Career Strategies for PhD Students Session 1: Career Planning

1. Career Strategies for PhD StudentsSession 1: Career Planning Rebecca Valentine Career Adviser

2. Introductions • Orientation • Participation • Confidentiality • Mobile phones switched off • Course handbooks • Introductions

3. Course objectivesThis course will cover: • Introduction to the 5 stage career planning process • Self- awareness: skills, motivations, interests, personal priorities and other factors that influence career choice • Opportunity awareness: generating and researching career ideas • Decision making styles, methods and strategies • Information sources

4. Career management “Successful career management requires individuals to take control of their own career and to develop the confidence, skills and knowledge to make and implement realistic well informed career decisions, and continue to review and adapt their career plans in the light of changing circumstances” Skills involved: • Self assessment and personal review • Researching job ideas and opportunities • Career decision making • Goal setting • Action planning • Communicating effectively to reach your career objectives

5. The career planning process Opportunity awareness Decision making Focus on Options What’s out There? What I Want and What I have to Offer Make Plans Self awareness Action planning Make it Happen! The application process

6. What is a career? (e.g. Mr A. Salmond, St Andrews Graduate) Early career: • MA Economics & History (St Andrews) → Assistant Economist (GES) → Assistant Economist (RBS) → Oil Economist (RBS) Political career: • Member, The 79 Group → suspended from membership of SNP → re-joined party and elected Vice Convenor for Publicity → MP for Banff and Buchan → elected Deputy Leader of SNP then later Leader → elected to Scottish Parliament → stood down as Leader of SNP → left Scottish Parliament to lead SNP Group in House of Commons → elected Leader of SNP (again!) → elected to Scottish parliament (again!) → elected Scotland’s First Minister (minority gvt) → re-elected as Scotland’s First Minister (landslide victory)

7. Self awareness Skills/abilities Preferred working style Interests Needs Values

8. Opportunity awareness • Occupational knowledge • What’s involved – tasks/activities/projects? • What’s required – skills, abilities, qualities? • What’s possible – specialisation, development? • Employment / labour market knowledge • Where are the opportunities? Who are the employers? • How competitive? What future prospects? • Further study / training • What’s necessary? • What’s desirable? • What else could help?

9. Making decisions… • Self awareness – awareness of your strengths, what’s important to you and your personal priorities • Opportunity awareness – awareness of the range of possible career options and in-depth understanding of what is involved in the careers of most interest to you • Well informed realistic careers decisions require consideration of both concepts simultaneously • We make many career decisions throughout our lives • “Career ladder” is a thing of the past. • “Crazy paving” is a better description of the route through which many of our careers develop e.g. sideways moves, changing direction, going backwards before progressing

10. Self awareness

11. Focus on skills • We all have a wide range of skills & abilities including technical skills (hard skills) and transferable skills (soft skills/competencies) • Transferable skills include team work, time management, problem solving, communication skills, IT literacy • Identifying hard skills is usually straightforward however you may have spent little time reflecting on the other skills you’ve developed through a research degree • Identifying skills allows you to recognise strengths (and weaknesses or areas for development) and also to think about which skills you wish to take advantage of in the future

12. Exercise 1: Group task Part 1 Flipchart 1 • What skills have you developed during your PhD? • List them

13. Exercise 1: Group task Part 2 Flipchart 2 • From your list, choose one skill • How specifically did you develop that skill? Give detailsusing CARL framework

14. Feedback • Thinking about your strengths: • Can you identify certain skills you would like to use and develop in the future? • Are there some skills where you are competent but you do not care so much about? • Thinking about areas you are less confident about: • Are there areas you wish to avoid/minimise? • Are there any you wish to develop?

15. Additional exercise: Skills assessment • Page 10 of course handbook • For each of the 7 skills groups you are asked to: • Rate your skills (Strong/Average/Poor) – think about wider experience, not just UG and PhD study and think positively about what you have done and how you have gained • Identify the skills you would like to use in a job • Identify the skills you would like to develop and how you might develop them

16. The benefits for researching career options • Identifying and acknowledging your own skills is essential for effective career decision making • Recognising your strengths can help you to clarify your personal priorities • You are more able to assess how well matched your skills set is to the job requirements • Spotting gaps can help you to identify areas for development • Awareness of your skills is critical if you are to market yourself effectively to employers • Our discussion has focussed on the skills developed during your PhD but it is important to fully recognise your wider skills set and how you have benefitted from all aspects of your experience including work experience and personal activities

17. Motivation • We are motivated by our needs and values • Each of us will have different priorities about what we want from a career; can be difficult to articulate what we really want but identifying this helps us make confident decisions • If you value something you are likely to: • Be proud to be associated with it • See it as important • Be willing to give effort or time to further its progress • If you are motivated in a similar way to your colleagues and the organisation you work for you are more likely to feel satisfied in your work

18. Exercise 2: Values • Handbook page 15-16 • Look at the list of factors and rate each one in terms of its importance to you (very important, important or not important) • 5 minutes to work through individually • Feedback • Any special insights or revelations – new ideas or confirmations? • Any conflicts? • Significance for future career choice? Work/life balance? • Could some values be addressed outside of your work?

