academic career planning (hdrs 2020) · update my resume and get it reviewed bycurtin careers...

CURTIN STUDENT EXPERIENCESTUDENT DEVELOPMENT - CAREERS, EMPLOYMENT & LEADERSHIP

Dr Kathleen Franklyn (PhD)Career Development Consultant - Health Sciences & HDR students

Academic Career PlanningHDR Research Office Series - 2020

IMAGE: ISTOCK/DIRTYDOG_CREATIVE

Designing your career is a process, not something that will happen two

weeks after submitting your thesis or completing your higher degree …

so it is important you start thinking about this earlier, and developing your

job search strategy.

Getting the most out of today:

Setting the scene Polls

First Poll:

1. Are you early PhD

2. Mid PhD

3. About to finish PhD

Second Poll:

1. Academia

2. Academia/Industry

3. Industry/Academia

4. Industry

5. No idea

Please interact and be mindful of others

Raise hand to speak

Ask Questions in chat

And I’ll do my best to monitor both….

Today: Academic Career Planning

Your CareerYour Career

What is your strategy?

Context Matters

Target – Academic/Professional‐ Essential/Desirable criteria

‐ Key words/language‐ Technology and skills‐ Local / Global

Network‐ Connect with people, key decision makers‐ Conferences, Professional associations etc

Social Media‐ Create Professional brand consistency

Today

During Session ‐Worksheet to assist

Today –Create a Personal Action Plan

Academic Professional

Local/Global

What industry

Transferable skills

Gain Industry insights

Research/Teaching/Both

Local/Global

Same / New Field

Transferable skills

Personal Action PlanPERSONAL ACTION PLAN Goal

What do I need to do? By when? Resources / Assistance Required

How will I know I have achieved this goal?

Personal Action Plan ExampleDecision: To apply for work in Sydney!

What do I need to do? By when?

Resources required How will I know if I have achieved this?

Research graduate marketing jobs in Sydney

Today Time, computer I will create a spreadsheet outlininggraduate marketing jobs available inSydney

Speak to friends that are working in marketing in Sydney

This week

Time, phone conversations with friends

I will get a sense for the market in Sydney at the moment

Work out the total cost of relocating

This week

Funds, time I will prepare a budget

Update my resume and get it reviewed by Curtin Careers Employment & Leadership

Friday Time, computer, Curtin Careers

My resume will be updated and readyto be tailored to each position I applyfor

First things first…

How to enjoy your PhD

1. Know the Rules

2. Passionate Topic

3. Join “Meet Ups”

4. Milestones (with celebration)

5. Industry Projects

6. Prepare for your Future

Video (5 min) : https://youtu.be/SzKkygzjMs0Vidy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vidy‐potdar/

Do you already have a plan for the FutureY / N

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Establishing a Career Strategy

Target?

What ?

Who?

How?

Your Job Search Is Like a Marketing PlanGraphic from: https://www.targetmarketingmag.com/post/6‐ways‐job‐search‐like‐marketing‐plan/all/ (beviepro.com)

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Career Options ‐What is your Marketing Plan for YOU?

Job Search &

Networking

Interview&

Selection Criteria

CV / Resume &

Cover LetterPersonal Branding ‐Stand out from the Crowd

LinkedInResearch Gate

Blog/Twitter

Career Options

PhD


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Career Options – What are Your Options?

Career Options

PhD

CONTEXT MATTERS CONTEXT MATTERS

Career – Context Matters

Academic brand

Research/Specialist brand

Industry/Commercial brand

Academic / Professional Career

Additional Information: https://gradaustralia.com.au/career‐planning/a‐graduates‐guide‐to‐careers‐in‐academia

https://www.jobs.ac.uk/media/pdf/careers/resources/a‐practical‐guide‐to‐planning‐an‐academic‐or‐research‐career.pdf

Career Pathways – What are you Considering?

• Do you have / What is your Career Marketing strategy?• How does this change depending on these 3 main options

• How can you showcase your skills and experience to meet the EMPLOYERS needs. • How will this change the way you write and talk about your skill set change?

Anything to add?

