Marloes Tijssen highlights some of the take-home messages from the event.
On the 13th of September 67 PhDs and Postdocs came together at the Careers Beyond Research event to reflect on career choices and to network with 12 guests with a PhD/Postdoc who moved to a non-research role. If you were not able to join us, the take-home messages below will give you a good idea of what was covered and how you can start your own exploration.
The afternoon started with a 1-hour workshop on ‘How to figure out what you want?’ We talked about the fact that ‘lots of postdocs are going through similar issues/decisions’ and we used worksheets on choices, strengths and priorities/values to reflect on how each person values different things in a career. From the take home messages on the left you can see that these exercises are a positive way to become aware of your drivers and to allow you to identify opportunities that suit you. The worksheets can be found here: Career planning for researchers | Careers Service (cam.ac.uk).
‘Be proactive’ & ‘Do more planning’ were two other take home messages. Therefore, once you have identified what you value in your work, you can use this to create an action plan. What are you going to do to find out more about the options and opportunities available out there?
There was a plenary talk by Dr Maria Carvalho on her move from academia to social prescribing. This was a clear demonstration of how planning can facilitate the move. Therefore, the talk will be the subject of a separate blog!
Next, the attendees could start implementing their action plan by talking to the 12 guests. After a one-minute introduction by all the guests, they moved into separate groups. There were groups for people who enjoy ‘communicating and working with people’, ‘details and processes’, ‘business and commercial pursuits’ or ‘data and analytics’. The conversations were lively and as you can see from the messages above it gave PhDs and Postdocs a good idea of the breadth of opportunities out there and that success lies in exploring these; Talk to people, reach out on LinkedIn or use Alumni Careers Connect | Careers Service (cam.ac.uk) or volunteer!
We hope the event or this blog is a good starting point for many of you. If you would like some help reflecting on your career or with the generation or implementation of an action plan, please feel free to book an appointment with one of our Careers Consultants here: Appointments | Careers Service (cam.ac.uk)
And don’t worry if your initial explorations only lead to you removing options from your list. Reducing your options means that you are moving towards your goal: finding a fulfilling career! As one participant put it….
