Working with PhD students

Kathy Barrett and I do the second of our sessions on this topic.

It feels quite nice and easy now – even though we had forgotten  what we did on the first occasion. We had 5 internal people and 5 from other universities – Roehampton, Surrey, Northampton among them.

PhD students at Towers Perrin

My colleague John Childs did a visit to this Actuarial and HR consultancy this week. Here are his brief notes. Top line – PhD students very welcome to apply. ( vacancies in the HR practice.

 

Their business is split into two main areas: Human Capital (Employee Benefit Services, Executive Compensation & Rewards and International Survey Research) and Risk & Financial Services (Life Insurance and General Insurance)

They have announced a merger with Watson Wyatt, but this still needs to be completed, so both companies will continue to recruit separately in the coming  year.

They employ graduates into two main roles – Actuarial Analysts and HR Associates. They expect to recruit 4 graduates into the Actuarial roles – these people would need to be highly numerate, probably studying Maths or a mathematical subject. They are looking to recruit 9 graduates into the HR roles and, although their standards are high (First or 2.1 plus 340 UCAS points), they are much more open about subjects studied – however, they do look for people with strong analytical skills.

 Their selection process is rigorous, starting with a points based screening of forms, an HR telephone interview, an HR face to face interview and an assessment day. None of the 11 King’s students who applied last year got past the application form screening!

They are recruiting an increasing number of PhD students. They do not pay a premium, but expect them to progress more quickly because they have developed their research skills.

They advise people to apply early and not to wait until the deadline of December. Last year they had 755 applicants, interviewed 236, assessed 72 and offered 9 positions.

Starting salaries for 2010 will be up to £33,000.

They encourage and support their staff to pass their professional exams quickly – study materials and leave, tutorials, etc.

The HR graduates both mentioned the importance of Project Management skills/experience - this would clearly be worth covering in detail on the application form and in answer to interview questions.

Stephen Minger

Just got round to listening to a podcast by Dr Minger on his career. Inspirational. But why is it inspirational? Because – leaving aside the qulity of the work he leads here at King’s it is all so accessible. Here is someone who bumbled about a bit as a young adult – as most people do – and slowly focused his energies and values and intellect -  a bit of luck, a mass of talent, an even bigger mass of discipline and dedication. We all get a bit cynical about institutions we work in, but if Stephen Minger works here – its got to be a great place to be. He had some interesting coments about talking to the media and standing up for Science – his area is viewed by some as  ’controversial’ – so he feels its important to explain it to people. I am sorry to have to say it, but he has become a bit of a hero for me.

I discover the Social Research Association

How did I not know about the Social Research Association? Last night they put on a really good Careers Evening with speakers from NatCen, UCL and the Information Centre for Health and Social Care.

I recognised at least 2 current King’s PhD students in the audience – but there may have been more. It took place at the splendid offices of GfK (better known as NOP) We were on the top floor on Blackfriars Road – overlooking the thames and with a staggeringly beuatiful view of London on a summer evening – the grey edifices looking diditnguished in their sunlit grey – not drab as is sometimes the case.

I learned that Assocaition has a good job site.

Most people at the seminar seemed to be at Masters level – some already working in the field, some just completing courses.

 

www.the-sra.org.uk

Looking back over recent vacancies the head of the Association said that employers on the whole did not specify what Social Science discipline they wanted. They often asked for a mix of qual and quant experience (Quol and Quont is the accepted argot in the profession as i gathered). They wanted good report writing and presentation skills and evidence of stake-holder and customer relations.

2 researchers (1 qual , 1 quant form research giant NatCen spoke. The qual started her caree as a volunteer on an oral history project before spending 2 years with IPPR. The quant had done  a politics degree (so not a quant degree) and had started as a researcher for an MP. NatCen has 360 staff of whom half are researchers – 115 on the quant side, 31 on the qual. Specualtive applications were welcome

Alison, from Government social Resarch commented that in Government you tended to move between projects – so you got variety, at the expense of being able to specialise. Jobs in this sector were plentiful at the moment – evidence based policy making relies on the gathering of lots of ‘evidence’.

Cath from UCL explained about the career path of acadmic social researchers and the necessity to ’switch’ to the academic track because you became an expensive ‘weight’ on research bids as your salary increases. The publish or perish issue. In her group looking at sexual behaviour / health only 3 of the group of 20 were on permanent contracts.

Bottom line – great website for jobs- including entry level jobs.