Activity

Local versus Global Considerations

Career Pathways – What are Your Choices? RESOURCE/READING: 10 Career Paths for PhDs (UK article)https://www.jobs.ac.uk/media/pdf/careers/resources/10‐career‐paths‐for‐phds.pdf

Industrial research

&

development

Pharmaceutical industry

Engineering industry

Central government

Research councilsResearch roles within the NHS

Careers in medical

communications

Charity & voluntary sector

Careers in finance

Careers in consulting / self employment

What is a potential pathway for you?

AcademiaIndustry Other

ACADEMIC CAREER – Research & Teaching PostDoc /RESEARCH OPTIONS– Professional

researcher (same &/or different research areas)

CAREER CHANGE

Academic positions: www.theaustralian.com.au

Australian Universities

www.australian‐

universities.com/directory/universities‐in‐

australia/

Academic Careers Online

www.academiccareers‐australia.com/

UniJobs: www.unijobs.com.au/

University Jobs (USA): www.univjobs.com/

Other sites:

Resource (USA):https://www.highered360.com/

Large database of postgraduate opportunities:

www.findaphd.com

www.findapostdoc.com

Industry or Academia

www.phdjobs.com/search/

US scholarships/fellowships ‐

www.postdocjobs.com/

Funding opportunities, news & world politics (&

UK and Ireland jobs):

www.researchresearch.com

AUSTRALIA'S MAIN CAREER/JOB SITES:

SEEK: www.seek.com.au/

CareerOne: www.careerone.com.au/

Adzuna (ex MyCareer):

https://www.adzuna.com.au/

LinkedIn – personalise job search, tick to notify

recruiters of availability

Various – target company websites

Advice and information re transitioning to

industry: https://cheekyscientist.com/

Anything to add?

Exploring Career Options

Identify targets, create search strategy, and monitor relevant sites

Activity

Ask for Advice

• Network

• Learn from Senior Academics / Mentors

• Community – what are others doing

• Advice – Thesis Whisperer, Research Whisperer, The Professor Is In

take an Investment perspective to your career

• Learn/acquire new skills

• Create a balanced portfolio

• Be generous, don’t “expect” a ROI

Be true to yourself or Believe in yourself

• Be strategic

• Be empathic (and realistic)

• Future plan

https://harzing.com/blog/2019/06/how‐to‐create‐a‐successful‐academic‐career‐aib‐ask‐invest‐believe

How to Create a Successful Academic Career AIB ‐ Ask, Invest & Believe

A I B

Your Career

Anything to add?

A funny insight …. “But what do you do?”

… “Prior to this lunch I’d played the Academic Hunger Games for 11 years, doing a bewildering range of casual teaching jobs while I completed two postgraduate degrees and raised a child. A series of lucky breaks and sideways moves had led to a position doing professional development workshops for PhD students. Being a research educator was a strange job and I was unexpectedly good at it, but it was precarious. My contract was going to run out soon and I had no idea where the next job was coming from. Other academics told me ‘Just publish and everything will be fine.’ But while my list of research publications was longer than that of most people of my age and stage, I’d just had five unsuccessful job interviews in a row and my early career academic friends didn’t seem to be benefitting from the ‘publish‐or‐perish’ advice any more than I was. Good people were passed over for job opportunities or had funding run out expectedly. Everything that was solid, as Marx once said, could easily melt into air.

In the decade I’d been hanging around academia full‐time I’d seen many a person fall victim to a restructure and have to move interstate, or across the world, to secure a new position. The job market was brutal and seemed full of hidden rules that did not match the conventional advice. People with fewer publications on their resume were routinely appointed over those with lots of them. There was always a preferred candidate before each job was advertised, despite the outward appearance of fairness. In one case it was rumoured an influential professor didn’t want to lose his research assistant when the ‘soft money’ ran out. (Some people have salaries funded entirely from grants. If the next project is not funded, these people will quickly find themselves unemployed.) In another case, an extremely well‐qualified female candidate was passed over, it was said, because the Dean thought there were ‘too many women’ already. I’d come to the conclusion that the publish‐or‐perish advice was just a nice way of saying ‘Play by our rules and do your time.’

