Escaping the bubble

In this post, Olivia Langford, a PGR in the Shakespeare Institute, shares her experience of a placement with the Royal College of Physicians, the ways it has enriched her research and CV, and her tips for other PGRs considering a placement.

As a PhD student belonging to the College of Arts and Law, opportunities to work with non-academic institutions are perhaps more limited than other disciplines. However, wanting to gain valuable and real-life work experience, increase my range of skills in a field I would like to enter post-PhD, increase my networking connections, and, let’s face it, escape the bubble of academia for a little while made me want to pursue a placement.

The Royal College of Physicians, London.
Image credit: Paul the Archivist, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

I was lucky enough to carry out my placement with the support of AHRC Midlands4Cities, who as well as funding my travel expenses, actively encourage and facilitate placement opportunities for all their students. Whilst M4C have a number of placement partners, I wanted to identify my dream institution to work with who I felt could aid my project and who I felt I could benefit during my placement. After visiting them for archival research, I chose the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in London and based my project around analysing their collection of recipe books from c.1580 – 1660, considering the recipes relating to maternity. This was closely tied to my thesis research, which considers non-English motherhood in William Shakespeare’s plays. The RCP were very accommodating from the outset and helped me to not only put together a feasible project, with mainly remote working involved, but also one that had a suitable timescale as the placement would involve a more relaxed approach to my thesis development. Not every institution will have the staff, time and funding to enable this to happen, however, so it is worth getting in contact with them initially to see if the organisation will suit your individual requirements.

It is important to identify what you hope to gain from the placement, both in relation to your project, and additional skills that the placement organisation may offer you. Before my placement started, I agreed with my primary contact at the RCP that I would publish a blog post on their website, aimed at the general public. This improved my writing capabilities, as I gained experience of being able to produce content for a non-academic audience. I also outlined that I would aim to write an article on my project findings, which the RCP were happy to support. The RCP provided special collections handling, such as knowing how to work with rare and delicate manuscripts whilst I was on-site, and this has really improved my experience when considering heritage jobs post-PhD. I gained skills whilst carrying out the placement itself, such as developing my palaeography skills whilst transcribing the early modern recipe books, which has expanded the scope of my thesis research. It is worth considering how you could use your placement research to improve your public impact and engagement – for example, I presented my placement findings at the 2023 Fertility, Folklore and the Reproductive Body conference.

Outside of all these listed skills and outcomes, however, it is important to consider whether being out of your comfort zone may make you a more capable and flexible researcher. Having lived all my life in a small town in the West Midlands, travelling to London, working in an office and seeing the busy behind-the-scenes of a heritage organisation was all incredibly new, but also incredibly enriching, to me. Take account of your finances, family and research commitments, but also consider broadening your horizons – your placement may just be the beginning of a brilliant career!

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.

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.

The Value of Research Placements for PGRs

In this post, Laura Clark, a PGR in the Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, shares her experience of undertaking a placement in the Home Office during her PhD, and the skills she developed as a result.

I began my PhD with a vague idea that I would look for a placement without any specific thoughts about what, where, or the things I would like to get out of the experience. After a year of trying to find something suitable, I came across the URKI Policy Internships Scheme, a three-month placement at an influential policy organisation in a parliamentary department, government department, or non-government body. It was based on the needs of the department, which meant I did not need to spend a lot of time planning out the placement, and my research topic was irrelevant providing I could demonstrate I had the required skills. I applied and, after a long process, was offered a placement with the Home Office.

The headquarters of the Home Office, in London, which Laura didn’t visit because her placement took place during COVID-19 restrictions.
Photo credit: Steve Cadman

Developing Consultancy Skills in Practice

Ahead of running the Virtual Consultancy Challenge in 2021, Katie Hoare from Careers Network spoke to some of the previous participants to find out what they learnt and whether they enjoyed it.

In spring 2020, as lockdown hit, postgraduate researchers from across the University and the globe were gaining valuable professional skills as well as work experience as consultants, and they were doing so completely online via the Virtual Consultancy Challenge. The Virtual Consultancy Challenge is an online self-access training programme and competition where inter-disciplinary teams of postgraduate researchers work together in virtual teams to solve their “client’s” real-life challenge.

The 2020 Virtual Consultancy challenge winning team (clockwise from top): Francesca Lewns, PhD Dentistry; Taiwo Hassan Akere, PhD Earth & Environmental Sciences; Paris Lalousis, PhD Psychology.

My virtual learning

In this post, Amelia Rouse, who graduated from her PhD in Civil Engineering in December 2019, shares her experiences of online learning.

Amelia’s LinkedIn profile picture

I’ve always been an avid virtual learner; it is just part of the life of a PhD student. During the ongoing pandemic, I started learning basic video editing. I’ve been a film enthusiast for as long as I can remember but I also needed to solve a problem. The lockdown caused many businesses and schools to halt their regular activities. My mum’s primary school violin classes had to stop as part of the lockdown in Barbados. She wanted to find a way to continue teaching. Videos were a simple solution. My sister could record the lessons, send them to me for editing and then distribute them to the students.

Virtual learning has allowed me to improve my skills for little to no cost. I wanted to learn Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects. The main platforms I used were Skillshare and YouTube.