Employer Engagement during the PhD

In this post, Alice Kinghorn, PGR External Engagement Project Officer in Careers Network, shares her tips for engaging with employers outside of academia to gain insights into different careers, develop key skills, and build your network.

Engaging with employers outside of academia during your PhD can be daunting. Whether this be through an internship, attending careers event, or building informal relationships with employers, many PhD students have reservations. Perhaps you are concerned about your supervisor’s support in seeking a career beyond academia, or maybe you’re worried about the time needed to build a professional profile.

There are, however, an increasing range of external engagement opportunities (to meet, interact, and develop relationships with employers) that don’t require the time commitment of an intense work-placement or internship. This blogpost explores two ways to do this: building a professional network through LinkedIn, and attending events with external employers. Both are useful ways to gain insights into non-academic careers and to develop professional skillsets.

The University of Birmingham’s LinkedIn profile page, with the “Alumni” section highlighted.

Have a Conversation with your Supervisor

You may be worried about your supervisor’s response if you want to explore opportunities beyond academia, either because they want you to stay in academia, or because they are concerned about time away from your studies. However, recent research at the Universities of York and Sheffield have shown that supervisors of PhD students who undertake external engagement opportunities appreciated the valuable skills they had gained. These included professionalism, adaptability, confidence, and interpersonal skills.

External engagement and support from employers does not replace your academic supervisors. Instead, it can provide critical insights into the world beyond academia. Consider explaining to your supervisor that you are interested in exploring career opportunities. They may even share employer and industry contacts with you.

Use LinkedIn to Grow your Network

LinkedIn is a great tool to grow your network in sectors you are interested in outside of academia without having to dedicate time to attending an event. A good starting point is to see where alumni in your research field are currently working:

1. Head to the University of Birmingham’s LinkedIn page
2. Click ‘Alumni’
3. Search ‘PhD’
4. Filter your subject in ‘What they studied’

Scroll down to start viewing search results. Where do alumni work now? Where have they worked? Are there any fields you are interested in?

Ask to connect with people in your field of interest. In your message, explain who you are, and why you would like to connect. What insights would you like to gain? Why do you think the connection is worthwhile? Growing your professional network this way is quick and easy, allowing you to keep up-to-date in sectors of interest.

Attend Employer-led Events

A further straightforward introduction to external engagement is through events organised by the postgraduate team at Careers Network. Here, you can learn how to draw on transferable skills, key differences working within and beyond academia, and how develop your professional skillset.

For example, engaging with employers requires a different skillset than talking to an expert academic audience about your research. Can you think instead about the skills gained during your research? Project management, problem solving, data analysis, presentation, and interpersonal skills are just some of those that you will already possess. Employer led discussions increase your exposure to external engagement whilst highlighting skills that employers are looking for, how to talk about these skills in interview, and how to develop them during your studies.

To further develop your skillset through employer led events, sign up to the PG Skills Canvas Course. See the latest events on the University Graduate School Events page.

Black in Research: empowering diversity for research excellence

October is Black History Month and this year’s theme is Saluting our Sisters. Professor Yemisi Takwoingi shares her reflections on her career and being a Black woman in research.

“Academia is so White” said one of my two daughters while looking through slides of a prestigious plenary lecture I recently gave. That’s because she hardly saw people of colour in the pictures of colleagues and people I’ve collaborated with over the years. Being Black in research can indeed be lonely at times especially the further up the ladder you go but I do not feel alone.

Prof Yemisi Takwoingi in the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens earlier this year.

I am a Nigerian-British married woman in a small (60ish) but growing cohort of Black female professors in UK higher education institutions. I have an unconventional career path with complimentary background in veterinary medicine, computer programming and medical statistics and have transitioned from technical support to academic related to an academic role at the University of Birmingham (2001−now). Starting from Nigeria, my entire life, well almost, has been in a university which certainly wasn’t the plan!

My research timeline began in 2008 as a part-time Research Fellow in Biostatistics; awarded a National Institute for Health and Care (NIHR) Doctoral Fellowship in 2012; completed the part-time PhD and promoted to Senior Research Fellow in 2016; awarded a NIHR Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2018; promoted to Chair in 2020; Deputy Institute Director in 2021. My trajectory may seem to defy stereotypes and celebrate individual achievement without the ‘burden’ of being a Black researcher in a predominately White space. Not entirely true. I owe a lot to people and to my Christian faith that keeps me going whenever I’ve felt like giving up.