Excerpt from: https://thesiswhisperer.com/2017/09/06/how‐to‐be‐an‐academic/

A funny insight …. “But what do you do?”

By the time the main course of this lunch was served, I’d been talking for 20 minutes straight about everything that was wrong with my part‐time sort‐of‐job and what sort of permanent academic job I wanted instead.

Mark looked confused. ‘I’m hearing about where you work, Inger, but I still don’t really know what you actually do.’ This was nothing new. Even other academics didn’t understand it.

‘I’m a research educator,’ I replied, as patiently as I could.

‘Yes, but what do you do?’ Mark repeated insistently.

‘Um … research education stuff?’

Mark … . ‘Yes, research education. OK. But what does that actually mean? Remember that I know nothing about academia.’

I sighed and tried to explain myself. I told him I ran workshops for PhD students on stuff like writing, organising, job hunting, presenting and, well, the politics of academia. That I acted in an advisory role, interpreting the rules and processes of the university for PhD students and their supervisors. Supervisors and students were always getting angry at each other and fighting. Because of the unique position of research students – part staff, part junior colleague, part student – these are more like workplace disputes than standard academic problems. Fixing these problems requires a certain degree of rat cunning and a good grip on theories of power. I suppose you could say that part of my job at that time was a weird sort of workplace mediation. In what time I had left over, I wrote academic papers and did research about what makes for a successful PhD experience.

I took another gulp of wine, searching for a way to sum it all up. ‘If academia was Pulp Fiction, I would be Mr Wolf, hosing down the scene of the murder and finding everyone a fresh change of clothes…

https://thesiswhisperer.com/2017/09/06/how‐to‐be‐an‐academic/

Career Pathways – What are Your Choices? RESOURCE/READING: 10 Career Paths for PhDs (UK article)https://www.jobs.ac.uk/media/pdf/careers/resources/10‐career‐paths‐for‐phds.pdf

• What do you know?

• What do you need to find out?

Group 2: AcademiaGroup 1: Industry Group 3: Other

• How are you going to find out?

• Who can help you?

Discuss

Capture

Share

Activity

6 Ways to Enhance Your Academic Career

Be Proactive

•Develop new skills and enhance your existing skills

•Keep track of interesting conferences, events and other updates in your field

•Update your CV regularly

Diversify your Writing

•Try formats other than original research articles eg; academic blogs, opinion pieces

•Explore newer ways to communicate your work out to a wider audience, egvideo summaries

Make Informed Decisions

•Try to make informed decisions to avoid unpleasant surprises and disappointments

•Educate yourself about everything you lack knowledge of, such as ethical standards, authorship guidelines, journal selection etc

Build Your Network

•Explore academic networking platforms and social media

•Reach out to and interact with others within your field and the industry at large

•Look for opportunities to collaborate and be open to travelling for work

Ask for Help

•Don’t hesitate to ask for help even for simple tasks such as finding references or asking for an opinion

•Always reach out for help instead of dwelling on an issue which could cause delays or, worse, mistakes

Stay positive

•Don’t give up even in the face of challenges, failure, and rejection

•Instead of perceiving challenges as roadblocks, look at them as lessons and steps toward finding a new path to success

https://www.editage.com/insights/6‐ways‐to‐enhance‐your‐academic‐career‐in‐2019

Anything to add?

Activity

Careers are (often)

Non‐Linear

Messy, but rewarding

From: https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2018/08/board‐game‐style‐tool‐can‐help‐you‐land‐winning‐career


Strategy

Context

Target –Academic/Professional‐ Essential/Desirable criteria

‐ Key words/language‐ Technology and skills‐ Local / Global

Targeting

StrategyStrategy

Academic / Professional

Targeting

Type of Role‐ Essential/Desirable criteria‐ Key words/language‐ Technology and skills

Local / Global


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Marketing Plan – Job Applications

Interview&

Selection Criteria

Resume & Cover Letter

Job Applications – Purpose of the Application Documents

COVER LETTER RESUME SELECTIONCRITERIA

Differences between Academic CV vs Industry Resume

www.PhDcomics.com

INTERVIEW

Open Door

Interview – Exploring “Can”, “Will” and “Fit”

