Reflecting on Finance & Consultancy Careers for Researchers

By uczjipo, on 30 October 2019

Finance and Consultancy Month… let’s reflect:

As Finance and Consultancy month comes to a close, we are reflecting on what has been an insightful and engaging collection of events. Whilst taking the leap out of academia can seem like a daunting and unfamiliar prospect our alumni and professionals have given us plenty of reassuring and motivational messages throughout the month. The first key area of reflection for this month is therefore on transitioning.

Transitioning out of academia and into a corporate role…How do you deal with any attached stigma?

1. It’s your career path! Everyone takes a different route to find their thing – don’t be afraid to acknowledge that academia may not be for you. Check out our previous blog post on this
2. There is a world of research beyond academia. So many roles within finance and consultancy are research-focused – Check out our post by economist Keith Lai for ideas
3. Your interests can be applied across the sector. Branching out and exploring other options can broaden your horizons, make you more employable and expand the practical reach of your research expertise. Consultancy is a great way to do this, offering your expertise to support businesses to grow.

Moving between academic and non-academic arenas, is it possible?

1. Yes! Many people still contribute to academic papers alongside their roles, if publishing is your passion there are always ways to continue…
2. Some organisations hire for roles with this in mind, creating and publishing research can be part of your job! Check out a previous blog on this
3. Balancing the two may not be your thing. Many finance or consulting roles require strong research, writing and publishing skills – just utilised in a more corporate setting

The best and worst parts of a non-academic career, is it really for me?

1. Stability, consistency and great benefits. The biggest response to this from both our finance and consultancy panels was the increased stability, lack of stress around funding, working more collaborative and less sporadic work schedules.
2. It all depends on what you want… teamwork, deadlines, short projects and managing client needs are central to careers in finance and consultancy, so, if this isn’t for you, it may not be the right career path. Don’t Panic! There are plenty of industries where other skills are more suited. Key an eye on our blog for more case studies.
3. Longer more intense working hours and less autonomy. Despite this, many of our contributors mentioned the increased satisfaction from shorter lead times and a better work-life balance.

So, what does this all mean fo you?

After hearing from professionals working across roles as consultants, economists, data scientists and traders the biggest piece of advice about their industry is to decide if it really is for you. Map out your skills, your interests, what drives you, how you like to work and see if that aligns with a career in the Finance or Consultancy worlds.

For example, in consultancy the key skills required are:
Teamwork, problem-solving, creativity, confidence under pressure and adaptability

Often consultants are working towards:
Fast-paced project delivery
managing a diverse portfolio of clients
and engaging a variety of industries

Roles are more structured and strong commitment is needed:
Core working hours mean more stability but overtime is frequently required to deliver projects
Consultants may work client-side within a given week, so travel is important
Managing projects within cross-organisational teams mean flexibility is key

These are the key aspects to explore before diving into applications. Is this for me? and what kind of working lifestyle do I want? 

Finding an industry where your skills as research are valued and utilised may seem tricky but you can find roles across all sectors and industry. This is where our themed months come in to play, if you’ve decided finance or consultancy organisations are not for you, join us on another themed month and hear more about careers in UK & Global Health, Data Science & Data Analytics, Communications and Research, Government, Policy and Higher Education…. the list continues! Our speakers have come from backgrounds in physics, biology, maths, humanities and more ending up in completely different industry utilising those same core skills they learnt in research.

Come along to our events and find out how your skills are so transferable across the sectors and explore how you could branch out to support an organisation to develop!

Check out our full programme of researcher events on our website today!

Finance & Consultancy Month – Guest Feature

By uczjipo, on 24 October 2019

Researchers Guest Feature:

Taking a closer look at our monthly employer-led events topics

During our themed months, we will be taking a deeper look into each key topic. In these posts, we will be investigating what a career in this industry looks like for a researcher. Each month there will be insights from an expert who has been through the process of transitioning out of academia. Each contributor will give us their key tips for following a non-academic career path whilst letting us in on the things they wished they had known before taking the leap. Find out about the roles their organisation has to offer and get some key tips on applying.

This month it’s all about Finance…

Taking a deeper dive into the financial industry from the perspective of an economist specifically looking at what this is like for a researcher, we have our first contributor – Keith Lai. 

Keith Lai is an Economic Advisor for the Office for National Statistics and completed his BSc (2008), MSc (2011) and PhD Economics (2018) all in UCL. His thesis was on applied economics of crime, using an individual-level dataset held by the Ministry of Justice, where he worked for three years as an assistant economist between 2009 and 2012, to study the micro effect of criminal justice punishment on the labour market and reoffending outcomes. 

Tell us about your role and the organisation you work with…

I am an economist working in the Office for National Statistics, the largest independent producer of official statistics and the recognised national statistical institute of the UK. The ONS publish a wide range of economic and social statistics that inform every public debate you see and hear, such as GDP, inflation, unemployment, international trade, government finances, gender pay gap, crime, etc.
Largely speaking, economists have two roles here. Firstly, we provide commentary on the economic and social statistics that ONS publish, to help the public understand the latest development in the UK economy and society. Secondly, we research into the best methods of measuring the economy and wellbeing, taking advantage of the unprecedented opportunities that big data offer.

Whats a brief overview of your industry? are there opportunities specifically for researchers?

The civil service rarely looks specifically for PhD candidates (in the departments I have worked in any way!) but there are definitely roles that researchers could slot into and perform really well, such as in the Government Analysis Function which covers economists, statisticians, data scientists, operational researchers, social researchers, etc.

Describe your PhD background, is it related to your current role?

My PhD thesis was on the Economics of Crime and Criminal Justice, where I empirically tested at the individual level the impact of criminal justice punishment on labour market outcomes.
The topic area of my PhD is not particularly related to the projects I am currently doing at the ONS, but the skills that I had picked up, such as critical thinking, data manipulation, time management, public speaking, etc. are all transferrable to my current career.

Did you find the transition out of academia challenging?

I actually found the change very pleasant! Towards the end of my PhD, I missed working in big teams and interacting with people from a diverse background. I also enjoy being able to completely switch off after work.

Is there anything you wish you’d been told when looking to transition out of academia

Being in academia can be a bit like inside a bubble and you can easily feel stuck to stay, or lost about where to go next if you leave, but it really is perfectly fine to take the leap.

Any advice/tips specifically for Postdocs? 

One must have mastered many difficult skills to survive in academia for any length of time. Without a doubt, those skills are fully transferrable to jobs outside academia and someone in possession of them are very likely to succeed in whatever they choose to do. The difficulty might be in trying to look for a position that perfectly fits their expertise and research interest, which by then could be quite a niche and narrow. I think being open-minded about different challenges and opportunities could help the transition out of academia.

What is your top tip for researchers when applying to your organisation?

Be enthusiastic about contributing to the public good!

A big thank you to Keith for sharing their insights into the industry and what life after a PhD is like! Want to hear more? Come along to our events and hear from PhD level speakers across a range of industries all with valuable insights into what life is like after academia.

What’s coming up! Check out our final event of this month

But, how do I know if I like it or not? If you’re considering a career in consultancy but you’re unsure what the day to day might look like, come along to this taster session to give it a go!

Employer Taster Session in Consultancy
Tues 29 Oct 19, 12.30 – 2.30pm

This employer-led careers taster session for consultancy will allow you to experience a hypothetical task which someone in this role would undertake.
This is a practical opportunity to gain experience of a career in consultancy. Participate in a hypothetical task to improve your understanding of the industry and the types of careers available whilst networking with an organisation which hires researchers. This employer taster will highlight a career which has opportunities spanning across science, business, technology, data, the arts and more.
Research students and staff book here

Here’s how to book your space

This term we will be taking all research student and staff bookings for all researcher career events including both employer-led events and careers consultant-led workshops via the MyUCLCareers portal. If you’re a research student you’ll already have an account, just sign in with your standard UCL single sign-on user ID and password. For research staff, register your details with us to set up access to a myUCLCareers account – click here to see the guide.  By streamlining our offerings through one platform we hope to offer you clearer, more detailed and consistent event content.

