![\"Careers-in-acdemia-NJCE15-naturejobs-blog\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/naturejobs\/files\/2015\/09\/Careers-in-acdemia-NJCE15-naturejobs-blog-300x168.jpg\" "\\"Careers-in-acdemia-NJCE15-naturejobs-blog\\"")
<\/a>L-R: Frances Ashcroft, James Hadfield, Frederique Guesdon, Lisa Fox and Anna Price. {credit}Image credit: Julie Gould{\/credit}<\/p><\/div>\n
Are you close to finishing your degree, and tempted by the academic environment you came to know well? If yes, then you\u2019re in good company: according to the Vitae Careers in Research survey from 2015<\/a>, 77% of researchers in the UK aspire to a position in academia, and 60% \u00a0expect to find an academic job. However, the Royal Society estimates that only 3.5% of PhD graduates<\/a> land a permanent position as researchers or lecturers. But all hope isn\u2019t lost: alternative options for those wishing to stay in academia exist, as panelists discussed at the Naturejobs<\/i> Career Expo in London on Friday 18 September 2015.<\/p>\n The panel offered a refreshing perspective on some options that allow scientists to maintain the link with academic research without facing years of potential postdoctoral insecurity. Dr Anna Price, chair of the panel, left academic research because she lacked a specific question to answer as a scientist. As the head of Researcher Development at Queen Mary University of London, she now works with researchers on planning their careers and honing their transferable skills. Price is well aware that academia is a competitive sector; for this reason, and from her own career development perspective, she introduced four panelists to talk about traditional academic positions as well as roles at the crossing between research and management.<\/p>\n The traditional academic<\/b><\/p>\n Frances Ashcroft, professor of physiology at the University of Oxford, explained how her role involves supervising students, administering a large research budget and attending international conferences. For Ashcroft, academic research isn\u2019t merely her job, \u201cit\u2019s my life, where every day is different and I\u2019m never, ever bored,\u201d she said. One wouldn\u2019t be wrong to think that a professor at a prestigious university would have a stellar career path, but for Ashcroft things didn\u2019t always go smoothly. After a PhD that was \u201cpretty much a disaster,\u201d as none of her experiments worked, she applied six times before landing her first lectureship. Her advice to young and aspiring researchers? \u201cJust get out there and do it! Try to find your own individual research niche and try to be realistic.\u201d Ashcroft also insisted on the value of scientific collaborations: \u201cit\u2019s so much more fun to work with others, but choose [your friends] wisely because it\u2019s likely that [you\u2019ll] to be with them for a long time.\u201d In her view an academic job requires, among other things, \u201cpassion, determination, an enormous amount of patience and the ability to cope with failure,\u201d as scientific research consists of \u201cendless failure punctuated by moments of ecstasy.\u201d<\/p>\n The lab manager<\/b><\/p>\n \u201cGood laboratory managers make good laboratory research,\u201d said Dr Frederique Guesdon, senior research laboratory manager at the Royal Veterinary College, University of London. Her role entails different responsibilities, from the daily operation of the facilities that she oversees to reviewing and negotiating service contracts \u2013 a key aspect when funding is scarce and it\u2019s necessary to manage laboratory equipment efficiently. Throughout her career, Guesdon moved from one position to the next in a continuous effort to increase her level of responsibility and improve her skills; interestingly, the only formal training for lab managers is a health and safety certificate<\/a>. While Guesdon acknowledged the challenge of adapting quickly to new geographical locations and specific research environments, she also stressed how her career progression was positively noted by prospective employers.<\/p>\n The core facilities manager<\/b><\/p>\n Dr James Hadfield, Genomics Core Facility manager at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, manages a budget of over \u00a31 million every year. His role requires him to understand \u201cthe technology\u201d very well, which is also the aspect that excites him the most \u2013 even when it means going to someone \u201cmuch more senior than yourself [to say] \u2018that experiment is likely to be a dead end\u2019\u201d given the available technology. Hadfield also provided useful feedback drawn from his experience as an employer. When he receives job applications, he\u2019s \u201cdriven by a covering letter\u201d: if the text sounds like an anonymous copy-and-paste production, he will be less inclined to read on.<\/p>\n The clinical trials manager<\/b><\/p>\n