32

Academic Careers ‐ Linked In Post• Australian and UK story

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/putting‐realism‐academic‐careers‐harald‐h‐h‐w‐schmidt/

PhD student moving out of Academia

Cheeky Scientist 1. Innovators ‐ Expert innovators, have to

discover new information, not just regurgitate old information

2. Conflict Resolution – regularly have to use logic to present, defend and discuss research work on a regular basis, and are better off for it

3. Learning ‐ PhDs are literally doctors of learning (a PhD means Doctor of Philosophy, and philosophy means knowledge and the ability to ascertain knowledge)

4. Problem Solvers ‐ adept at problem solving. eg; go from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm and can deal with the uncertainty of tackling the worlds biggest questions.

5. Competitive collaborators ‐ self‐starters who work well alone but also work well on teams and often collaborate to get large projects done, hence why most academic publications have multiple authorshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS5EwdB3mo0

APR INTERNRESEARCH FOR IMPACT

• Turn your PhD theory into practice

INCREASE EMPLOYABILITY • Develop your soft skills to support & complement research expertise

FAST TRACK CAREER • Build industry networks & enhance your CV

FLEXIBLE CONDITIONS • Explore tailored project arrangements

RECEIVE A STIPEND • Earning potential of $9k‐ $15k over 3‐5 months

'' APR.Intern provides the opportunity to evaluate career opportunities before committing to a career path ‐ I'm proud to have secured a role at Telstra even before graduating.“

APRIntern.org.au

HDR EXTERNAL OPPORTUNITY

With less than 40% of PhD graduates securing employment in academia, graduates need to be equipped with the skills to give them a competitive advantage when seeking jobs in industry and government.

iPREP WA is helping PhD graduates to recognise that skills they developed in the PhD, such as problem-solving and critical thinking skills, are applicable across a range of disciplines, providing them with the confidence and experience to apply for jobs outside of academia.

Targeting

• Considerations:• Resume / CV

• How do I find jobs and understand what the employer is looking for

• Conferences / Professional activity

• Industry options / experience

• Wish list / things to explore

Anything to add?

Activity


Strategy

Context

Target

Network‐ Connect with people, key decision makers

(Informational Interviewing)‐ Conferences, Professional associations‐ Personal Branding

NetworkIncluding Conferences

https://www.editage.com/insights/8‐reasons‐why‐you‐should‐attend‐academic‐conferences?refer=scroll‐to‐2‐comic_strip

Network towards an Academic Career

“Networking is crucial in academia before and after you get a job – you need to be active in your field, attend conferences, participate and find collaborators – so you might as well start as early as possible.

Get used to sharing your research interests and being curious about other people's, both at events and online.

Ask your supervisor and external examiner for introductions. Look into which social media tools are well‐used in your field – would it be worth joining Twitter, Academia.edu, ResearchGate, commenting on other academics' blogs or even starting your own?”

Photo by Becca Tapert

Rachel Wells, Guardian Careers Blog 23rd Oct 2012

Short List of Reasons – why she’d recommend someone:

Authentic manner

• Their manner counts for all – do I feel they’re trying to ‘sell’ me something? Do they really get what our work is about? Can they see why we might be skeptical of their offerings (and how do they deal with that)? Don’t pretend to be something or someone you’re not. Approach honestly. Be genuine. Don’t over‐promise. It counts when you’re dealing with someone like me. A lot.

Smart, not smug

• There’s confidence and there’s arrogance. They aren’t the same thing. I love confident, smart people who listen well, are willing to learn, and admit mistakes.

Get things done

• A big part of why I’d recommend someone for a role or project is because I know they are doers. ‐follow through, or keep in touch and communicate about delays or derailments….. It’s that they take things on, are accountable for that task’s responsibilities, and create good outcomes from whatever it is.

https://theresearchwhisperer.wordpress.com/2018/09/25/networking‐that‐works/#more‐8879

The Research Whisperer – Blog postNetworking that works; By Tseen Khoo (25 September 2018)

Networking works – LinkedInI used to be skeptical about the power of #networking and if #linkedin really worked for getting a job. Nevertheless, this year I took a deep dive on it and I realize how wrong I was.