Any questions? Email us at careers.researchers@ucl.ac.uk

What else can you do to get career ready?

Alongside the employer-led sessions, we have our careers consultant-led programme of events. Details of the whole programme can be found here. These programmes are for you. Learn a new skill, find out about an industry, or even just ask some questions to help settle your concerns – Get ahead of the game and take these opportunities to explore opportunities and develop yourself and your commercial awareness before you’ve even left academia.

Introducing your first researchers’ careers month…

By uczjipo, on 1 October 2019

Welcome to Finance & Consultancy Month!

Explore your career options beyond academia

This year we have a whole new set of events giving you the opportunity to meet employers, discover new industries and learn key skills. Whether you are a member of research staff looking for a career change or a research student wanting to explore non-academic options – these events are for you! The term is set out into themed months focusing on a particular industry of choice based on the most desirable career destinations for researchers. Within these themed months we have a plethora of skills sessions, forums and blog content for you to engage with.

*For research students this programme of events is a part of the Doctoral Skills Development Programme and therefore training points are attributable*

Thinking about attending but not sure if it’s for you?

Research skills are becoming more vital to industries across the board, with the financial and consultancy industries being no different. For our first themed month, we have loads of chances for you to meet alumni working in these industries and gain vital careers support from organisations which hire at PhD/researcher level. All the alumni attending events completed PhDs and are therefore great examples of the kind of roles you could get into in these industries. Specifically, those roles which you may never have considered. Each themed month is designed to be accommodating to all degree backgrounds and therefore speakers and hosts will cover a wide range of industries and careers within finance and consultancy across the traditional and non-traditional sectors.

Whilst transitioning out of academia can be an unfamiliar and daunting prospect, there are tons of amazing organisations looking for researchers with specialist knowledge that can support their business. The financial and consultancy industries not exempt from this, and are some of the biggest research recruiters in the corporate business world. Whilst your background may not be in business-related subjects, the skills that you have learnt through studying both independently, as part of cross-college teams and the strategic planning of your research projects means you may have many of those basic core competencies required in this sector.

Interested? Here’s what’s coming up

During our forums and workshops, you will have the chance to meet recruitment specialists and alumni working in these industries – read more below! Alongside this, we will be having guest blogs and interviews from alumni who will be attending events to talk you through their career path. So even if you can’t attend an event,  there are still plenty of ways for you to learn more about the industry. Want more specialist support? Here at careers, we have a dedicated team of experts who can support your researcher journey. Find out more here.

Interested in supporting businesses and individuals with your research expertise? Consultancy could be for you. Come along to our consultancy panel and hear from consultants working in the life sciences, financial services, health, and technology sectors.

Employer Forum: Careers in Consultancy
Weds 16 Oct 19, 5.30 – 7pm

As a rapidly growing industry that requires people with strong problem solving, research and specialist skills, consultancy firms are increasingly recruiting researchers. This forum gives you the opportunity to get an insight into consultancy from PhD level speakers who have paved a career for themselves in this industry. Find out more about what it takes to be a consultant, the wide range of industries and specialisms this covers and gain tips on how to get into this competitive industry. This is a key opportunity to gain an insight into a career you may not have previously considered.
Research students and staff book here

Capco, a global management and technology consultancy dedicated to the financial services and energy industries will be attending this event. I asked their representatives, Chris & Steve, both UCL Alumni and PhD holders to give us a key tip for researchers that they wish they’d know.

“Don’t underestimate how valuable your transferable skills are, and don’t be afraid of taking a step back in order to progress on a new path. When I started at Capco I was much older than my peers, and felt overeducated too, but that PhD experience built my intellectual confidence, my work ethic, my ability to deal with and explain complex problems and those things helped me to have a lot of success and work on some really interesting problems in my new industry” Chris Rahnejat & Steve Harrison, Capco

Find out more about who’s coming and what to expect on the event booking page

Wondering what your options are for a career in finance? There are tones of opportunities that could utilise your research skills. Come along to this panel covering careers in analysis, economics, forecasting, risk management and more.

Employer Forum: Careers in Finance
Mon 21 Oct 19, 5.30 – 7.30pm

Research skills are increasingly important to the finance industry with analysis, problem-solving and technical skills being ranked highly in a potential candidate. This forum gives you the opportunity to get an insight into finance from PhD level speakers who have paved a career for themselves in this industry. Find out more about what a career in finance encompasses, the wide range of industries and specialisms this covers and gain tips on how to find a researcher role. This is a key opportunity to gain an insight into a career you may not have previously considered.
Research students and staff book here

As an Economics Adviser for the Office for National Statistics, our first speaker on this panel Keith Lai has expertise on financial statistics. Keith provides in-depth economic analysis on important economic indicators such as GDP, inflation, unemployment etc., to enhance the public’s understanding of the latest development in the economy. We asked Keith “What’s your advice for someone looking for a role outside of academia?” 

“be brave in branching out of your initial research expertise – all the skills developed during the PhD have way more transferability than you may think!” Keith Lai, ONS

Find out more about who’s coming and what to expect on the event booking page

But, how do I know if I like it or not? If you’re considering a career in consultancy but you’re unsure what the day to day might look like, come along to this taster session to give it a go!

Employer Taster Session in Consultancy
Tues 29 Oct 19, 12.30 – 2.30pm

This employer-led careers taster session for consultancy will allow you to experience a hypothetical task which someone in this role would undertake. 
This is a practical opportunity to gain experience of a career in consultancy. Participate in a hypothetical task to improve your understanding of the industry and the types of careers available whilst networking with an organisation which hires researchers. This employer taster will highlight a career which has opportunities spanning across science, business, technology, data, the arts and more.
Research students and staff book here

Here’s how to book your space

This term we will be taking all research student and staff bookings for all researcher career events including both employer-led events and careers consultant-led workshops via the MyUCLCareers portal. If you’re a research student you’ll already have an account, just sign in with your standard UCL single sign-on user ID and password. For research staff, register your details with us to set up access to a myUCLCareers account – click here to see the guide.  By streamlining our offerings through one platform we hope to offer you clearer, more detailed and consistent event content.

Any questions? Email us at careers.researchers@ucl.ac.uk

Research students – As this programme of events is a course part of the doctoral Skills development programme training points are still attributable.
All careers workshops and Forums run within the Doctoral Skills Development Programme are worth 1 training point. You must log this yourself on your Research Log – for further information on training points please refer to the Doctoral Skills Development programme website and follow the how-to guide

What else can you do to get career ready?

Alongside the employer-led sessions, we have our careers consultant-led programme of events. Details of the whole programme can be found here

We have separate Careers Consultant-led programmes of academic and non-academic career workshops. These specialist sessions are open to both research staff and students with some dedicated sessions for each.

Workshops are repeated throughout the year covering topics such as:

• Academic career planning
• Effective academic applications
• Effective academic interviews
• Identifying strengths, interests & values
• Finding non-academic jobs
• Marketing yourself (sessions on applications, interviews, LinkedIn)
• Workshops are repeated regularly throughout the year.

These programmes are for you. Learn a new skill, find out about an industry, or even just ask some questions to help settle your concerns – Get ahead of the game and take these opportunities to explore opportunities and develop yourself and your commercial awareness before you’ve even left academia.

