Postdoc Career Management – or not

This is a very good summary by Denise Dear of Cambridge University staff development of the career management problem for postdocs. What oft as thought but ne’er so well expressed

 

Promotion procedures and pathways are limited for research staff who wish to stay in Cambridge and this is now the focus of considerable interest.  As you know, traditional academic roles have a defined promotion procedure  - lecturer/senior lecturer/reader/professor.  However, this is not a research route and I have found from a number of focus groups I have recently held with experienced research staff here, that there is widespread frustration at this fact.  Research staff are employed as research associates and may be promoted to senior research associates according to certain criteria ( available on our HR web-site).  After that, unless they continue to acquire competititve funding or manage to be taken on as a lecturer, they come to a sudden stop. Most senior researchers will have been doing research, managing and advising group members and will therefore have very little teaching experience.  They are therefore at a disadvantage in applying for lectureships.  In short, they end up in a career cul-de-sac.  We are currently working with this cohort to begin to work out possible future pathways for them, as they present an enormous resource that is in danger of being lost or wasted.  Many are the products of the short term funding procedures used in higher education, in particular.

More on Clinical Psychology Interviews

More samples of questions that come up supplied by a successful candidate who had worked hard on interview technique for more than a year. There are other examples from a few years ago further back in the blog.

University interview 2008 (sample1)

 

Initial written task for about 30 mins- had to pretend that working for a government think tank and explain some graphs representing alcohol related deaths across the last few years. Checking for writing, grammar, spelling, sentence construction.

 

One interview (45mins):

 

Why do you want to be a clinical psychologist?

 

Given an on the spot clinical vignette. Imagine that you are a practising clinical psychologist and seeing a patient for the first time. Given 3 different possible sentences to start the session with (all perfectly legitimate ways to start it) had to think of the pro’s and con’s for each one

Tip: Hold client in mind at all times, formulate hypothesis about client and apply that to the sentences

 

Diversity: what be the advantages and disadvantages of working with a client from the same ethnic background as you and a different ethnic background to you

 

Supervision: Supervision is a collaborative effort, what would you bring to supervision?

 

On the spot research vignette: how would you go about evaluating a self-help programme as an alternative to therapy?

 

How would you help a manger decide what treatment services to offer in a practice?

 

Why do people do things that they know are bad for them?

 

Talk about something that you have read that has changed or influenced you

 

 

 

University interview 2008 (Sample 2)

 

Clinical interview (20mins):

 

Given a choice of 2 vignettes, instructed to prepare 1- would be asked questions about it in the interview:

 

Why do you want to be a clinical psychologist?

 

Tell us about a clinical case that you have worked with. Give a summary of the case and the treatment applied (answer in terms of theoretical model based on) What are the limitations of this approach?

 

On the spot vignette: about a possibly difficult situation at work, dealing with client confidentiality

 

Talk about a difficulty had with a supervisor and how resolved it, how has this informed your work/practice?

 

What is meant by the term effective service user involvement?

 

 

Research interview (20 mins):

 

Given a choice of 2 studies to design, prepare 1- would be asked questions about in the interview (design research project paying attention to sampling, measures, design, analysis, interpreting results, implications, ethics):

 

Can you tell us about a piece of research that you have done? Summary of what did and found, limitations and how improved it?

 

Talk about a paper that you have read

 

Talk about another paper that you have read and how you have applied it clinically

 

Is there anything else that you would like to tell us about yourself

Skills of a PhD

This was an article I started but did not finish. I really like the personal stateement which does the job of summarising the skills gained on a PhD very well.

You wouldn’t want to employ a PhD in your business would you?

 

Overqualified, too many years at college – so divorced from the everyday realities of  work, a bit geeky, a bit sad, a bit scary, too intellectual, ignorant of what a deadline is, knowing rather too much about stuff that no-one cares very much about.

 

That’s a bit of a stereotype, but lots of people will have come across a PhD who exemplifies at least one of those characteristics. But are they typical? And if an employer writes them off, is he/she missing out on a really important source of talent?

 

I have been working with Phd students for a number of years now so I have seen them at close quarters.

