Our Careers: Research Science March 19, 2012
Posted by Andrew Falconer in : Our Careers , 2comments
Dr. Anna Swales joined the careers service at Kings’ College, London as an Information Officer. She now works as a Careers Adviser at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her career as a research scientist and the decisions she made, continue our series of posts reflecting on the lives of our collegues in The Careers Group, University of London.
I didn’t have a dream job in mind as a teenager but I did know I wanted to go to University. Nobody else in my family had been to Uni but they were all of the opinion that education was a great thing and learning for learning’s sake was an admirable goal. With that in mind I selected a number of zoology/animal based degrees without any real plan of what careers that might lead to.
In the end I opted to study an Animal Science degree and discovered I had a real passion for physiology, particularly reproductive physiology. My lecturers in this subject area were inspiring and enthusiastic so I started to think about whether a career as a researcher was a possibility. My honours dissertation project was my first real experience of research and I absolutely loved the lab work, the background research and the analysis. Although I was starting to think about research as a career I was slightly intimated at the idea of applying for a PhD as I had it in mind that you had to be insanely clever.
As I wasn’t confident about whether a PhD was right for me I collected together a range of application forms for the big graduate recruiters. However, after attending a careers service talk by Pfizer I realised that the entry level lab roles on offer weren’t going to interest me. That was when getting a PhD became a formal plan, although at that stage I saw it as a stepping stone into industry.
I took what I now realise was rather a narrow approach to finding a PhD in that I only applied for advertised studentship vacancies. I used New Scientist and also ploughed through University websites to see what projects were on offer. Most applications required a straightforward cover letter and CV. Edinburgh University were the first to invite me to interview so after a stressful 6 hour drive, sustained only by hula hoops, I was presented with a panel of 6 interviewers expecting a presentation on my dissertation research project. The whole interview was a bit of a blur although the embarrassing moment when I blurted out that I wanted that particular PhD project because ‘I just loved ovaries’ still sticks in my mind 10 years later. I was offered the project and accepted without actually considering the practicalities that a move from Bedfordshire to Scotland would entail.
The initial months of my PhD were extremely isolating as I was the only student in my lab and I was so busy trying to learn new techniques and plan my project that I didn’t get the chance to meet other postgraduates. I found it difficult to adjust to life as a PhD student and seriously considered quitting within the first couple of months. Fortunately, I got to know some other students well enough to admit how difficult everything was and heard that every single person felt exactly the same. Once I realised I wasn’t alone in finding research challenging the next few years didn’t seem as daunting.
People often joked that I wanted to be an eternal student and how great it must be not to have a “proper job” and enjoy the student experience for longer. Clearly these people had no idea what a PhD entailed. It definitely wasn’t an easy option – being in the lab at strange hours (plus weekends) if the experiment demanded it; being grilled by thesis committees; an all but absent second supervisor and the inevitable rejection of a submitted paper were tough. On the other hand the sense of achievement when an experiment yielded good results or when I finally saw my resubmitted paper printed in my favourite journal outweighed all that. (more…)
Our Careers: Recruitment March 16, 2012
Posted by Andrew Falconer in : Our Careers, career profiles, city jobs , add a comment
Louisa Davies is a careers adviser with a background in the recruitment industry. Here she continues our series of posts about our professional careers.
In my final year at Durham University I spent a couple of hours completing an application for a graduate scheme, attended an assessment centre and an interview and was appalled when I didn’t get accepted. “What? You don’t want me? But I’m an all-rounder!”, I shrieked (not literally). I was so put out that I stopped filling out forms, stopped being interested and dedicated myself to enjoying my final year instead. No doubt a common story. Thus I found myself, post-finals, sitting in front of a computer trawling through job boards looking for something I could do. And so I ended up in recruitment.
As it happens, this was in fact a good fit for me and it made the most of my skills in relationship management, sales, organisation and many others. I took to it pretty quickly and because I was relatively good at it, found myself getting promoted up the ladder. It was an exciting environment, with big highs (emotional and financial) when things were going well, but then long stretches of boredom and stress when there wasn’t much business around. We worked to targets which I found very motivating and the rewards were great. On the other hand, missing targets could be extremely frustrating and nerve-wracking. 