Researchers Employer-led Events Programme

By uczjipo, on 21 August 2019

Welcome to the new 19/20 Employer-led events programme for Researchers

This year we have a whole new set of events giving you the opportunity to meet employers, discover new industries and learn key skills. Whether you are research staff looking for a career change or a research student wanting to explore non-academic options – these events are for you! The term is set out in themed months focusing on a particular industry of choice based on the most desirable career destinations for researchers. Within these themed months we have a plethora of skills sessions, forums and blog content for you to engage with.

*For research students this programme of events is a part of the Doctoral Skills Development Programme and therefore training points are attributable*

 Introduction to the Programme

Each themed month will include a specific forum and a workshop session focusing either on a key skill or offering you the chance to try out what the day to day looks like for that role.

Employer Forums:

Forums are an opportunity for you to hear from PhD level alumni working in non-academic roles. Each speaker will introduce themselves, their career path and offer any key pieces of advice or tips they’ve learnt along the way as a researcher. Then it’s over to you! Ask any questions about the industry, roles, what it’s like to be in a non-academic roles as a PhD holder… Anything that is concerning you about this industry and the opportunities available to researchers. Finally you will have a chance to introduce yourself and get their contact details!

Contacts are key to career progression so don’t miss out on a chance to expand your network.

Skills Sessions:

This year, the skills sessions are an opportunity for you to learn a bit more about a key industry skill and practice this with a real employer. These skills focus on commercial awareness, leadership and self-reflection.  

Employer Taster Session:

The employer taster sessions are a chance for you to get hands on experience of a role. These workshops will allow you to take on a hypothetical task that someone in this role may undertake. Learn a new skill associated with a role and find out whether this is for you.

Employability Q&A’s:

In these events we will be bringing together a selection of researcher recruitment specialists from a range of industries to discuss a key aspect of employability. This includes, application processes, CVs and assessment centres.  

Keep your eye out on our blog to see what’s coming up in each month and read some honest and informative case studies from PhD holders working in industry

How to book your space?

This term we will be taking all research student and staff bookings for all researcher careers events including both employer-led events and careers consultant led workshops via the MyUCLCareers portal. If you’re a research student you’ll already have an account, just sign in with your standard UCL single sign-on user ID and password. For research staff register your details with us to set up access to a myUCLCareers account – click here to see the guide.  By streamlining our offerings through one platform we hope to offer you clearer, more detailed and consistent event content.

Any questions? Email us at careers.researchers@ucl.ac.uk

Research Students – All careers workshops and Forums run within the Doctoral Skills Development Programme are worth 1 training point. You must log this yourself on your Research Log – for further info on training points please refer to the DSDP website or follow the how-to guide

This Terms Employer-led Events Programme

Exploring career options beyond Academia:
Research Alumni & Employers networking, 30^th September, 5.30-7.30pm

Kicking off our autumn term of events we have an opportunity for you to meet employers and alumni working in various industries in an informal networking session. Come along and practice your networking skills. The best way to improve at networking is to practice therefore this session gives you an informal way to do this whilst meeting some amazing organisations!
Research students and staff book here                    

October 2019 – Finance & Consultancy Month

Employer Forum: Careers in Consultancy, Wednesday 16^th October 5.30-7pm

As a rapidly growing industry that requires people with strong problem solving, research and specialist skills, consultancy firms are increasingly recruiting researchers. This forum gives you the opportunity to get an insight into consultancy from PhD level speakers who have paved a career for themselves in this industry. Find out more about what it takes to be a consultant, the wide range of industries and specialisms this covers and gain tips on how to get into this competitive industry. This is a key opportunity to gain an insight into a career you may not have previously considered.
Research students and staff book here                    

Employer Forum: Careers in Finance, Monday 21^st October 5.30-7.30pm

Research skills are increasingly important to the finance industry with analysis, problem solving and technical skills being ranked highly in a potential candidate. This forum gives you the opportunity to get an insight into finance from PhD level speakers who have paved a career for themselves in this industry. Find out more about what a career in finance encompasses, the wide range of industries and specialisms this covers and gain tips on how to find a researcher role. This is a key opportunity to gain an insight into a career you may not have previously considered.
Research students and staff book here        

Employer Taster Session in Consultancy, Tuesday 29^th October 12.30-2pm

This employer-led careers taster session for consultancy will allow you experience a hypothetical task which someone in this role would undertake. 
This is a practical opportunity to gain experience of a career in consultancy. Participate in a hypothetical task to improve your understanding of the industry and the types of careers available whilst networking with an organisation which hires researchers. This employer taster will highlight a career which has opportunities spanning across science, business, technology, data, the arts and more.
Research students and staff book here        

November 2019 – UK & Global Health Month

Skills Beyond Academia Session:
Commercial Awareness in the Public Sector, Monday 11^th November 12.30-2pm

Commercial awareness is a key skill to learn that proves you, as a candidate, are conscious of the economic and political trends in your desired industry. 
Research is key to understanding a business, its place in the market and the economic and political factors it faces. This session will therefore support you in utilising your research skills to develop commercial awareness. Whilst this session is focused on the UK & Global Health sector the commercial awareness skills you will gain will be transferable to any industry.
Research students and staff book here  

Careers in UK & Global Health, Monday 25^th November 5.30-7.30pm

A career in UK & Global health allows you to use your skills in research to improve the lives of local, national or even international communities. 
This forum will give you the opportunity to get an insight into the UK & Global Health sector from PhD level speakers who have paved a career for themselves in this industry. Find out more about what a career in public health encompasses, the wide range of industries and specialisms this covers and gain tips on how to find a researcher role. This is a key opportunity to gain an insight into a career you may not have previously considered.
Research students and staff book here                    

December 2019 – Data Analysis & Data Science Month

Careers in Data Science and Data Analysis, Thursday 5^th December 5.30-7.30pm

Skills in research, analysis and data presentation are vital to the data science industry and is why increasingly organisations are looking to hire researchers. 
This forum will give you the opportunity to get an insight into the data science and data analysis sector from PhD level speakers who have paved a career for themselves in this industry. Find out more about what a career in data encompasses, the wide range of industries and specialisms this covers and gain tips on how to find a researcher role. This is a key opportunity to gain an insight into a career you may not have previously considered.
Research students and staff book here  

Employer Taster Session in Data, Monday 9^th December 12.30-2pm

This employer-led taster session will allow you experience a hypothetical task which someone in a data analysis role would undertake. This is a practical opportunity to gain real-life experience of a career in data gaining tips and guidance from an expert in this field. Participate in a hypothetical task to improve your understanding of the industry and the types of careers available whilst networking with an organisation which hires researchers. This employer taster will highlight a career which has opportunities spanning across industries such as science, business, technology, data, the arts and more.
Research students and staff book here        

Careers Consultant led Programme

Alongside the employer-led sessions we have our careers consultant led programme of events. Details of the whole programme can be found here

We have separate Careers Consultant led programmes of academic career workshops for research students and research staff while our non-academic career workshops are open to both research staff and students.

Workshops are repeated throughout the year covering topics such as:

• Academic career planning
• Effective academic applications
• Effective academic interviews
• Identifying strengths, interests & values
• Finding non-academic jobs
• Marketing yourself (sessions on applications, interviews, LinkedIn)
• Workshops are repeated regularly throughout the year.

These programmes are for you. Learn a new skill, find out about an industry or even just ask some questions to help settle your concerns – Get ahead of the game and take these opportunities to explore opportunities and develop yourself and your commercial awareness before you’ve even left academia.