Law PhD’s and legal training

Question from a Careers adviser

I have been asked what the chances are for PhD students (both law and other subjects) of developing a legal career either qualifying as a solicitor or a barrister.

 Do you know of any law firms/chambers which are keen to recruit people with this type of background? From the PhD students point of view they will  clearly want that their academic studies are seen as an advantage. There are some very high powered bodies such as the Law Commission and I think some opportunities in Europe where this will be the case and I also need to find out more about these. In continental Europe and Scandinavia you need to study law for longer at to a higher academic level before you can start practising as a trainee lawyer and in the US the education requirements are higher than here too.

Answer

I have met a number of King’s PhD students who have gone on to do legal training – often with a view to specialising in IP issues. However I feel that the PhD is viewed neutrally. It suggests an ability to handle complex data and to test assertions rigorously. On the other hand it may be felt to promote a leisurely approach to problem solving at variance with the cut and thrust of legal dispute and litigation. I have no experience of Law PhD’s going on to legal training. Most people I have seen come from the other direction – from professional practice to academic research.

Interesting Job description – but what job?

You’ll be working with a wide range of electronic information to identify and interpret trends, patterns and associations in the data. This type of analytical work requires the ability to understand and capture the essence of complex problems. To carry it out, you will be using a range of software tools to develop innovative and effective solutions. You will also undertake a range of projects working with colleagues from different departments, and work alongside other organisations to help develop our data sources, analysis tools and techniques.

Whether you have worked with data sets in your academic career, IT or finance sectors, market, social or scientific research, you’ll bring experience of working with analytical and/or statistical packages and large electronic and hard copy data sets. The accuracy and effectiveness with which Analysts present their results will have a major impact on investigations and you will be confident communicating your findings to a wide range of audiences. Given the nature of the role it is essential that you are comfortable working with computers for long periods and handling large quantities of data.

 

What job? Intelligence analyst for MI5.

Psychometric Testing

Friday was psychometric testing day. Its never been very popular – and today, true to form, 4 students. They get a battery of 3 tests and are scored and normed against a population of UK undergrad and postgrad students.

What surprised is how positive the students were about the whole experience. They thought that it should be made compulsory! I think they liked the inherent drama of the timed test which is very difficult to  finish.

I explained that for most firms this kind of test was increasingly done on-line, although it is quite common for candidates who do well enough to be invited for a selection centre to be re-tested to see if it was actually them who did the test not their much cleverer friend. Identity fraud being all too easy in the cyber-world.

Sessions

2 sessions yesterday, one to a group of Health Service Researchers at IOP, one to students as part of the Researcher Development Programme.

Total turn-out: 6 students – thats for both sessions.

I actually had something intesting to say. In one I had been asked to talk about about ‘big picture’ Career Managment issue, in the other I was trialling my new material on CV writing.

We never get large groups here in the summer term – even though with PhD’s there are no exams to distract. I have just read an article on the threats to face to face teaching in universities now – diminished contact time. We are trying to increase it and not really getting any where it seems.

In one session, 8 students had said they would come, in the CV workshop 5. So the other issue is students who commit to come and then do not. Ho-hum.

MBTI results

Response of PhD student to MBTI profile. Staggered at the accuracy.

Hi Terry, Thanks very much for the useful discussion on the MBTI results, I feel- and was almost amazed by its accuracy at doing so, that it provided a picture of my strengths and weaknesses. I hope to go on to investigate it further and build on these results. Kind Regards,

Dentistry Postdoc society

Attended this great careers day organised by this really pro-active society. They persuaded 7 scientists to come and talk about their work in industry- no easy task. It made you realise that no career is a straightforward plan, no grand scheme. Everyone presented a story in chapters in which an interplay of personal priorities collided in more or less fruitful ways with opportunities. One man was currently a house husband after a successful stint with a pharma company. One went to Kent because his girlfriend had a job there and after a year in a biotech which he did not like he landed a job in Pfizer; he made some great asides about his initial reluctance to work in industry – I thought ~i might be working on a project which would be stopped by an accountant. Research in toothpaste and toothbrush companies (Unilever) was also covered – by a woman who had trained as a dentist and done her Phd here at King’s.

One man took a sabbatical to study theology before returning to science. One moved to a biotech because her Pharma company was relocating its neuro-degeneration research elsewhere in the world.

One man got a call from a recrutiemt agency where he had deposited his CV 4 years previously!