Tag Archives: UK

Are long working hours inevitable for postdocs?

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More than half of postdocs surveyed work at least 50 hours per week and one quarter work at least 60 hours per week.

By comparison, an employee in the United Kingdom works around 37 hours per week on average, while in France this figure is 38 hours (ref). In the United States the average working week of a private, non-farm employee is just over 34 hours long (ref).

Just 2.5% of postdocs work part-time, compared with around a quarter of employees in the United Kingdom and a sixth of employees in the United States (ref).

While the poll of visitors to naturejobs.com is not the most rigorous of measures, it highlights the long-hours culture that many postdocs are faced with. So are long hours inevitable, and what can you do if struggling with your workload?

Liliya Bondareva, a board member of Eurodoc, an organization that supports PhD students, postdocs and junior researchers throughout Europe and is based in Brussels, is not surprised by our poll results. “A postdoc position implies longer hours for a number of reasons,” she says. Complex research combined with limited funding, tight timescales and a need to publish regularly all pile on the pressure. “Working hours often include doing research, teaching, supervision and increasingly administration,” she adds.

Rob Hardwick, co-chair of the UK Research Staff Association (UKRSA) and a postdoc at the University of Leicester, agrees work outside the lab can take up a significant amount of time and deserves more formal recognition. “It is easy to see how the hours put in by the average postdoc soon stack up,” he says.

Sometimes it’s the nature of the work in the lab that means anti-social hours are unavoidable — Bondareva cites an example of a UK postdoc who typically remains in the lab until past midnight when monitoring the behaviour of cells.

A lack of employment rights exacerbates the issue in some countries, a situation that support organisations are campaigning to change. In France, the CJC (Young Researchers Confederation) is pushing to relabel postdocs as temporary research workers to highlight their contractual plights, according to spokesman François Briatte: “Private companies treat [postdocs] as ‘late-stage students’ and consequently offer wages and positions that would correspond to much lower levels of qualification.”

Contracts and union representation can offer some degree of protection. In August 2010, postdocs at the University of California formed a union and agreed a contract with the university hierarchy. While the deal says work schedules must be reasonable, there is no upper limit set on hours. “We want postdocs to be flexible about their work schedule,” says union president Xiaoqing Cao, adding that postdocs facing an unreasonable workload can file a grievance since the contract was put in place.

However, Cao says that postdocs should expect to work longer-than-average hours: “I was told to be prepared to work at least 50 hours per week when I became a postdoc. If we want to move forward with our careers, we have to work hard.” Hardwick agrees, saying long working weeks are inevitable for ambitious postdocs: “We put in the hours we do because it is highly competitive out there.”

Hardwick advises postdocs struggling with their workload to tell their supervisors or mentors and get the issue discussed at departmental committees and meetings so senior staff are aware there is a problem. “When you get to department-head level you don’t always remember what it was like to be a postdoc,” he says.

Another tactic to mitigate problems with long working hours is to try to prevent them arising in the first place. Bondareva advises postdocs applying for a position to investigate the set-up of the project, such as checking whether other institutes allow more time for similar projects and whether staff in administrative positions are also doing research, which could be a sign of overworked researchers. She also suggests checking the blogs and social media outputs of those already in similar postdoc positions: “Do they seem to have a healthy work-life balance? Do they blog a lot about their work? Is it only about work?”

Failing that, Bondareva advises postdocs under pressure to take strength from their initial motivation for becoming a researcher: “Think about the reason you are doing it, and if the reason is compelling enough, remind yourself about [it] every day.”

Have your say

Should postdocs expect to work longer-than-average hours? Can you share any tips on coping with a heavy workload? Have you been successful in improving your work-life balance as a postdoc? Share your thoughts and experiences below.

PhD students: how to improve your communication skills – and why you should

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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?

Science careers consultant Sara Shinton, of UK-based Shinton Consulting, says PhD students should always be proactive about developing their soft skills because of the high number of people being awarded postgraduate qualifications. “It’s like it used to be with [an undergraduate] degree,” she says. “A PhD on its own isn’t enough. You are going to be competing against people with the same baseline.”

Stand out from the crowd

Shinton’s advice is to look for unusual activities that will make your communication skills stand out from the crowd, such as being a representative on a committee for a professional body. “That’s not something everybody can do,” she says. It’s also something that will get an employer’s attention – in a recent survey of graduate employers, researchers from Oklahoma State University found having a leadership position in an academic organisation comes second only to the personal interview in importance for showcasing your communication skills.

Shinton says you should join the society or association first, and then get involved at a local level to raise your profile. Just being a young scientist can also help. “The voice of the young researcher at the front line is one that most professional bodies are very keen to hear from,” she says.

McCary says another way to stand out is to take a leadership role in your local community, for example by starting a science club for younger students. If you succeed, she says, “that would be direct evidence of your ability to communicate with people”.

Show initiative

Another major plus is showing initiative by making something happen that wouldn’t have otherwise, such as arranging your own scientific roadshow or conference, or setting up an informal journal within your university.

