X Close

UCL Researchers

Home

Find Your Future

Menu

Archive for September, 2014

Book a one to one appointment with Deallus Consulting on 7th October

By uczjvwa, on 17 September 2014

Deallus Consulting is an energetic Competitive Strategy Consultancy creating value for over 30 Life Science organisations worldwide, ranging from global blue chip pharmaceuticals to smaller specialist biotechnology companies. With rapid growth and change in this sector, we are continuously expanding our scope and client base.

Each year we have a number of vacancies at Business Analyst or Associate level for PhD graduates to join us. New recruits have a passion for their scientific specialism but also have commercial flair and a desire to add insight to client’s decisions. They usually speak one or more languages fluently other than English. These exceptional individuals have the opportunity to build and blend their skills amongst global colleagues from a variety of backgrounds in academia or other consulting organisations.

We will be present at the UCL main campus for one-to-one appointments on Tuesday 7th October from 11:30am till 12.30pm for those of you interested to learn more and for our recruiter to provide CV advice.

To make a booking for a 15 minute appointment, please email: OpportunitiesinEMEA@deallusconsulting.com. We look forward to hearing from you.

Employer Led Career Skills Workshop Programme for Researchers – Open For Booking!

By uczjvwa, on 12 September 2014

These workshops, arranged by UCL Careers in collaboration with the Doctoral Skills Development Programme, will introduce you to the employability skills that are required in today’s workplace and provide opportunities for you to develop and practice these skills. They will also demonstrate the transferable nature of the research skills you have acquired during your PhD, from an employer’s perspective. You can find out more information about the range of workshops available here.

Upcoming workshops

Networking Skills with Citi – Tuesday 30th September – 5:30pm to 7:30pm

Venue: UCL Careers Seminar Room, 4th Floor, ULU Building, Malet Street, WC1E 7HY

The ability to network productively is a key skill in academic and industry settings. This session will help you to understand what effective networking involves and will enable you to identify and make the most of networking situations. You will have the opportunity to practice some techniques within the workshop.

Learning Outcomes

• Recognise the importance of networking when looking for work and in the workplace
• Understand what networking involves and demonstrate your networking skills
• Develop some techniques for connecting with new people
• Develop some techniques for leveraging existing contacts

Research Students book a place here

Research Staff book a here

 

Commercial Awareness with PwC – Thursday 2nd October – 2:00pm to 4:00pm

Venue: UCL Conference Suite, Seminar Room 2, 188 Tottenham Court Road, W1T 7PH

Commercial awareness is about having a complete understanding of the career sector, company and job that you are applying for. It is the ability to view events and circumstances from a business perspective. This session is designed to help students understand the importance of commercial awareness when making the transition from their studies to the workplace. The session will focus on the methods through which students can build their commercial awareness in the run up to job applications, and the benefits to be gained from this.

Learning Outcomes

• Recognise why and how graduate employers look for commercial awareness in their recruitment processes
• Develop techniques for increasing commercial awareness in order to apply for jobs and attend interviews
• Communicate your commercial awareness more effectively to graduate recruiters
• Gain the tools to evaluate your level of commercial awareness when applying for your next role

Research Students book a place here

Research Staff book a here

Teaching focused career paths in academia: what, where and how?

By uczjvwa, on 9 September 2014

chalkboard by  lewisr1 licensed under Creative Commons: https://www.flickr.com/photos/51597203@N03/4796866219/in/photostream/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Although the majority of academic roles require a combination of teaching,research and administrative activities, there are plenty of academic positions in which the primary focus of the job is on teaching.

What are the roles?

This kind of role allows you to spend the majority of your time in a student-facing role: teaching core modules in your discipline, contributing to curriculum development, planning lessons, assessing learning and generally developing your teaching practice. Supervision of dissertation at undergrad and postgrad level may also be expected.

You’ll typically also be expected to provide administrative support for other teaching-related activities such as student recruitment, admissions, examinations, placements and teaching quality assessment.   And even if you’re not actively involved in research you’ll certainly be expected to stay up-to-date on new developments in your discipline.

Where are they?

The majority of such roles tend to be fixed-term or contract positions, but there has been movement in some HEIs towards developing permanent career paths for academics who excel in teaching rather than research and wish to develop a career from this excellence. These roles tend to be found more frequently at post-92 institutions, although some of the more traditional Russell Group universities are adopting this approach too.

Be warned that job titles can be confusing. For example, in some institutions the job title “Teaching Fellow” is a permanent teaching-focused academic role whilst in others it’s a non-academic, fixed-term position.   It’s increasingly common to see titles such as “Lecturer (Teaching Focused)”, although once again, this isn’t typical of all institutions.   Do your homework and check job descriptions carefully before applying.

How can I best position myself for this kind of role?

If you’re interested in pursuing teaching-focused roles within academia, you’ll need to ensure a) that you understand your own motivation and b) that you get teaching experience, and lots of it.

a)      Understand your reasons for seeking this kind of role. You’ll certainly be asked at interview why you want this particular position, but it’s important for your own career planning that you’ve thought through the pros and cons of a teaching-only position.   Have you clearly considered the implications of moving away from research? Is there anything about research that you’ll miss? What is it about teaching that particularly attracts you? What are the long-term implications of this route for your academic career?

b)      Get plenty of teaching experience. Put yourself in the shoes of your future employers: what are they going to want? Any institution is going to want you to demonstrate your passion for student engagement and expertise in teaching. This means getting involved in as many situations as possible where you teach, assess or support students’ learning. There are plenty of opportunities to do this at UCL, and UCL Arena can support you in these endeavours – including providing a pathway towards a nationally recognised teaching award.

– Hilary Moor, Careers Consultant, Careers Group University of London

The Brilliant Club: teaching opportunities for doctoral and post-doctoral researchers

By uczjvwa, on 2 September 2014

The Brilliant Club is an award winning charity that recruits, trains and places doctoral and post-doctoral researchers in low participation schools to deliver programmes of university-style tutorials to small groups of high performing pupils.

We will be running a drop-in centre at UCL to introduce researchers to the programme on the morning of Tuesday 23rd September. To book a slot, please email Dr Mary Henes at mary@thebrilliantclub.org.

During our autumn placements, our PhD Tutors will work with twelve high-performing 10-13 year old pupils, delivering a series of six tutorials that takes them beyond the curriculum and helps them to develop the knowledge, skills and ambition necessary to secure places at top universities. Successful candidates typically deliver a pre-designed course and modify it to include aspects of their own research interests. Courses include ‘Evolution’, ’Turning Points in English History’ and ‘Could the stars float in the bath?’

Our training programme is delivered by qualified teachers and focuses on learning theory and teaching technique. The first tutorial takes place at our launch trips, where tutors accompany pupils on a visit to a highly-selective university. The in-school tutorials are each one hour long, and pupils complete the programme with an extended assignment which tutors mark before delivering the final tutorial.

Tutors are paid £450 for a single placement, and there are opportunities to take part in more than one placement in the autumn and over the following terms with older pupils.

To find out more or apply now, please visit www.thebrilliantclub.org/apply