Enhancing university teaching for a living

By uczjsdd, on 19 August 2019

Dr Alex Standen has a PhD in Italian Studies, and now works at UCL as Associate Director, Early Career Academic and Research Supervisor Development, in the Arena Centre. Alex helps researchers every day as part of her job, and she kindly agreed to help you even further by telling us her career story.

Tell us about your current role and organisation.  

I work here at UCL in the Arena Centre for Research-Based Education. We work across UCL to support colleagues to enhance their teaching and improve the student experience in their departments. I am one of three Associate Directors and have oversight of all our training and development of PhD students who teach, new Lecturers and Teaching Fellows, Personal Tutors and Research Supervisors.

How did you move from academia to your current role?

During my writing up year I was also employed as a Teaching Fellow in my department, a role that I continued for a year post-PhD. I loved teaching and working closely with students in departmental roles such as Admissions Tutor, Year Abroad/Erasmus Coordinator and Personal Tutor, but it left no time for research. By chance, my partner was offered the opportunity to spend a year in New Zealand and we leapt at the chance: I had been at the same institution since I was an undergraduate and, while I loved my department and role, I needed a change of scenery and to give myself some time and space to focus on my research. Only that wasn’t what happened! I found I had little enthusiasm to re-visit my PhD research and no new projects I wanted to pursue; instead I was gravitating back to roles involving students. Back in the UK I got a job here at UCL as Education Officer in the Faculty of Brain Sciences which gave me so many valuable insights into HE administration, student support and wellbeing, quality assurance and enhancement, and the wider HE landscape. It was also in a Faculty whose research was so far removed from my own that I got an amazing insight into disciplines I had previously known nothing about. Working in the Faculty offered me a chance to get to know lots of the central teams at UCL and as soon as I got to know and understand about the work the Arena Centre was doing I knew that was where I wanted to be!

What does a normal working day look like for you?

It is a complete mix! I am rarely at my desk, and more often to be found delivering sessions, talking to colleagues and departments about their teaching, supporting them to gain professional recognition for their education-related roles, or  liaising with other teams like the Doctoral School and Student Support and Wellbeing. Since becoming Associate Director, I also now manage a small team and am involved in finance and strategic planning conversations which has been a big learning curve!

What are the best things about working in your role?

Meeting so many inspiring colleagues from across the institution and feeling like the work we are doing is actually having an impact on students.

What are the biggest challenges you face in your work?

Not everyone is keen to hear from us! Lots of colleagues, understandably, have so many competing pressures that they just don’t have time to think about their teaching role on top of everything else. But when we do manage to convince them to make even a small change it makes it all worthwhile!

Is a PhD essential for your role?

No, but lots of experience of teaching in HE is essential, and so is a broad understanding of the HE environment. My PhD gave me the confidence to present in front of a range of audiences, to consume large amounts of information quickly and critically, to be persuasive, and to manage my time effectively – all of which are absolutely key to my role.

What’s the progression like?

There is an absolute wealth of roles in HE beyond teaching and research and I have been able to progress quickly. Centres like ours exist in all universities so there are also opportunities to move between institutions. But I have no intention of going anywhere anytime soon!

What top tips would you pass on to researchers interested in this type of work?

Treat every job with the seriousness and commitment that you give to your research role, and carry it out to the best of your abilities as you never know where it will lead. When I first came back to the UK after New Zealand I wasn’t getting shortlisted for professional services roles in HE, which I now see is because I was still presenting myself as a teacher-researcher. But at the time my main concern was financial, so I joined a temping agency which specialised in HE roles and the first role I was placed in was here at UCL as an admin assistant in the Faculty of Brain Sciences…

Facilitating research – helping bring money to a university

By uczjsdd, on 1 August 2019

By Jana Dankovicova

Dr Jennifer Hazelton has a PhD in Civil Engineering  from Newcastle University, and now works as a Senior School Research Facilitator in the BEAMS Research Coordination Office at UCL. She is talking in detail about her role, highlights and challenges, as well as giving tips for researchers who would like to follow a similar path.

• Tell us about your job.

I really enjoy my job, as I work closely with researchers and feel I can make a real difference to their chances of having successful applications for grant funding. I am Senior Research Facilitator in the Office of the Vice-Provost (Research), covering the BEAMS School (Faculties of Built Environment, Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences). I lead a sub-team within the BEAMS Research Coordination Office with responsibility for providing support for Fellowship applications, Global Challenges Research Fund and Doctoral Training across BEAMS, and the Environment Research Domain across UCL. My job is very varied, often hectic with short deadlines and competing pressures, but I have a lovely team and really enjoy the buzz of helping people with proposals and contributing towards UCL’s targets for research income. I am also co-Chair of the Overseas Development Assistance (ODA) Operational Group, where we share best practice and common or specific issues in global research projects, then report and make recommendations to academic and senior leadership committees.

• How did you move from academia to your current role?

I never intended to join academia, but after a job as a Research Associate led to my PhD and postdoctoral role it looked as though that’s where I might be headed. I hated the uncertainty of short term contracts, however, and realised that I had most enjoyed supporting our funding applications and writing, rather than the research itself. I applied for a Research Coordinator job within a virtual institute newly set up at my previous university, which was a crossover between academia and application support, and offered the permanent contract I needed. I gradually did less and less research, and found that I didn’t miss it, so I knew this was the right career direction for me. When I moved on, it was to a full Professional Services role as a Strategic Research Facilitator at UCL and I moved up to my current role after a spell of maternity leave. I recently observed that I am working at Associate Professor equivalent, and doubt whether I would have made it to this level by now if I had stayed on an academic path.

• What does a normal working day look like for you?

I do a weekly surgery giving 1:1 support for researchers submitting applications for funding, so have to schedule in time to read those applications. I try to avoid doing them at my desk, so work from home once a week to read or write, and otherwise go through the proposals on the train during my commute. I am responsible for overseeing internal procedures to limit numbers of fellowship bids where schemes have institutional caps, which can take a lot of coordinating – particularly for new schemes. My team are experienced and increasingly manage these processes on their own, but we go through the details and try to assess whether we are working in the most effective way to give the best support to applicants. We provide training for researchers on applying for funding, so I deliver sessions for individual departments, faculties and the careers service. I really enjoy facilitating workshops and delivering training, but we try to target advice for the audience and give bespoke insights, as well as responding to feedback to continually improve our service, so quite a lot of preparation is required. As line manager for my team, I take their professional development very seriously. I meet fortnightly, and I like to be well prepared for those meetings. I meet fortnightly with our Director to report back and plan ahead. On a daily basis we will get requests for help with very short turnaround, whether that might be to draft a letter of support from the Vice-Provost Research, set up a mock interview or give feedback on a response to reviewer comments. We always try to fit these activities in, often pooling resources as a team to find time. I very rarely have two days the same in a week, as I work flexibly to fit around childcare, but that certainly keeps things interesting! There are members of the team who work set hours in the office and don’t take any work home, which they really appreciate, but for me it works better to have less time at my desk and finish my work elsewhere when I need to. As long as we get the work done, working patterns can be flexible, which I really value.

• What are the best things about working in your role?

The variety of people and subjects I get to work with is fantastic, because of the breadth of the BEAMS School. The RCO team is also varied, but we work together really well and each bring different perspectives and expertise so are always learning from each other. The atmosphere in our office is very collegiate, and we share a lot of our work but also personal experiences which has helped us form a close knit unit. I think personally that the flexibility, visibility and security of the role are valuable. A lot of the researchers we work with are very appreciative of the help we give. As someone who thrives off supporting others, this is a great bonus for me.

• What are the downsides/challenges?