Remember to cover the basics

That’s not to say you can forget about the more traditional ways of developing communication skills, such as getting involved in outreach – Shinton says companies now expect to see this as standard on a candidate’s CV or résumé. “It’s worth doing on every sort of imaginable level,” she says, “but it isn’t something that an employer would highlight.”

And the basics include getting to grips with social media websites such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. “These days every single scientist should have [a LinkedIn profile], even while they’re a student,” says McCary.

Get outside the box

Both Mellors-Bourne and McCary advocate developing your skills outside of academia. “Spending some time with different people or in a different environment is very valuable,” says Mellors-Bourne. “Even academic employers are looking for well-rounded people to work for them,” adds McCary. Shinton, however, cautions against this approach if you intend to stay in research: “It very much depends what your career trajectory is. If you intend to be a scientist, showing that you are having an impact in lots of different ways as a scientist possibly has more value.”

All three agree that studying overseas can be a boon for your communication skills. “The whole experience of overseas study strengthens you as an individual,” says Shinton. “It challenges you and it helps you to grow.” Mellors-Bourne spent four months in the United States as part of his PhD, which he found to be a life-changing experience: “I restarted my research afterwards with a completely different view of the world.”

Have your say

Do you have any other tips to add? Have you found a particular approach or method to be more effective than others? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Survey finds science graduates neglect career planning

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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.

The survey of more than 7,000 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) students at undergraduate and postgraduate level also showed that less than a third of final-year PhD students have a definite career in mind.

Other key findings include:

• Fewer than half of final-year physics undergraduates definitely want to pursue a career related to their degree — the second lowest figure across all STEM subjects in the survey

• Almost half of final-year PhD students across all subjects are not sure they want to pursue a career related to their research

One of the report’s authors, Robin Mellors-Bourne from the Careers Research & Advisory Centre, says that the research highlighted weaknesses in the careers advice and information on offer to students before they go to university. “Very few students choose their subject with a career in mind,” he says.

Mellors-Bourne says schools and colleges focus on promoting university as a good thing in and of itself, and don’t give enough information about potential careers. This leaves students with a lack of broad labour-market knowledge. “I think that’s particularly true of physics,” he told Naturejobs.

He says that while students shouldn’t feel compelled to make highly rational career decisions before university, more forward planning is needed: “It’s quite useful for parents or students to have some inkling of the sorts of careers that naturally would be opened up [by doing a degree].”

Institute of Physics careers manager Vishanti Fox says that the skills learnt during a physics degree are highly valued by a wide range of employers, but she agrees that students considering the subject need more information about potential careers. “Careers advice to school students and undergraduates is an area that can always be improved,” she says. “We are working with schools, universities, businesses and Government to make sure students know the options open to them with qualifications in physics.”

Mellors-Bourne says forensic science is a prime example of the dangers of ignoring career prospects when choosing a course. He estimates that because of interest from students there are now around 100 forensic science degree courses available in the UK, but only around 50 jobs become available each year, leading to a “horrendous oversupply” of forensic science graduates. “I don’t think any of them entered [their degree] realising that they probably wouldn’t get a job at the end,” he says.

What’s your reaction to the report? If you’re a student, do you feel as though you have access to enough careers advice? If you’re working as a scientist, what’s your experience of career planning?

What do the new industry-led tuition deals mean for academia and postgraduate study?

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The impending hike in university tuition fees in the UK is prompting companies to offer to shoulder the financial burden in order to attract top graduate talent. Pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) followed the lead of accounting firm KPMG on Wednesday by announcing that it will reimburse tuition fees to all its UK recruits from September 2012. It’s an enticing deal – worth up to £27,000 for those taking a three-year degree – but what are the wider implications?

The scheme is only available to undergraduates and graduates in the United Kingdom who are not yet employed. They will be reimbursed once they start working for GSK, and they must remain with the company for a minimum of two years.

These new deals – which academic employers are unlikely to match – add to the uncertainty of how increased tuition fees will affect postgraduate study, an issue acknowledged by the UK minister for universities and science David Willetts in a speech to university leaders last week. In response to concerns that higher undergraduate fees could mean less postgraduate students, he announced that Adrian Smith, director-general for science and research at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, would reconvene an expert panel that examined the state of postgraduate study last year to review the potential impact.

Ellen Pearce, director of research staff support organisation Vitae, said she welcomed the review. “The potential implications of changes in the undergraduate tuition fees aren’t fully understood,” she told Naturejobs. She said the routes into doctoral research were likely to become more diverse and complex in light of the increased fees. And there may be more mobility between higher education and business if financial reward – such as the deal offered by GSK – becomes a higher priority for students. “There may also need to be new models of postgraduate education that provide more flexibility,” she added.

Universities that plan to charge the maximum allowable fees of £9,000 per year include University of Cambridge, Imperial College London and the University of Exeter.

What’s your reaction to GSK’s plans? Do you think less people will go on to postgraduate study once the higher undergraduate fees are charged? What can academic employers do to compete with the reimbursement deals that will be offered by industry?