple of weeks (as measured by the WordPress statistics package).

Much as I’d like to think that all our work to enthuse Manchester postgrads about their careers is paying off, I’m not sure where you’re all coming from – or if it’s just a software glitch (IT support claims it’s real, but no hints as to where you’ve all come from, so I’m dubious).

Anyway, I’m always keen to find out who’s reading (happy to be of use to anyone out there – all welcome). So, if you could spare a couple of seconds, could you let me know who you are by clicking the poll at the top of the sidebar?

Useful notes:

1) Privacy – I won’t get to know where you’re from, your IP address or the like, and you don’t have to give your name or e-mail address so your identity is safe (ie. I won’t be able to tell your boss you’ve been looking at careers stuff … though I would never do that anyway). However, the software should only allow you to register your vote once.

2) If you fit in the category “Professional interest in careers stuff or postgrads generally“, it would help me if you could click that one as your choice, even if some of the others also apply.

For Lives Not Lived

It’s Harry Patch’s funeral today. Henry Allingham’s funeral was last week.

At the request of the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, the new Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy wrote a poem last week called “Last Post”  to mark the occasion of both funerals.

I’m not going to shoehorn in some link to careers (though there’s plenty for you to ponder over), just a recommendation that you take a few moments to hear Carol Ann Duffy read her poem on the Today programme website.

“Last Post”

Interlude

Completely off-topic, but it’ll make you smile. For those of us who commute into Manchester Oxford Road – how about it?

Would make the crush to get through the ticket barrier a bit more fun. I reckon a chorus of Take That’s “Shine” should do it (but make it Friday as I’m off to London tomorrow to learn about how the EPSRC review research proposals and don’t want to miss the fun).