 

Time management. Three years to write a book. Put like that it seems like a leisurely process. It isn’t. PhD’s face and meet deadlines on an ongoing basis. It might be about preparing a piece of writing for the regular meeting with the supervisor, or preparing a submission to the research ethics committee so you can start your experimental programme. Writing a poster for a conference. If your experiment involves growing some cells in a particular way over a particular period then you have to make it happen and be there to observe and record it. And because cells have a habit of doing stuff in their own sweet and unexpected way you have to be ready to change tack. University labs are open 24/7 so students can come in to look after their experiments which tends to build another key competence: flexibility

 

Resilience would be another requirement for most jobs. One experienced Biology PhD supervisor ( a kind of mentor /  manager) told me that in his field 90% of what he  tries does not work. Think of what that means in terms of resilience, patience and application. You are working through 90% of failure looking to find that 10% of success.

 

Independent: PhD students are self starters. They don’t do a course as such. They have to scope out their area of research, examine how it fits with the existing knowledge, create testable hypotheses and then go and test them.

 

Team player: A lot of the PhD is done by the student. Its THEIR PhD and they have to make things happen. But there is a lot of opportunity for collaboration

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have completed a PhD in pharmacology at Kings College London. My research into specific pathways and processes in inflammation was managed independently, with minimal guidance. Working in a multidisciplinary team environment meant I could broaden my technical skills and share my knowledge and discoveries with others. Formal and informal meetings within the department allowed me to hone my creative and lateral thinking. I embraced any opportunities to work with external collaborators and found that the planning, organisation and high quality assurance of these projects were all second nature to me. 

 

The most enjoyable aspect of my PhD was learning and optimising new techniques. This requires analysis of large quantities of data with relevant computer software and recovering important information. I also discovered my affinity for mentoring; I have given specialist tutorials and supervised fellow PhD students through their projects, giving positive criticism and recommendations.

 

In addition, I have presented and defended my work at international scientific meetings and contributed to several publications. Thus, demonstrating my ability to summarise complex data and develop a consistent argument.

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.

Filling in a form for Assistant Psychologist Job

Lots of the students in Psychology disciplines talk about the difficulty of getting a job as an assistant psychologist. Here is an example of some instructions for applying for a post.

PERSON SPECIFICATION

Job title: – Assistant Clinical Psychologist

PLEASE NOTE: special instructions for completing the application form.

We anticipate a high number of applications for this post, which will make it impossible for us to read long entries in the “Supporting Information” section.  For our initial screening, we will read only the first SIXTEEN LINES of your “Supporting Information”, which must be laid out as follows.

Eight of the criteria below are marked with an asterisk (*).  At the beginning of your “Supporting Information” you must provide succinct evidence to show how you meet these eight criteria (you may not meet them all).  This may be in note form, as long as it is clear.  Refer to each criterion by number, start a new line for each criterion, and use no more than SIXTEEN LINES in total. 

Wherever possible, please give an example of something that you have DONE which illustrates how you have applied or acquired the skill or quality.  For example:

2:  AP on LD team for 6 months; delivered some individual CBT and
psycho-ed group interventions.

5: presented psychological assessment results to medical and nursing colleagues; co-facilitated support group for self-harming adolescent inpatients.

Space limitations will not permit you to list here all of your relevant experience, so you will need to choose the examples that best demonstrate how you meet the criterion.

We will use this initial information to shortlist approximately 40 applications.  If your application is included in this initial shortlist, the rest of your form will then be read thoroughly, including any other text that you have included in your “Supporting Information”, in order to shortlist further for interview.

Graduate Resarch Showcase Event

I have observed 12 of this years presentations form students, noting down what they are doing – good and bad. This is to feed into my presentations training workshop. I thought I would try and get the DVD of Andrew Morris the keynote speaker who used some of the classic techniques like: Tell people what you are going to talk about. Vary tone. If you are showing a graphic / schematic – tell people what it is / why you are showing it.

 

The other purpose of attending was to build my knowledge of what scientific research is – and specifically what King’s research is. The presentations today and yesterday included: stair clinbing difficulties, gentic links and mood disordrers in obesity, how nurses develop professional skills, bone disease, the impact of taking intereron on kidney patients, the impact of PTSD on memory and the economics of stroke.

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.