I spent all day on the phone, speaking to candidates and clients; trying to understand what the client was looking for, getting to know the candidates and working out where they would fit, negotiating salaries and more importantly, our sales margin. We worked long hours and it’s the kind of job where you are never finished. There is always another person you can call.
I learnt that recruitment is basically sales. Persuading people. Influencing. Communicating effectively. These are the skills I nurtured in recruitment, along with a good head for business, an understanding of how to make a profit and a taste for expensive holidays. It was good, but it was hard.
After five years in the industry I was tired and had had enough. I was now responsible for other people’s targets, which was even more stressful, and I wanted more from my work. It would have been very easy to move within recruitment but I realised that this would only give me a temporary reprieve – I had to get out and make a proper change. I actually had to engage my brain and think about my own careers for a change.
I started by trying to work out what I actually liked about my job. What elements of it did I still get a buzz out of? What did I think I was really good at? What did my bosses praise me for? And then conversely, what areas had become unbearable? What exactly had I had enough of? It boiled down to the fact that I still loved talking to my candidates, trying to understand them, their skills and their motivation, but I was tired of it all coming down to profit.
Next I started looking at job sites and started avidly reading job descriptions. I would highlight bits that sounded good about a role and slowly I started to build a picture of what I wanted. And then, well frankly, I got lucky. I stumbled upon my ideal job. As I read the job description my heart was racing! I was genuinely excited as I read the person spec – now I had a name for what I wanted to do. From here on in it was much easier to find opportunities, and three months later I started work for The Careers Group as a Careers Adviser.
PhD Life Science Careers – A Day in the Life of An Analyst March 12, 2012
Posted by UCL Careers Service in : Finance & IT, Industry Focus, Science & Engineering, career profiles , add a commentOriginally posted at UCL Postgraduate Careers Blog
Another in our series of guest blogs by PhD holders who work at IMS Consulting Group. You will find more information about PhD life science careers and IMS Consulting Group in our Careers in Clinical Research, Biotechnology and Pharmaceuticals Forum for PhD/research students which will be held on 28th February 2012. Go to the Forum page on the Graduate School website for more details about this event.
My current project is in the area of Pricing and Market Access, which is one of three practice areas of IMSCG. As an analyst, I am also exposed to projects in Brand and Commercial Strategy (analysing commercial models and optimising brand strategy) and Strategy and Portfolio Analysis (pipeline forecasting, therapy area value assessments, pharmaceutical portfolio management). I enjoy the variety afforded by this broad competency model, as I learn more about a range of aspects relevant to the pharmaceutical industry.
I currently work with IMS colleagues in Cambridge, New York and San Francisco. This means that as soon as I wake up I need to check progress the US team has made while I’ve been sleeping! There is no “typical day” but currently, when I arrive at the office the first call I make is to the consultant I work with in Cambridge. We are in constant contact with each other to ensure that we can plan our time and manage our workloads as effectively as possible. Working with a consultant also provides a great level of support, as there is always someone to point me in the right direction and help me out. As a result I have been able to quickly pick up a wide range of skills and learn new methods of data retrieval and analysis.
Typically, we decide to work on slides for a client meeting next week and catch up later in the afternoon. I use the rest of the morning to research pricing and reimbursement regulations in several European Union countries, and do some more background reading on the therapy area. It really helps to have a good knowledge of the mechanism of a drug and disease it is intended to treat in order to create summaries of the treatment landscape to share with the wider team, and members of the client company who may not have been directly involved with the development of the drug.
After lunch with other analysts, I spend time talking to three aspiring analysts in a break between interviews. This is one part of my job I really enjoy, as quite clearly I remember being in their position – it gives them the opportunity to relax a little between case studies, and ask questions about the recruitment process, training and starting work. They are particularly interested to learn about training on the job, as they are from scientific backgrounds with little previous exposure to the business world. Luckily IMS is very strong in training – my first week was spent on an intensive consulting skills course, so I reassure them that they will quickly pick up the skills and knowledge they need to start contributing to projects.
Back upstairs, it’s back to work on preparing the presentation for our client. Mid-afternoon I lead a teleconference call with IMS colleagues in Italy and Spain to organize two day-long workshops with influential doctors in Milan and Barcelona. I take them through a presentation to give them background about the project and decide on final logistics. We are really lucky to have a good relationship with our international colleagues, as their local insight and contacts are a great help in making final arrangements. I finish around 7pm and prepare for tomorrow, as I will be travelling to the IMS Cambridge office for face-to-face meetings with the project team.
