Tag Archives: James Hadfield

Careers in academia: How to avoid getting pigeon-holed

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Developing experimental techniques that can be applied to multiple projects will help broaden your scientific experiences.

At the 2015 London Naturejobs Career Expo, Frances Aschroft, physiology professor at the University of Oxford, and James Hadfield, manager of the genomics core facility at the University of Cambridge, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, gave advice on how to develop skills that will avoid you getting pigeon-holed into one field of research.

Top tips:

  1. Follow your passions and interests. If you succeed, it won’t be a problem. Determination, application and patience will help.
  2. Learn experimental techniques that can be applied in different situations.
  3. If you want to set up a lab, long term, you need to be able to adapt.
  4. Find the question you want to answer, then find the technology to help you do so.
  5. Don’t spend all your time working on one research question. Find time to stay up to date with research on the fringes of your field.

Further reading:

Careers in academia: The different options

Careers in academia: How to get a PhD position

Careers in academia: How to get a PhD position

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Regular, targeted applications and demonstrating how you can benefit a lab will go a long way to securing a PhD position.

Frances Aschroft, physiology professor at the University of Oxford, and James Hadfield, manager of the genomics core facility at the University of Cambridge, Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, tackle the question of how to get selected onto a PhD programme, as part of the 2015 London Naturejobs Career Expo panel on careers in academia.

Top tips:

  1. Look for advertised, four-year, PhD programmes offered by departments
  2. Look for PhD positions that aren’t part of larger programmes. Some principle investigators won’t have access to an official PhD programme, but will have funding for individual students.
  3. Write to the lab leaders whose work you’re really interested in. They might not be advertising a position, but they might have some funding available for enthusiastic students.
  4. Whilst looking, write to people who working on a subject you’re interested in, and ask if you can work for them on a short-term (six months – one year) basis. Labs might not have funding for a whole PhD, but they might for a little bit. This would allow you to build up work experience, and develop skills in a field that you want to be in during the long term, and who knows what other doors it might open in the future.
  5. Justify to your potential supervisor why you think you would be a good hire, whether for a full PhD or just for a short-term project. Even if you are volunteering, you are a cost to the supervisor in terms of time and effort they put in. If you can demonstrate what you can bring to the table that would benefit them, you’re in a much better position to get hired.

Further reading:

Careers in academia: The different options

Scientific blogging: Why it might just be good for your CV

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Who needs paper?

Who needs paper?{credit}iStockPhoto/Thinkstock{/credit}

Blogging about your own research and science could help set you apart from others when applying for a job.

Contributor James Hadfield

The impact of social media on our lives is undeniable, most people have heard of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Blogging even if they do not actively participate. And although the impact of these media on science is still a matter of debate, their increasing use, i.e. blog commentary of journals, and non-traditional metrics (altmetrics) to assess scientific impact, does appear to be changing the way we work. Blogging about your science can be part of this non-traditional commentary and can also add something to differentiate your CV from the pile.

A scientific blog does not have to be anything more than a way for you to organise your thoughts. One of the most interesting examples (at least I think so) of how a blog can be used in a research group is by the Redfield lab. The group blogs about its projects and plans, as well as presenting experimental results and is a very open-access operation.

Like many other researchers, I started my blog (core-genomics.blogspot.co.uk) as a way to get more writing experience. I manage a genomics core facility lab at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute and wanted to do more technical writing, a blog seemed an easy way in. I set myself the challenge of writing two or three posts a month and I hoped a few people would find it interesting. Three years on and my technical writing probably hasn’t improved as much as I’d hoped, but then again my Blog is not a technical one. I’ve managed to keep up the pace but have suffered from writers block and having too much else to do. However it has been incredibly rewarding to see large numbers of people reading what I have to say. And even more so are the comments I get on the blog, at meetings or conferences, although no-one’s bought me a beer because of my blog – yet! Continue reading →