For me, being Black in health and care research carries the duality of burden and privilege. The burden lies in the weight of disproving stereotypes, constant awareness of being an outlier in spaces where diversity is often lacking, pressure (often self-imposed) to prove my worth and the responsibility of being a role model and an advocate. Yet, within this burden lies privilege—a unique perspective forged through diversity and a rich lived experience that I initially buried but I’ve grown to embrace and maximise; resilience honed through the uncertainty of life; ability to challenge the norm; an unyielding determination to excel against all odds and make the most of every opportunity; and a commitment to supporting the development of others. The duality is my catalyst for leading the new NIHR Race Equity and Diversity in Careers Incubator to ensure that being a Black female professor is not just an individual accomplishment but an opportunity to amplify my voice. It is a no brainer that academia and research should reflect the diversity of the community it serves. Change is inevitable!

I salute my family who have inspired me to believe in the impossible. Amazing colleagues here and elsewhere have championed me over the years, opened doors, nudged me and given me the opportunity to thrive. As such I believe it is important as a (Black) researcher to be surrounded by the right people, be in the right place, do the right things, and at the right time it all falls into place. Proud to be Black in research.

What do you want to be known for? Your go-to question for the new academic year

As the new academic year starts and we welcome new PGRs to the UoB research community, Holly Prescott, PGR Careers Advisor from Careers Network, shares a useful question to help everyone prioritise the many opportunities presented throughout a research programme.

I love this time of year. Not for the anticipation as to who’ll spot the first Christmas advert… but for meeting new PGRs from the across the University embarking on their postgraduate research journeys.

That said, as PGR Careers Adviser, I feel a bit conspicuous turning up to inductions: why am I there to talk to people about what they want to do after their PhD before they’ve even started it? I try to make it clear that I’m not there to pin people down to the career they want to pursue from day one. Instead, I’m there to plant a seed, and to encourage people to go through their research degrees regularly asking themselves:

What do you most want to be known for?

What do you want to be famous for?

What I like about this question is that it doesn’t pressure anyone to commit to a particular career route or job title. Instead of giving closed, limited answers like ‘I want to be a teaching-focused lecturer in the field of behavioural science,’ or ‘I want to be a policy analyst in the healthcare sector,’ this question instead encourages much broader, more flexible, more holistic answers, like:

• I want to be known for my expertise in international relations. I want to be the go-to person people think of when looking for an expert to talk about relations between X and Y countries
• I want to be known for supporting and advising people. I don’t know quite in what capacity yet, but I know I want to be a go-to person for things like mentoring others and helping them to achieve their goals

Another reason I like this question is that it helps you, from an early stage of your research degree, to be strategic about what you say yes and no too. I’m fully aware that induction and re-induction can feel overwhelming: there is so much information to take in, and so many training and development opportunities presented that you can’t possibly do them all. However, if you have some sense of what you want to be known for, then when presented with an opportunity, you can ask yourself… is this going to help me work towards being known for X, or not? If yes, then consider it. If no, then say ‘thanks, but…’ and move onto something else.

For instance, taking the examples above, person 1 could prioritise getting involved in networks and conferences that will raise their profile in their specific subject area. Person 2 could prioritise getting some mentoring or advisory experience: being a postgrad ambassador maybe, or doing some academic writing advisory work.

I often cite the example of a PGR I worked with a few years ago who wanted to be known for communicating science in an accessible way. She used that as a compass to seek out training and experience in public engagement and science communication, including getting involved in a scientific podcast. By doing so, she ‘accidentally’ made herself into the perfect candidate for a job she didn’t even know was a thing: a role that involved going out and interviewing scientists about how they use particular kinds of microscopes, in order to relate this back so her company can improve their microscopy products.

So, if you need a strategy to help you navigate what to say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to this year, make friends with the question ‘what do you want to be known for?’

And, if you’re looking for direction with exploring your career options, then check out Careers Network’s PGR Careers Beyond Academia webinar series taking place in autumn 2023; details of events can be found on the Careers Network Postgraduate events page.