Rachel Rowbottom, IMS Consulting Group
Our careers: Teaching English overseas March 8, 2012
Posted by TCG Info in : Global Careers, Our Careers , 1 comment so farContinuing our series of posts from colleagues, Evan Hancock, Head of Careers at SOAS, didn’t know what he wanted to do. So he followed the crowd.
My career has been a lesson in making the most of opportunities as they arise. Luck matters, but I’ve found that you really can make your own luck.
I really had no idea what I wanted to do after University, short of ‘See the World’. Cheesy, I know. So I relied on the tried and tested do-what-your-friends-are-doing method of career planning and I signed up to be a Language Assistant in the French Education system. I had done some teaching before-I am fairly happy speaking in front of people-I didn’t and don’t mind learning as I go along-I grew up learning French. I’d be fine, right? Well, the learning as I went along part helped with my bad French, and the being comfortable in front of people helped with the rest. I learned the value of telling a good story to get people to learn without knowing they’re learning. Lovely though the South of France is, I was pretty sure I didn’t want to corral French High School students forever.
A friend of a friend heard of someone who needed a residential teacher in Italy. The TEFL world seems to work this way. I worked in Italy for a while. Then the age aspect started to get to me – even if they got up to a good standard, the conversation would be limited. I decided on a big change – University-level language and culture teaching in China. Very different challenges, but a willingness to learn, adapt, read people and make the most of it really helped.
The transition to University-level worked because I hadn’t changed everything – I was still teaching language and I knew a lot
Jiaying University
about where I was from. Telling good stories helped. I had accomplished what I set out to do – teach and see the world – in the language environment, but I really liked the University level. I would love to say that I knew exactly what I wanted and went out and made it happen. But I didn’t, so I can’t. I kept options open and I looked at what I did well. Those things I mentioned above – being open to new things, comfortable in front of people, and working hard at what I was doing at the time– have helped get me in a position where I can
Of course throughout all this, life got in the way. I moved around-I couldn’t work-I studied more. I’ve found that by being open to new things, saying ‘yes’ as an instinct and focusing on your strengths you really can guide the progress of your career.
CV advice for International Development March 7, 2012
Posted by Jeff Riley in : CVs, Global Careers, Third Sector, career profiles , 1 comment so farOriginally posted at Getting into International Development
Comfort Osilaja was pulling her hair out. It’s a regular experience for recruiters who are looking through CVs for international development internships and jobs. Comfort has many years experience in the sector and has worked for Anti-Slavery International, Cafod and the Commonwealth Foundation. One of her current projects is ‘Identity Careers’ which she runs with Kevin Cusack. Identity Careers provides training and coaching for people looking to start in the sector.
We spoke to Comfort about the damage she is inflicting on her hair. “The problem is we do get lots of applications. For example a recent internship was up on our site and JobOnline for just a week and I had to look through 42 applications. In some ways basic errors make my job easier. For example I can easily set aside applications from people who don’t include a covering letter when asked to do so. Or applicants who plaster Curriculum Vitae in big bold letters across their CV and have lots of ‘special effects’ – but then don’t include a name. Believe me it does happen.
How can people make a good impression then? One thing lots of students do is automatically start with their education.
- Now if the position doesn’t really demand a degree or masters you may be better advised to start with your work experience. Practical experience will always trump academic qualifications. For example lots of entry level roles – and indeed roles for more experienced people – need solid administrative skills. These are more likely going to be demonstrated through work experience than university education?
- Make it easy for the reader to see you have the right skills. For example you may know that your accountancy experience has equipped you to deal with databases and data entry but make sure you explicitly talk about the latter and don’t assume we will realise it. We could probably work it out but we are skimming applications very quickly to narrow down the candidates.
- Finally a common mistake is that people emphasise far too much how the role will benefit them and how much they will enjoy it. To be honest recruiters are more interested in what you can do for them. Its what you can do not what you want.
Does developing country experience make a difference? Honestly, its usually more important that people can find their way around an office than around Africa. Certainly for the entry level office work we were advertising re
cently. It is important that people demonstrate a passion for the sector but that can be done more practically through longer term volunteering in the UK than a six week experience in the summer holiday.