Networking WORKS!!! And LinkedIn works marvels as a platform for linking professionals.

I less than a year I found out what #datasciencewas, took some courses to readapt my knowledge from academic research to this field, qualified my Ph.D. project, wrote a review article for my Ph.D., got married, networked and, finally, this September got several job offers through networking. 2018 was my year ;)

I went from being anxious for not getting offers to actually declining offers in a matter of a couple of weeks!

Now I can feel proud of my accomplishments. I got an amazing position as a data scientist, per project basis, at Data Minders and I'm also starting next week at a full‐time position as a statistical modeling analyst at Flex RelacionamentosInteligentes.

So, for everyone in my network in the same boat, never give up! Always take the first step. Engage in conversation. Nourish your connections. Discuss relevant topics. LinkedIn isn't the place for being shy, go for it! And then, after your network has ripen, all doors will begin to open.


Strategy

Context

Target

Network


Social Media

Things to Consider:

• What is personal branding?

• Why you? Identify your unique selling points

• Understand the importance of your individual message

• Learn how to build your brand consistently regardless of target !

Personal Branding Beyond Your PhD


46

PersonalBranding‐ Stand out from

the Crowd

LinkedInResearch Gate

Marketing Plan – Personal Branding

Introduction to Personal Branding

• All scientists: But how would each of them describe themselves and what they do?

• Two Chefs: But very different Brands

Social Media

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/a‐z‐social‐media

Top 4 Social Platforms for Researchers

https://www.ktaustralia.com/top‐4‐social‐platforms‐for‐researchers/

Social Media

• Considerations:• What is my Personal Brand

• How do I create a consistent personal brand which keeps options open

• What platform will I use regularly / well

• What does my target audience use

Anything to add?

Activity

Personal Action Plan

PERSONAL ACTION PLAN Goal



Personal Action Plan ExampleDecision: To apply for work in Sydney!

What do I need to do? By when?

Resources required How will I know if I have achieved this?

Research graduate marketing jobs in Sydney

Today Time, computer I will create a spreadsheet outlininggraduate marketing jobs available inSydney

Speak to friends that are working in marketing in Sydney

This week

Time, phone conversations with friends

I will get a sense for the market in Sydney at the moment

Work out the total cost of relocating

This week

Funds, time I will prepare a budget

Update my resume and get it reviewed by Curtin Careers Employment & Leadership

Friday Time, computer, Curtin Careers

My resume will be updated and readyto be tailored to each position I applyfor

Personal Action Plan – Your Turn

NEXT STEPS

Activity

PERSONAL ACTION PLAN Goal



Conclusion What is your strategy?

Context Matters

Target‐ Essential/Desirable criteria

‐ Key words/language‐ Technology and skills

Network‐ Connect with people, key decision makers‐ Conferences, Professional associations etc


Final Thoughts … As your Career Develops, Context Matters

“Have you left work experience off your profile as it is no longer relevant?

Let me ask you was it not relevant for the butterfly to spend time as a caterpillar?”

Petra Fisher, International LinkedIn Trainer

Any Questions ?

Job application feedback

Power hours Mock interviews Workshops and Challenge modules

Book in for phone /virtual support:

‐ 15 min “drop in”

‐ 45 min Mock interviews, Career decision making

Career Cube’s services have moved to an on‐line offering.

Getting In Touch

Careers CubeCurtin Connect, Building 102

+61 8 9266 7802

[email protected]

@CurtinCareersCentre

@curtincareers+61 8 9266 [email protected]

careersfortomorrow.com.au

To access virtual and on‐line support

To speak to one of our team, we'll call you: bit.ly/cubebookingHave your job application reviewed: bit.ly/cubeonlinePractice online interviews: bit.ly/cubeviepleAttend online events: unihub.curtin.edu.au/students/eventsLook for work: unihub.curtin.edu.au/students/jobs