Researchers rely heavily on networking at conferences and seminars and make little use of personal introductions, online social networking or proactive self-promotion, according to a report published by UK researcher development organisation Vitae. Read more
There’s more than one approach to structuring your CV, enabling you to tailor the marketing of your skills and experiences to different employers. Hilary Jones, training and careers officer at the UK’s University of York, gave an overview of three types of CV at the Society of Biology’s Life Science Careers Conference last week in London. “There are traditional ways of writing CVs, and more innovative ways that are becoming more acceptable,” says Jones. So which type of CV should you consider for the next step in your science career? Read more
Posted on behalf of Hywel Curtis What would it take for your research to go global? At Vitae’s international researcher development conference, held in Manchester in the United Kingdom last week, several speakers offered advice on how to boost your international profile. It’s an expanding area of interest: Emma Gillaspy, Vitae’s north-west hub manager, explains that institutions throughout academia are looking at how they can support the development of truly global researchers, and half of respondents to a recent Naturejobs poll said it was ‘very important’ for young researchers to work abroad early in their careers. Furthermore, an increasing focus … Read more
How long has it been since your last pay rise? For almost half of current respondents to a recent Naturejobs poll, the answer is more than two years – and with ever-increasing inflation, that’s effectively a year-on-year pay cut. So is there anything you can do to improve your salary prospects, particularly in academia, where there is often a lack of flexibility in pay? Read more
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
Forget ‘brain drain’ – many countries are now focusing their efforts on making the most of ‘brain circulation’, according to a new report on global science from the Royal Society, Britain’s national academy of science. Read more
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
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
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? Read more
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