What is Identity Careers? Kevin and I produce one day workshops and 2-hour CV workshops for small groups of people on getting into development – usually no more than 20 at a time. It’s different from the one day course The Careers Group, University of London offers because participants will get individual advice and the opportunity for follow up coaching to better develop their cvs and put together an action plan to really get them started on their international development careers, which is really important, as we all know how easy it is to get fired up by a workshop and then do nothing afterwards
Caution – current ‘employment’ scams uncovered March 5, 2012
Posted by Kirsti Burton in : Right side of the Law, employability and skills , 2commentsOriginally posted at QM Jobs Blog
A small number of unusual and potentially risky employment offers have recently been brought to our attention by students.
One example is a role which was offered via the Gumtree website. On applying for an advertised administrative role, the student was offered a job with very little information and was sent a contract to sign. The company described its operations as those of a ‘Private Business Company’ and the requirement of the role was for the student to receive money (from the company’s customers) into her personal bank account and then send this money on via Western Union to the company based in the US.
The student was cautious about entering into such an agreement and sought advice. In doing so she realised that what the company was asking her to do was certainly not a typical form of employment and that, at worst, there could be fraudulent or money laundering activities behind the operations.
If you have concerns about the nature of an employment offer, then do seek further information. A quick query session with Queen Mary Careers is one means of doing this. We are not in a position to give legal or HR procedural advice, however we can help you think through your concerns, give an independent perspective and support you in deciding what you wish to do next.
Other useful sources of help:
Government website with Employment terms and conditions advice
Citizens Advice Bureau
But I don’t WANT to be a translator! March 1, 2012
Posted by Andrew Falconer in : Global Careers, Languages, Politics and Policy, Third Sector , add a comment
Despair. That was the look on the student’s face as she told me that she didn’t want to be a translator. She studied modern languages (Italian and French) and according to her parents, non-modern language friends and some random careers-related websites, her career options started and stopped at translation. She wanted to use her language but didn’t aspire to be stuck in a booth translating cross languages.
First things first though. I had to challenge her perceptions of what translation was like. She could see the fascination in working with EU Careers, for example, and also hadn’t realised that many translators are freelance. Before ruling out a career, it is useful to build your knowledge about it first. We have a good selection of resources relating to translation on Careers Tagged.
So, what else can a modern languages student do? Pretty much anything. And that doesn’t help, does it? Well here are some obvious ones:
- Interpreting
- Teaching
- Governmental work (not translation) E.g Foreign Office
- Business
- Information, heritage and culture
- Leisure and hospitality
- Media
- Science, IT and Technical
- Transport and distribution
- Voluntary organisations
Within these sectors there are opportunities to use your language as a part of your job. For example, BBC Monitoring recruit language specialists to listen. watch and read foreign news broadcasts. International development charities may benefit from staff that can speak native or former colonial languages (e.g. English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German) in overseas work. The Government has need for a range of language skills including intelligence, policy and research.
Languages are very useful in business. Even when they don’t explicitly state it, speaking the language of a parent company can be a strong asset in job candidates. For example, Nomura Bank has operations throughout the world but somebody that can speak Japanese and understand their culture, may find their career progresses quicker. Similarly, speaking French could be a positive attribute if working for L’Oreal.
You can find out more about using your languages skills on the Prospects.ac.uk website. But above all, translation is not the only option.
Internships: What does the law say? February 27, 2012
Posted by Andrew Falconer in : Right side of the Law , add a comment
If you intern for a company you have no right to expect the national minimum wage. This is a myth we hear regularly from students as well as employers. In most cases, internships are not exempt from the national minimum wage.
Internships can be a great way of getting experience and building up knowledge. Regardless of which sector interests you, there should be internship opportunities to consider. Our Job Online website has lots of internship opportunities ranging from economic policy to print media.
“I gained a number of transferrable skills from my advertising internship, which have since helped me to secure a part-time job alongside my studies. In addition, I made some good friends, some great contacts, and even managed to get a recommendation for my LinkedIn profile!”
Jack Smale, Royal Holloway 2011
The Careers Group has a national minimum wage policy and does not promote opportunities that fail to comply with the law. However other sites do and it is very easy to find unpaid experiences. I find it disturbing when I see multinational corporations ignore the UK law and recruit unpaid labour.