There are some regular tasks which involve a lot of emailing around academics to request help with mock interviews or reviewing, often at very short notice. Academics are generally extremely busy and it can be very difficult to keep asking them to do extra work when you know how much they already have to do. We also have to be very resilient to failure, because the reality is that only a small percentage of research applications are funded. Most academics will only submit a few applications each year, but we are working on new applications every week. When you have worked extremely hard with someone on an important proposal that they (and you) are strongly committed to, it can be difficult to take the news that it hasn’t been funded. Similarly, but almost harder, when we run internal selection panels we have to tell unsuccessful applicants that their application hasn’t made it through the internal stage, which can be difficult. Finally, we are often working under pressure to tight deadlines, which are not always easy to predict. So this job wouldn’t suit someone who needed a very structured and predictable workload.

• Is a PhD essential for your role? 

Having a PhD (or equivalent) is an essential criterion for this role, but not because of the subject-specific expertise. We all review grants in all areas, not just our own subjects. Having a PhD helps us to be more credible in the eyes of the academics we support. I don’t actually think it is or should be a necessary requirement for applying to do the job, because the skills I need for my role were not learned doing my PhD, but it is one indicator of academic experience which definitely helps.

• Where would someone go in their career from here?

Research support is a rapidly expanding field in Professional Services. I think the skills are very transferable to research in other sectors, but the university sector is UK and worldwide so there is a lot of choice. There are currently roles across 4 pay grades in our team, so plenty of scope for progression. UCL has 3 Research Coordination Offices across its 4 Schools, so there are often secondments or jobs available. I am also going to do a secondment at EPSRC, one of our key funders, for 6 months which will give me some insight into how our grants get reviewed and assessed – which I am really looking forward to.

• What top tips would you give a researcher interested in this type of work?

Do some shadowing – we have set up shadowing opportunities with our team for people interested in research facilitation, and this has proved very helpful. Also, there are often secondment roles across the three RCOs, so keep an eye out for those. Get as much experience as you can reading and reviewing applications from your peers, and contributing to applications to different funders.

Minimising the trauma of leaving academia

By uczjsdd, on 1 July 2019

As a careers consultant helping researchers who are considering leaving academia, I gather case studies from people who’ve already ‘made it out’. I ask ex-academics how they weighed up the decision to leave, explored other options, and marketed themselves to employers. It helps me put together practical tips. I think researchers find that stuff useful.

But practical tips only address half the struggle. The process of leaving academia can be an emotional one, and it’s important to recognise this, especially given findings of above average rates of mental health issues within PhD students and academic staff. Crucially for us at UCL Careers, we often see these negative emotions impacting researchers’ ability to get on with the sometimes complex and demanding tasks involved in changing career.

So here are five insights I’ve gained from people who’ve been through these emotions and come out the other end, and from my own experience of leaving academia. Bearing them in mind may help reduce the stress of the move, and help you concentrate on making it a successful one.

1) View your PhD and post-doc years as a job

Many researchers see their time in academia as an insignificant extension of their undergraduate degree, just another qualification. What a depressing way to view years spent developing marketable skills, growing as a person, and setting and achieving complex goals! Maybe it was so long ago that you’ve forgotten, but your PhD and post-doc years are nothing like your undergraduate years. They’ve been a job. Think of them that way. Speak about them that way. It will make you more attractive to employers, and more confident in your own experience and abilities.

2) Your PhD years are gone, and you’re not getting them back!

People hate losing things. Tversky and Kahneman’s Prospect theory tells us they hate losing things more than they like gaining things. This is a problem for career changers. They lend more weight to what may be lost in a transition than to what may be gained. And maybe that’s ok. It’s natural. In fact, researchers tell us it’s an evolutionarily advantageous way to process risk. But it becomes particularly problematic for career changers when they focus on losing the past; when, for instance, researchers don’t want to change field for fear of ‘wasting’ their PhD years. If we’re lucky enough to make it there, we may well all be working until we’re 80+. If you love your subject, by all means try to find work related to it. But if you don’t, don’t let a few already-spent years dictate what you’ll do between now and 80!

3) Be honest with yourself

A huge part of career exploration is researching yourself, your interests, values, and skills. This can be tough, especially if an honest evaluation contradicts your ideal image of yourself, or the image you present to others. Many ex-academics I’ve interviewed struggled with this. There was the PhD who was proud of being seen as ‘the numbers woman’, yet had to face the fact she didn’t really enjoy data analysis. Or the PhD who’d always seen himself as career-driven above everything else, but had to admit he valued work-life balance more than progression. Or the countless ex-academics I’ve met who at some point had to accept they just weren’t as passionate about their chosen subject as they’d initially believed.

Accepting your true motivations, interests, and skills can be hard if it leads you to conclude your current role isn’t right for you. But it’s an essential step in opening up a world of possibilities that are right for you. And what’s more, there’s evidence that having a strong sense of your career identity makes you a happier person overall! Our How Will I Know What I’ll Like? workshop and one-to-one careers appointments can help you with this process, and so can sites like jobmi.

4) Remember a new identity can take time to wear in

Our career identity is more than just our current job description; it can be core to how we perceive ourselves. So a change in career path can represent a threat to our sense of self. If I am not an academic researcher, who am I? Adopting a new identity can be uncomfortable. And this is made even harder when, as is more than likely, the people we regularly socialise with have an identity resembling our old one. Your post-doc friends may find it especially difficult to understand why you’re leaving a life they still enjoy.

But forming a strong narrative around your decision can help. Connect the dots. What attracts you to your new direction? And what are the links – in topic, skills, people – between your academic role and the role you’re moving to? The story will of course still take time to ‘fit’ properly. But that’s ok. Rest assured, once you move into a new position, and gain new colleagues whose story is more similar to yours, eventually it will.

5) Relax: you don’t need a plan…but there’s no such thing as dumb luck

Academia offers an obvious progression: PhD to post-doc to lecturer to professor. If you leave, you may feel anxious to find another clear path. But few paths are as clear. A common theme emerges when I ask ex-academics about their careers: chance. Many didn’t leave academia knowing they would end up where they are today.  They were just “lucky” enough to stumble across something that suited them. But luck is never the only force at play. These PhDs had taken steps that put them in the right place to spot and seize opportunities. In the careers world we call this “planned happenstance”, a career theory that acknowledges the effects of chance occurrences on careers, while asserting that people have some influence over their own luck.

So if you have no definite plan, that’s ok. But don’t leave it all to chance. Identify your interests and follow them. Develop skills you enjoy using. Take an interest in people. Say ‘yes’ to things. In this way, you can ensure you’re always growing and learning, which will improve your confidence. And when an opportunity arises, you’ll be ready to grab it.

If you found this blog useful, you may want to check out our Managing Your Career Change Emotions workshop for researchers (see our website for more details of our programme).

Fellowship application tips from UCL Research Facilitators

By uczjsdd, on 10 June 2019

Money is crucial in research, and fellowships are a great mechanism to secure the money to pursue your own research ideas. In May four of UCL’s research facilitators kindly came to UCL Careers to deliver a workshop on “Writing a Successful Fellowship Application”. All three of UCL’s Schools were covered by Dr Jen Hazelton, Jacob Leveridge, Dr Melanie Bradnam, and Pascale Fanning-Tichborne, who also brought in two current fellowship holders, Dr Miranda Sheild Johansson (Leverhulme fellow) and Dr Lluís Masanes (EPSRC Early Career Research fellow). If you missed the event, they plan to run a similar workshop with us once a term – so check out our website for updates. But in the meantime, here are 5 top tips I took away from the session:

1) Know your funders

Perhaps it sounds obvious, but you need be aware of everyone who might be keen to give you money, whether they be Research Councils, charities, trusts, societies, the EU, your home country’s government etc. You should also know how they and their various funding streams differ in their focus, their reviewers, and their approach. Some may require very scientific applications, others may prefer a lay style. If you don’t do your homework, you risk missing opportunities and pitching your project ineffectually.

