Cristina Lo Celso: Career-changing encounters
Why did you choose a career in academic research rather than medicine? … Read more
It’s time to reduce the number of PhD students, or rethink how doctoral programs work
Gwilym Croucher, University of Melbourne … Read more
Thinking of a PhD? This is the Australian story
Research is fuelled by the energy of post-graduate students. PhD students contribute 57% of total university research output, according to a 2013 discussion paper from The Group of Eight Universities in Australia. In 2011 Nature published “The PhD factory,” which described the ongoing crisis caused by the oversupply of trained researchers and the inability of academia and industry to soak up the overflow. Read more
Study system envy
Guest contributor Carolyn Beans … Read more
Where do all the alumni go?
Students from the department of immunology at the University of Toronto recently completed a survey of their 288 alumni, tracking their career choices and progressions through life. In this post, Yuriy Baglaenko and Eric Gracey follow the alumni around the globe, to see where they have ended up after leaving the University of Toronto. Read more
Graduate school survival skills
During the course of graduate school we’ve all likely felt as if we were stuck on a deserted island or lost in a rain forest without a map. It’s tough. As graduate students, we strive to create knowledge, but we’re not explicitly taught how to practice science. I’d like to share three lessons about graduate school that I did not appreciate at the time, and that could help you find your path to the other side. Read more
38 tips on writing an academic CV
Many academic job vacancies have fairly basic application forms, so the main way you will get an interview is by having a very good academic CV, says Emma Baker, careers advisor for the graduate school at King’s College London. Baker outlined a number of tips for writing academic CVs at the 2011 Naturejobs Career Expo, held last week in London. Have a read and let us know what you think – if you have any to add, please leave a comment below. Read more
Female scientists in UK report improved prospects – but there’s still a long way to go
The gap between men’s and women’s careers in academia in the UK is closing as women become more ambitious, according to the 2010 Athena Survey of Science, Engineering and Technology (ASSET) summary report published earlier this month. Read more
PhD students: how to improve your communication skills – and why you should
Many employers think that PhD students often lack ‘soft’ skills such as being able to communicate well, according to a new report from the UK Department for Business Innovation and Skills (see ‘Survey shows science graduates neglect career planning’ for other findings). One of the report’s authors, Robin Mellors-Bourne from the Careers Research & Advisory Centre, says a lot of employers are sceptical that PhD candidates will fit in. “They’re deemed almost to be too specialised,” he says. Christine McCary, the employment concerns chair of the US National Association of Graduate-Professional Students (NAGPS) and a full-time PhD student at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, says the situation is similar in the United States. So what can you do to improve your soft-skill set? Read more
Survey finds science graduates neglect career planning
More than a quarter of final-year physics and maths undergraduates and a third of final-year geography undergraduates in the United Kingdom had no idea what kind of career they wanted when they entered university, according to new research from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills. Read more
Recent comments on this blog
African astronomy and how one student broke into the field
From Doctorate to Data Science: A very short guide
Work/life balance: New definitions