19. Additional exercise: Interests • You will tend to find a job stimulating when you have a genuine interest in both the nature of the work activities (e.g. working in a research environment or working with people) and the work content (e.g. Using scientific techniques, designing software) • Complete the exercise on P17 of the Handbook in your own time • Ensure that you reflect on why a particular activity interests you and what sustains that interest • Try thinking about topics that you are drawn to (e.g. in journals, documentaries etc)

20. Additional exercise: Style of working or interacting with others • Our preferred styles of working and interacting with others depend on a number of factors, the most significant of which is our personality (temperament) • Complete exercise on p18 of the Handbook • This exercise helps you to consider aspects of your personality expressed by the style in which you deal with people or approach tasks • Recognising your own personality or temperament will help you assess whether you will be able to meet the demands of a job and will also help you identify which working environments you might find congenial or unsuitable

21. Personal priorities and factors which may impact on your options • A variety of factors can impact upon your career choices • Some factors may be out of your control (e.g. health, financial constraints) • Others may be a result of personal choices or priorities (e.g. location or maintaining a good work/life balance) • Other factors may affect you in more subtle or subconscious ways (e.g. not wanting to let others down) • Assessing these factors will help you identify how they could affect you and your current options

22. Exercise 3: Other factors • Page 20 of Handbook: • Look at the list of factors and tick those that are relevant to you • Choose ONE factor today that you think may influence or restrict your career choice that you feel comfortable to discuss. • Discuss in pairs possible ways to overcome this or minimise its effect • Complete the rest of the activity in your own time

23. Possible solutions • When developing your career it’s sometimes difficult to find the ideal position in the right location at the right salary • May need to re-evaluate personal criteria and consider some creative solutions e.g.: • Location – could you widen your travel to work area even for a short period of time? • Could you move away to gain experience before relocating to where you want to live long term? • Finance – could you re-assess the lowest salary level you are prepared to accept for a short time in order to gain experience?

24. 360 degree influence assessment • Who are the significant people in your life? • What impact has their advice, expectations and ideas had on your career plans? • How much do you value their opinion? • Try the exercise on page 21-22 of the handbook in your own time

25. Self reflection summary chart • See summary chart on page 23 of the handbook • Once you’ve completed all the exercises you can review your self-reflection and record key elements from each exercise • Add any other factors which you feel are important to your decision making • Reflect on which have the highest level of importance to you; these may be the factors you wish to focus on when making your career decisions

26. Coffee break

27. Opportunity awareness

28. Resources to help you generate ideas • Careers Service website - Occupations • Destinations / What do PhDs do? • Vitae website career paths • SAGE and other vacancy databases • Careers Fairs and Employer presentations • Prospects Planner / TARGETjobs Careers Report • Professional Organisations linked to subject • Careers directories and databases

29. Before you begin exploring… • Be realistic and take on board any messages you pick up as you do your research e.g. failure to find specific vacancies in Edinburgh • Keep an open mind and ignore preconceived ideas of e.g. what an office job is or what an accountant does • Don’t try to research every possibility • Remember there is no such thing as a perfect job. Any job will involve a balance of activities you enjoy and ones you enjoy less. Getting the balance right is the important thing

30. Spider diagramExample based on “Problem Solving” Teacher – explaining fractions to a class of 7-year-olds Careers adviser – finding ways of engaging students with career planning Environmental officer – how to meet re-cycling targets Problem Solving Town planner – how to solve traffic congestion outside local primary school Personnel manager – how to introduce new patterns of shift working without alienating the workforce Academic – how to manage the departmental budget for maximum benefit Tax consultant – how to minimise the tax liability of a company Civil engineer – how to reduce the problem of ‘bounce’ on a bridge

31. Exercise 4: Speed group activity • Each group has a flipchart with a different skill/competency • Come up with some jobs where that skill would be important and suggest how it might be used • After 2 minutes, pass your flipchart on to the next group

32. Researching careers • Careers Service www.ed.ac.uk/careers >explore options > occupations > explore options > occupations > Connect.Ed and day in the life of • Careers websites www.prospects.ac.uk > types of jobs www.vitae.ac.uk > career profiles • Professional associations • Work shadowing • Other sources of information e.g. company websites, annual reports, articles in the media or specialist journals • NETWORKING – talk to people!

33. Identifying your network • Family • Friends • Academic staff • Careers Service – Connect.Ed database, fairs, presentations, seminars • Other sources – conferences, student societies, professional bodies, online networking sites (eg. LinkedIn, Academia.edu), chance encounters

34. Using your network Improve your knowledge of: • The role • The industry sector • The recruitment process Through: • Discussion / informational interview • Visit / work shadowing

35. Decision making

36. Exercise 5: Discussion topic What factors influenced your decision to start your PhD? • To what extent were you influenced by others? • Did you drift into it? Had you considered alternatives? • What did you hope to achieve? Did you have specific long term goals? • …what else?

37. Decision making • Have you made good well considered career decisions? • Have your decisions been heavily influenced by others? • To make good career decisions we need to be clear about our own priorities and value systems • What we want from life is very personal and is often quite different from those around us • Things change over time as our personal circumstances change and we gain fresh insights, knowledge and skills • Listening to the opinions of other people is beneficial but aim to recognise the impact of other people’s views on your decisions

38. Decision making stylesWhich is your preferred style? • intuitive • logical • talking • hesitant • testing ideas Less effective styles include: impulsive / fatalistic / compliant/ delaying / paralytic

39. Decision making tools • Pros & cons analysis • Force field analysis • SWOT analysis • Decision matrix

40. Decision making summary • People make decisions in different ways • No one approach will work all the time • Good decisions come from examining the reasons that underpin them • Perfect decisions are rare!

41. Further support 3rdfloor Main Library, George Square Tel 0131 650 4670 careers@ed.ac.uk www.businessandeconomicscareers.wordpress.com http://researchstudentcareers.wordpress.com/

42. Other sessions • Planning an academic career: What it takes to succeed Thursday 13th March 2014 9.30am-2.00pm (including lunch) • Careers outside academia Wednesday 2nd April 2014 9.30am-2.00pm (including lunch) • Marketing yourself effectively (CVs, applications and interviews) • Planning an academic career: Job search and application strategies