To help you, UCL subscribes to GrantFinder (https://search.grantfinder.co.uk/education), which you can use to research possible funding sources. And the research facilitation offices offer one-to-one appointments where you can chat through your options (as well as get feedback on your applications – see contacts for your school here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/research/about/contact), and newsletters to which you can sign-up to ensure you don’t miss deadlines.

2) Know the deadlines. ALL the deadlines.

Some funding streams have limits on the number of applications that can be sent per institution. For these, UCL operates an internal triage system where applications are first sent to research facilitation offices who will oversee a process to determine which applications get developed for submission to the funder. The internal deadline is (obviously) before the funder deadline – so if you don’t investigate this and only work to the funder deadline, you may find you’re too late. To avoid disappointment, sign up to research facilitator newsletters, check their websites and ask around your department to see which schemes operate an internal triage system.

3) Seek collaborations, partnerships, and support BEFORE you apply

The majority of funding applications will be rejected, so it can be tempting not to approach potential academic collaborators and industry partners until you know you’ve secured the money. But this is NOT the most sensible plan. Your applications have to seem well researched and doable to convince funders to hand over their cash – if you don’t actually have collaborators on board yet, your project may not happen. And just as importantly, your collaborators may offer valuable insights and advice to strengthen your applications. Rest assured, people understand funding may not come through first time, so aim to convince people that you and your project are worthwhile, and build good working relationships that can last through more than one funding call.

4) Be specific

About everything. We all know research methods and ideas can evolve over the course of a project, but funders want to know exactly how you’re going to be spending your time and their money. It makes you seem like a good bet. Those collaborators and partners you’ve already secured (a la point 3)? What exactly will they offer you? Support? Training? Expertise? Access to equipment? Why do you need it? And why are they the right people to offer it? Which methods will you use exactly, and why? What are your key outputs? And when will they be completed? And if you really don’t know yet, then be clear how you will decide and what will influence your decision. This doesn’t mean being overly technical (unless the funder requires it). It means showing you have a clear plan.

5) Interviews really count

If a funding application process involves an interview, said interview really counts. Applications will likely be given scores/ranked in the first round, but the message from the workshop was that the scores are almost reset for the interview. So everyone is on an equal footing and in with a shot. If reviewers have highlighted weaknesses in your application, be ready to address these in your interview (and always address them in writing too if given the chance). If progress has been made in your research/plan since you first submitted the application (and these processes can take a while, so interviewers might expect progress!), this is your chance to update the panel. And practice! We offer practice interviews, and even more importantly when it comes to funding interviews, so do the research facilitators, and your supervisors/departments may well do too if you ask!

Best of luck with your applications!

Many thanks for the workshop go to:

Dr Jen Hazelton, Senior School Research Facilitator, for The Bartlett, Engineering, and Mathematical & Physical Sciences, Jacob Leveridge, Deputy Director of Research Facilitation for UCL Arts & Humanities, UCL Laws, UCL Social & Historical Sciences, the UCL School of Slavonic & East European Studies and the UCL Institute of Education, and Dr Melanie Bradnam and Pascale Fanning-Tichborne, Strategic Research Facilitators for the School of Life and Medical Sciences.

Professional Careers Beyond Academia Conference – Breakout Sessions

By uczjipo, on 3 June 2019

Conference Schedule:

9.30 – 10.00 Registration

10.00 – 13.00 Introducing Life & Health Sciences outside of Academia
Welcome by Institute of Child Health and an Introduction to UCL Careers
Keynote – GSK “Research: Bio Tech/Pharma”
Keynote – Medpace “Clinical Trials”
Keynote – Costello Medical “Science Communication”
Keynote – EY Parthenon “Life & Health Sciences Consultancy”
Q&A Session with keynotes

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch Break

14.00 – 15.15 Breakout Session
Option 1: Forum – Careers in UK and Global Health
Option 2: Forum – Careers in Government & Policy
Option 3: Workshop –  The (Career)Path Less Travelled

15.30 – 16.00 Closing Remarks
16.00 – 17.30 Networking Drinks

Last chance to sign up:

• Research Staff book your place via myUCLCareers
• Research Students book your place via the Doctoral Skills website

Meet your afternoon speakers!

 The breakout sessions are an opportunity to learn more about a specific area of health and life sciences. Choose between three great sessions covering careers in UK & Global Health, Government & Policy and a workshop on Entrepreneurial thinking. Interested in a career in public health, or becoming an advisor? The session on UK and Global Health could be for you. Fancy devising policy or working to support the healthcare system? Then our Government and Policy session could be your fit. Want to become an entrepreneur or learn key business skills? The workshop is an opportunity to hear from a UCL start-up.

Not sure which session to choose?  Find out more below:

2pm – 3.15pm: Breakout Session

• Option 1: UK and Global Health Forum
• Option 2: Government and Policy Forum
• Option 3: The (Career)Path Less Travelled

UK & Global Health Forum

Speakers will be covering areas including research, public protection, global health and public health modelling:

Dr Laura Webber

Dr Laura Webber is co-founder and COO of HealthLumen, a global population health company that uses computer simulation models to build virtual populations to quantify the long-term impact of different policy, screening and treatment interventions.

HealthLumen acquired the modelling unit of the UK Health Forum (UKHF), a policy and advocacy organisation focused on the prevention of chronic diseases. At UKHF Laura was Director of Public Health Modelling, and led a multi-disciplinary team of epidemiologists, mathematicians, analysts, and computer programmers, co-ordinating global, European and national projects. Projects included the European Commission funded project ‘EConDA’ (Economics of Chronic Diseases), the Trust For America’s Health project ‘F as in Fat’, modelling obesity across each US state (http://healthyamericans.org/assets/files/TFAH2012FasInFatFnlRv.pdf), as well as various projects for Public Health England, Cancer Research UK, and the World Bank.

Laura holds an MA (Hons) from Cambridge University and a PhD in childhood obesity from University College London (Cancer Research UK studentship). She is honorary Assistant Professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine within the Health Protection Research Unit, and an occasional advisor to the World Health Organization and World Bank. She is lead author and co-author on a number of peer-reviewed publications and major reports. Laura was nominated for the Young Investigator of the year at Europrevent, Amsterdam (2015) and recently won the Open University Future Leader Award (2018), where she is studying for an MBA.

Lukasz Aleksandrowicz

Lukasz is a Portfolio Manager at Wellcome, alongside finishing a part-time PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Wellcome is a major health research funder, and Lukasz works specifically on the Our Planet, Our Health team, which funds research on the connections between global environmental change (like climate change and its impact on food systems) and human health. In his role, Lukasz is responsible for managing a portfolio of research, developing new funding initiatives, and helping define the Wellcome Trusts funding strategy.

Before this, Lukasz worked in a number of research roles across various parts of global health, though the majority of his experience was working at the Centre for Global Health Research in Toronto, Canada. Many deaths in low- and middle-income countries happen outside the health sector and are therefore not registered, leading to a lack of basic data on which disease burdens are most prominent. The centres focus was on tracking this “invisible mortality”. In that role, Lukasz helped develop the tools and surveys that were used in fieldwork, and helped analyse the trends in data.