I agree that there is a dichotomy around paying internships (valuable experience for the wealthy vs social mobility), the law is unambiguous. I also recently came across a company that charges students up to £200 per day for the privilege of an internship with (not prestigious) companies. Whilst this may be the culture in countries overseas, the legal basis of it in the UK is questionable.
So what does the law say?
The direct.gov.uk website has a section on the national minimum wage including rates, entitlement and taking action to ensure complaince.
Nearly all workers in the UK are entitled to be paid at least the National Minimum Wage (NMW). If you are a worker entitled to the NMW your employer is breaking the law if they aren’t paying it.
Some organisations are exempt from paying the national minimum wage:
- a charity
- a voluntary organisation
- an associated fund raising body
- a statutory body
Almost all individuals who are workers in the UK are entitled to the NMW. The exceptions if you are doing work experience are:
- Voluntary workers
- Students doing work experience as part of a course (e.g. sandwich placement, accredited work experience)
- Government & European Programmes
- Work shadowing (explicitly observational)
Voluntary workers can sometimes appear to be an exemption for employers. A voluntary worker is not required to work at specific hours not suffer reprimand for failing to do so. In reality I can’t think of any voluntary organisation that could operate quite so casually. It is not an exemption that would allow an employer to recruit an intern and not pay them. 
So, if you are interning with a company and are required to be there during set hours (including flexi-time), are actually undertaking work, then it is likely you will be entitled to the national minimum wage.
In reality though, we understand that many companies will not adhere to the law and that many students will continue to get experience in this way. The legal test cases have still not helped employers get a firmer understanding of the law, nor does there appear to be any great appetite in Parliament for the national minimum wage legislation to be reformed.
Please note that The Careers Group, University of London is unable to provide specific legal advice and the information provided above should be used as a guide only.
How much are you worth? £competetive February 23, 2012
Posted by Andrew Falconer in : Selection Process, employability and skills , add a comment
Please state your salary expectations in your application. That sentence can generate more fear in candidates than the interview itself. How many jobs have you seen, particularly graduate schemes, that put salary as £competitive? How do you know “what you are worth”?
There are two elements to be considered:
- What would a typical salary for this role be in this sector?
- Where on the pay scale would my skills and experience lay?
Typical pay for the role in the sector
Your starting point should be investigating your prospective employer’s competitors to see what they are offering at your level. Looking at their websites and at third party job sites (e.g. Monster) may help, but you may need to be more sophisticated and use LinkedIn to identify the going rate. Alternatively, you can find the actual salaries that graduates from the University of London gained and use that as a starting point. There will be differences between sectors. Clearly Investment Banks will tend to pay higher than charities (although charities often have higher staffing budgets than people think). There may also be regional differences – remember that London salaries attract at least a London Weighting that can add a further couple of thousand pounds onto the salary. Another resource, perhaps more relevant as your career progresses, is the Glass Door site that allows you to find salaries by occupation and location.
But what am I worth?
Once you have identified the broad pay scale, how do you know where to pitch yourself? The advice from Ros Jay in her “Brilliant Interviews” book is to avoid as much as possible answering questions about salary. She suggests responding to any question with a question “How much would you usually pay somebody in this role?”. In reality though that isn’t always possible and she recognises that sometimes you will need to state a figure. Her advice is to look at the industry “going rate” and add a little bit more just to see what the response is. You need to weigh up your skills and experience in relation to what you believe your competition may have, and rate is accordingly. There is no exact way of doing this and there can be a risk of under-selling or, in extreme cases, pricing yourself out of the market. Another approach might be to say “Well I see that ‘competitor X’ usually pays £x for this sort of role…”
This video may help you think about how you might approach it.
Win a ticket to the Global Entrepreneurship Congress February 21, 2012
Posted by president in : employability and skills, entrepreneurship , add a commentOriginally posted at Royal Holloway Entrepreneurs
- A ticket to GEC in Liverpool worth £180 (13th March) – speakers include Richard Branson and Sir Terry Leah (ex-CEO Tesco)
- Train travel of up to £100
- Free entry to Intuit Financial Fitness Workshop (12th March)
- Free entry to exclusive drinks reception with the Minister for Business Mark Prisk MP
- Overnight accommodation at Jury’s Inn Liverpool on 12th M
arch
