Update – September 2009
We’re delighted to announce that Pathways has been shortlisted for the Times Higher Award for Outstanding Support for Early Career Researchers 2009.
In our world of careers support for postgrads, this is like being up for “Best in Breed” at Crufts – yup, it’s that big a deal. However, knowing the calibre of work at the other nominated institutions, it’s a very competitive field, so I’m just chuffed that we’re nominated.
If you were in any way involved with the event in the past (attending, participating or organising), give yourself a big pat on the back, and get ready for starting all over again with Pathways 2010. If you’ve no idea what Pathways is/was, read on for last year’s event.
Career Options for PhDs and Research Staff
12th, 15th and 17th June 2009
Latest: Keep up to date and get all the latest Pathways news here.
Last year, we ran the first University of Manchester “Pathways” careers event for PhDs and research staff, following our 2007 careers event, just for PhDs. This year we’re back, with another mammoth event for researchers, and a third day.
All four Faculties and the Careers Service are collaborating to attract dozens of panellists who have already completed their PhDs and are now working in a wide range of careers to talk to our current PhDs and research staff, over 500 of whom attended last year.
We aim to cover careers ranging from lab based jobs, media and publishing, academic careers, banking and finance, teaching, communicating science, museums and libraries, business start up and more.
In addition, we’ll follow up this day of career discussions with a second day of one-off workshops, from drama based presentations on increasing your interview confidence, discussions on marketing your PhD, negotiating your salary, using emotional intelligence in the workplace to strategic academic career planning.
Finally, we’ve taken the ideas from last year’s “Employability Zone” and created a whole new “PhD & Researcher Zone” at the Graduate Recruitment Fair.
Find Out More
Got a PhD and want to share your experience with others following your footsteps?
Thinking about your own career as a PhD or member of research staff ?
Keep up to date with Pathways information
Day 1, Career Options : Friday 12th June 2009, Renold Building
Day 2, Career Workshops : Monday 15th June 2009, Renold Building
Day 3, PhD and Researcher Zone @ the Graduate Recruitment Fair : Wednesday 17th June, Armitage Centre
Day 1 will start in style with a Keynote Address by Professor Dame Nancy Rothwell, Deputy Vice Chancellor. The rest of the day will consist of “Question and Answer” panel sessions with a wide range of participants who have either completed their PhDs or moved on from university research posts in the last 10 years, or who have expertise in the job market for PhDs and researchers. This will cover both academic and non-academic career options for researchers from all Faculties.
Throughout the day, several Panel sessions will run in parallel from 10.00-3.30, alongside more informal individual or small group conversations about careers in our Career Lounge.
Day 2 will include a range of targeted workshops and talks from external and internal trainers and experts to help delegates with the burning question : “So, now I’ve heard about all these careers – how do I choose and what do I do to make it happen?”
New for this year
Day 3 gives you the chance to talk directly to a select group of around 10 employers who are keen to target researchers. This PhD Zone is part of the larger Graduate Recruitment Fair, where over 70 recruiters are available to discuss your career plans and their vacancies. This event is open not only to University of Manchester researchers, but also to researchers from any university. Further information is given in this blog post, and on the Fairs page on the University of Manchester Careers Service website.
Potential Participants
This event can only run successfully thanks to the generous support of those who have “been there themselves”. With the informal format of the event, there is no preparation required for taking part in Day 1, other than to give us brief career information which will be made available to delegates on our password protected intranet. You tell us which times you are available (we really hope you can take part in at least 3 of the 5 sessions running on the day), and our professional Events Management team will do the rest.
On the day, we’ll organise and chair the panels for you, have lots of help on hand to let you know where you should be and to deal with any administrative issues, large or small, we’ll feed you and have (soft!) drinks on hand throughout the day in our “Green Room”, and take care of your travelling expenses.
A consistent message last year from participants was that they enjoyed themselves as much as the delegates, who were very appreciative of the time given up by those talking about their careers. You’re not expected to be career experts, just to give the benefit of your own experience – good and bad – to others following in your footsteps.
We are also keen to hear from anyone who can take part in Day 2, either by offering a workshop which will help PhDs and researchers move their career thinking and actions forward, by offering information or a presence in our Employability Zone, or offering advice on career plans and prioritisation to individual delegates.
If you think you can help, please either drop us an e-mail at careers@manchester.ac.uk and we’ll be happy to e-mail or phone you back to discuss it, or if you have a particular contact on the Pathways Organising Committee, do ask them for further details – we’d be delighted to hear from you.
If you’re a current or recent PhD or member of research staff from the University of Manchester, this event is for you. Keep the dates free and work on your supervisor or PI to persuade them it’s in their interests to let you attend (OK, you might benefit yourself as well…)
On-line booking is now open. Book before 10th June (and turn up on the day) and you’ll be entered into our prize draw for £50 of Amazon vouchers. On the day, you’ll need to register (remember to bring your university swipe card).
As there will be as many as 10 panels running concurrently, we won’t be asking you to sign up to individual sessions in advance (too complicated, and everyone always changes their mind on the day anyway) but we will try to run all panels more than once. On the day, it will be first come, first served for each panel. (Surprisingly, this does seem to have worked remarkably well in previous years – sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.)
In the meantime, if you have a career area you’re burning to hear about, or have a contact in an organisation who might like to help on a panel, add your comments to the end of this blog page.
Keep up to date with Pathways
You can see all other information on this blog associated with this event by looking at the Category called Pathways, or you could even take a feed just for Pathways related information
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Hello,
If I were still working as a Researcher (I was out of contract at the end of December) I would have been interested in attending the Pathways event, but I find myself outside academia at present (working in a school Science Department), really out of necessity.
It might be a negative viewpoint, but the reality being that at least some research staff (and PhDs) will be out of work at the end of their contracts, I think it would be useful to face it and give advice on what to do if/when it happens, e.g. alternative/temporary work options, benefits advice and so forth. There are lots of valid reasons why this occurs, and from personal experience it is easy to feel quite isolated after having to leave the institution.
Many thanks.
M Ibison (formerly School of Materials, Sept 2007 – Dec 2008)
Hi Mark
I think you raise some very valid points – may not be a positive message, but unfortunately it’s a realistic prospect for some researchers.
My first reaction was to think about adding a session to Pathways, but I think it’s a bit close to the event now for us to add another workshop, particularly when we’d need to get some expertise from outside if we were to cover benefits advice etc.
However, there should be ways we could address this outside Pathways. I wonder if a webchat might be a good way to deal with this? It would allow people to ask questions while remaining anonymous to the outside world, we could try and get a couple of experts to add their answers, and there would be a transcript for researchers to read in future if they find themselves in a similar situation.
In the meantime, if you do want to attend any of the Pathways days (and are able to get time away from your current work), drop an e-mail to careers@manchester.ac.uk, mark it “Pathways, FAO Anna Lomas” and explain that you were recently a member of research staff (or PhD, if any of our alumni are reading this) at Manchester, and we should be able to register you for Day 1 or 2 (no registration needed for Day 3).
Thanks for your suggestions and hope you find something appropriate in the near future.
Elizabeth