Lukasz’s PhD is in the area of sustainable diets and uses an interdisciplinary approach (including data on nutrition, environment and economics), to investigate how food consumption in India can be both healthy and environmentally sustainable. Lukasz’s PhD did not start his career in global health, but has rather been on-going in parallel to it. Even in his current non-academic role, the PhD has proved to be valuable training. It has built his expertise in a topic area (food systems and environment), which he now use in his role funding projects on this theme. It has also developed his ability to critically evaluate many aspects of research: how research questions are defined, how projects and teams are built around them, and whether the methods and approaches used are appropriate.

Dr Elizabeth Goodburn MBBCh DRCOG DFSRH MSc PhD FRCGP

Elizabeth is a medical doctor with wide-ranging experience in international health focusing especially on maternal and reproductive health and primary care.  After completing UK GP Training in 1985 she worked for 4 years as a Provincial Medical Officer in the Solomon Islands. Elizabeth’s subsequent international career included both long and short term assignments in Asia and Africa. Elizabeth’s research work, based at LSHTM, included collaborative health studies focusing on MCH and Reproductive Health among low income groups in W Bengal and rural Bangladesh. Elizabeth has worked for a variety of agencies, including DfID and the UN, on policy and strategy development with international partners, including several years as Chief Technical Advisor for UNFPA in Cambodia.

Elizabeth returned to UK General Practice in 2002 and was a GP Partner and Trainer in the James Wigg Practice serving a diverse inner city population in London until 2015. Elizabeth’s international work continued during this period on a consultancy basis.  From 2013 to 2017, she was Medical Director for International Programmes (S& SE Asia) at the RCGP. Since January 2018 Elizabeth has worked as a Senior Technical Advisor for the SoapBox Collaborative as part of a partnership with WaterAid in Myanmar to improve IPC in health facilities.  Elizabeth’s varied career has led to a strong commitment to health services development both in the UK NHS and internationally. Elizabeth’s work ethos is always to share experiences and foster productive partnerships based on mutual learning and respect with the aim of making good quality health care available to all.                                               

Careers in Government & Policy

Our speakers will be covering areas including medical policy, regulation, health governance and policy consultancy from organisations including:

Dr Francisco de Matos Afonso Pereira

Pharmaceutical Assessor at the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)

The MHRA is responsible for the regulation of medicines and medical devices used in the UK. This includes the authorisation of clinical trials and the evaluation and granting of Marketing Authorisation (licences) for medicinal products.

A Pharmaceutical assessor carries out the assessment of data provided in marketing authorisation initial and variation applications including those with new, wide-ranging or complex issues making appropriate recommendations and decisions in line with the protection of public health. We also provide scientific and regulatory advice to companies. Participation in international bodies such as the European Medicines Agency is common.

Francisco is a Portuguese and UK registered Pharmacist. Francisco did his undergraduate degree in Portugal and moved to London to pursue a PhD. His PhD thesis is entitled: “Sex, Drugs and Excipients: PEG 400 enhances the bioavailability of BCS class III drugs via P-glycoprotein inhibition”. The research work was conducted at the UCL School of Pharmacy and this was joint PhD with the University of Coimbra in Portugal. In this work he discussed how excipients are capable of changing drug disposition. Their role should not be underestimated. The degree to which excipients modulate drug bioavailability may be modified by sex. It is important that regulatory authorities and pharmaceutical industry take this knowledge into account during the pharmaceutical development stages of pharmaceutical products. This subject, closely related to drug product formulation, provided me with a strong foundation for my work as an assessor at the UK Regulatory Authority.

Dr Sara C Marques

Sara is a Senior Researcher at the Health Policy Partnership (HPP), a consulting company specialised in health policy. HPP works on a range of short-term projects and runs the secretariat for two well-established multidisciplinary networks, All.Can and The Heart Failure Policy Network (HFPN).

Sara’s work at HPP involves researching and writing about healthcare environments, in areas including cardiovascular disease, women’s health and personalised healthcare. Some of the reports Sara writes are external-facing, others for internal use. Sara is the Head of Programme of HFPN, an independent and multidisciplinary platform focused on raising awareness of the challenge heart failure poses to healthcare systems across Europe, and on the presentation of possible solutions to address the challenge.

Sara has a Master of Sciences of Pharmacy from the University of Lisbon, Portugal, and a PhD in Molecular Medicine from the University of Aarhus, Denmark. Sara’s PhD focused on response to treatment with doxorubicin in people living with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, specifically on the impact of microRNA and RNA expression on the development of resistance to treatment. Towards the end of her PhD, Sara realised she didn’t want to continue working in Academia, and moved on to the health policy sector. Sara took on a role of Health Research Analyst at The Economist Intelligence Unit, where she worked in the development of value-based healthcare frameworks and studies of burden of disease in Europe, Canada and Latin America. Sara also wrote critical appraisals of health research for the National Institute for Health Research. This position led Sara to her current role at HPP.

 “Academia researchers often develop a wide range of skills without even realising it – a comprehensive ‘toolbox’ that can be used across sectors. If you’re considering leaving Academia, identify your ‘toolbox’ and focus on your strengths. Put your research skills to use and identify the areas that seem to be a good fit!”

Dr Susannah Cleary

In her current role at NHS England and NHS Improvement Susannah leads or contributes to the development and delivery of strategic projects as a part of the Strategy directorate, drawing on problem-solving, project management and stakeholder engagement skills to plan and deliver work. This includes advising the CEO of the NHS and various NHS executive directors on strategy, tactics and messaging for issues affecting the NHS and its staff. Examples of specific projects Susannah has led include: benchmarking NHS hospitals’ compliance with nationally-defined cyber security standards and assessing the NHS’s cyber vulnerabilities. Susannah is currently part of the team developing the processes and implementation framework that will allow frontline NHS organisations and commissioners to implement the recommendations of the NHS Long Term Plan, the NHS’s 10-year strategic vision, which was published in January 2019.

Susannah’s PhD took her to the National Institutes of Health, NIH, the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research, where she conducted the bulk of the primary research for her thesis. After doing a PhD, Susannah returned to the NIH for a postdoctoral fellowship, working on drug development for kidney cancer. During her NIH fellowship she undertook a detail in one of the NIH’s health policy shops, which turned into a year working at the Fogarty International Centre, the NIH’s global health institute. During that year Susannah evaluated the impact of US Government-funded training programmes to demonstrate that Fogarty-funded activity is building research capacity in recipient countries and is effecting change in country-level and international health policy. Susannah also developed and implemented a global health training course to promote awareness of global health amongst NIH staff and students and raised the profile of Fogarty International Centre. Susannah’s experience at the Fogarty International Centre led her to enroll in an MSc in International Public Policy at University College London.

Workshop: The (Career)Path Less Travelled

Entrepreneurial thinking and how it will shape your future

Envisaging your career beyond the academic sphere is not necessarily the hardest part; unravelling how to get there can be far more challenging. Despite being involved in activities that make them core sources of new knowledge and cutting-edge technology, few UCL researchers will take the time to recognise the extent to which their skills and experiences are entrepreneurial by nature. Even fewer will stop to acknowledge that being entrepreneurial is just as much about adopting a certain approach to your thinking and behaviour as it is about creating a new business or venture.

This workshop will focus on both of these elements, helping you to gain an understanding of what it means to be entrepreneurial as a researcher and how you should be capitalising on these traits to self-direct your career management. For those who are interested in creating spin-outs or their own start-ups, the workshop will provide practical advice and insight on how to move an idea forward and how UCL can help you to do so.

Janette Junghaus – Senior Programme Officer for Entrepreneurship, UCL Innovation & Enteprise

Janette coordinates a dynamic entrepreneurship skills programme for UCL’s doctoral and early career researcher communities, and builds relationships across the university to foster the development of entrepreneurial mind sets. Her professional background is rooted in fast-paced environments in the private sector, having worked in professional network management, PR, international architecture and design practices, and private equity. After completing a part-time MSc in Neuroscience, Language & Communication at UCL, she spent two years being part of a multi-disciplinary dementia research and public engagement project funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Dr Vassilis Georgiadis – Senior Partnerships Manager (Pharma & Healthcare), UCL Innovation & Enterprise

Vassilis is responsible for developing strategic partnerships between UCL researchers and external commercial partners, with a focus on pharma and healthcare sectors. Before joining UCL Innovation & Enterprise he was a Business and Innovation manager at UCL’s Translation Research Office, supporting industrial research collaboration activities through a faculty-facing role. Prior to that he was one of the founding members of Molecular Warehouse, a UK diagnostics and digital health startup.He’s a molecular and cell biologist by training, with more than 10 years of academic research in various biomedical areas. Vassilis studied for a BSc in Genetics at Queen Mary University, followed by an MSc in Clinical Neurosciences at UCL and a DPhil in Cell Biology at the University of Sussex

Dr Rebecca McKelvey – Founder and Director, in2science^UK

Rebecca has a PhD in neuroscience from UCL and during her PhD she founded the social enterprise in2scienceUK. In2scienceUK’s mission is to improve social mobility and diversity in the STEM sector and works with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds helping them to achieve their potential and progress to top universities and research careers. The programme works by leveraging the skills and passion of researchers who give summer work placements and workshops to students. To date in2scienceuk has supported over 1,000 students in London, The South East and South West of England.

Want to learn more about the Keynote speakers? See our blog post on them here!

Professional Careers Beyond Academia Conference – Keynotes

By uczjsdd, on 23 May 2019

Booking is now open and free to research staff and students:

Research Staff book your place via MyUCLCareers

Research Students book your place via the Doctoral Skills website

Talking us through the Life and Health Sciences pipeline, we will have keynotes from:

• An Investigator in the Novel Human Genetics Research Unit (NHG-RU) for GSK,
• A Clinical Trials Manager for Medpace,
• The Head of the Multidisciplinary Division at Costello Medical
• A Senior Consultant, in the EMEIA Life Sciences Strategy Centre of Excellence EY-Parthenon

Alongside the keynotes, we have two great forums with speakers including:

• A Portfolio Adviser for Our Planet, Our Health from The Wellcome Trust
• A Pharmaceutical Assessor for the Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency
• The director of Public Health Modelling for The UK Health Forum
• A Policy Adviser for NHS England and NHS Improvement

We also have an Entrepreneurship workshop led by in2science^UK – an award winning charity which empowers students from disadvantaged backgrounds to achieve their potential and progress to STEM and research careers through high quality work placements and careers guidance.

Conference Schedule: Thursday 6^th June, 10am – 5.30pm

9.30 – 10.00 Registration

10.00 – 13.00 Introducing Life & Health Sciences outside of Academia: Keynotes and Q&A

Welcome by Institute of Child Health and an Introduction to UCL Careers

Keynote – GSK “Research: Bio Tech/Pharma”

Keynote – Medpace “Clinical Trials”

Keynote – Costello Medical “Science Communication”

Keynote – EY Parthenon “Life & Health Sciences Consultancy”

Q&A Session with keynotes

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch Break

14.00 – 15.15 Breakout Session

Option 1: Forum – Careers in UK and Global Health

Option 2: Forum – Careers in Government & Policy

Option 3: Workshop – Entrepreneurship

15.30 – 16.00 Closing Remarks

16.00 – 17.30 Networking Drinks

Want to learn more about our keynotes before the conference? Read below:

GSK
Dr. James Porter, Investigator
Novel Human Genetics Research Unit (NHG-RU).

James obtained a BSc in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Bristol followed by an MSc (Immunology) and PhD (Innate immunology of asthma exacerbations) at Imperial College London before joining GSK in 2014. At GSK he has led and contributed to numerous early-stage target validation campaigns, novel target ID studies and more recently supported late-stage programmes. James also acts as an industry supervisor to undergraduate (industrial-placement) and PhD (CASE) students and serves as a data integrity representative, ensuring scientific data meets the high standards that GSK sets out to achieve.

What is your key tip for researchers?

“Scientific techniques are generally the same in industry and in academia, if you’re considering a career in industry think about what skills you can apply to an industry setting.” 

Company Bio: The Novel Human Genetics Research Unit (NHG-RU) is one of the four key research units within the GSK R&D organisation. With access to multiple genetic databases (23andMe, UK Biobank, Finngen etc.) and GSK expertise (Human Genetics and Functional Genomics), the NHG-RU is poised to identify, validate and progress novel targets with strong genetic association to diseases, with significant unmet medical need and commercial opportunity.

Medpace
Dr. Stephanie Millin, Clinical Trial Manager

Stephanie Millin completed her PhD from the University of Oxford in 2017, having studied genetic modelling and molecular pathways in Parkinson’s disease. After taking a break to surf and scuba dive in Australia, she returned to the UK straight into her current job at Medpace. Stephanie’s PhD contributed to her fast-tracking from an entry-level position as a Project Coordinator to her current role as Clinical Trial Manager within a year, a transition that could normally span several years. Stephanie is now responsible for overseeing and managing all aspects of Clinical Trials with a focus specialism on Nuclear Medicine.

What is your key tip for researchers?

“Don’t let failures get you down! They’re disheartening and inevitable, but each one takes you a small step closer to success.”

Company Bio: Medpace are a leading mid-size clinical Contract Research Organisation (CRO) that operates globally within a range of therapeutic areas. “Our unique global partnering philosophy emphasizes an uncompromising commitment to clinical research and to the highest level of ethical standards and performance in our jobs.”

Costello Medical
Dr. Lucy Eddowes, Head of Multidisciplinary Division

Lucy has led a wide variety of projects since joining Costello Medical, covering the majority of core services that Costello Medical offers, leading to her establishing a team in 2017 that is dedicated to providing multidisciplinary support to clients. In her role as Head of the Multidisciplinary Division, Lucy is particularly focused on continuing to diversify and grow the service offerings at Costello Medical. Lucy also oversees Costello Medical’s pro bono project activities, collaborating with non-profit organisations to expand work in this area.

What is your key tip for researchers?

“In terms of taking the first step outside of academia, deciding what to try can be challenging. But don’t forget that you are surrounded by colleagues having the exact same thoughts and facing the same dilemmas so group together to share, learn and keep each other motivated on your career searches.”

Company Bio: Costello Medical provides scientific support in the analysis, interpretation and communication of clinical and health economic data. “Our vision is to be a community of the very best people, constantly challenging ourselves to make meaningful and outstanding contributions to improving healthcare.”

EY Parthenon
Dr. Sami Jaffar, Senior Consultant
EMEIA Life Sciences Strategy Center of Excellence

Sami has over 4 years of life sciences strategy consulting experience for established and emerging pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and has worked across different therapeutic areas. His core expertise is in portfolio and disease area strategy, due diligence evaluations and opportunity assessments for BD&L.Prior to EY-Parthenon, Sami was a Senior Consultant at Navigant Consulting, focusing on life sciences commercial strategy projects and developing expertise in IBD and oncology therapeutics and diagnostics.

What is your key tip for researchers?

“Consulting is a difficult industry to enter. It requires appropriate preparation and that can be daunting, but do not be afraid of failure. As Henry Ford once said, “Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”

Company Bio: EY-Parthenon is the Strategy Consultancy arm of the EY brand (which covers Tax, Audit, Accounting, Assurance). The EY-Parthenon Life Sciences Strategy Center of Excellence works with the leading Global Biopharma & Biotech companies to solve complex issues through innovative strategic solutions.