By Jess Henderson (Student Professional Development Manager in Careers, Employability and Opportunity) and Dr Emma Waters (Researcher Development Specialist for PGRs in the Research Culture and Researcher Development Team)
The careers PGRs enter following the long-awaited thesis submission and viva are varied and often there is no common or straight forward path to follow. Some have a clear career that they want to pursue while others are open to many different options. For those of us who support and supervise PGRs, it is important to have constructive conversations about PGRs’ priorities for their own professional development and what they want out of a future career. At the University of Glasgow, we encourage viewing careers as evolving processes rather than one-off decisions. Interests, circumstances, and any constraining factors (e.g., geographic constraints) change over time, as do opportunities.
Encouraging a mindset of active career management helps researchers better adapt to these changes. Here is how we, as supervisors and colleagues, can foster this mindset in our PGRs:
Self-awareness
For our researchers, understanding their own strengths, skills, values, motivations, and professional interests is crucial. Instead of asking, “What can I do with [qualification/experience]?” researchers could instead focus on identifying what they want and what is important to them. As supervisors, we can support them to reflect on and regularly review skills, values, and interests. For example, if a researcher notes an interest in continuing in research, can they pinpoint what specific aspects they enjoy? Can we support them to explore careers in which they could use those same skills?
Holly Prescott’s blog, Postgradual, provides a useful example of how to refine these thoughts and how that can help expand career possibilities. For example, PGRs might find the incisive and self-reflective approach Prescott adopts in this post, What skills do I have as a PhD? Getting a fresh perspective on an old time question, to be both eye-opening and valuable.
Awareness of options
While academic careers may have typical entry and progression routes, they are becoming more diverse. Career paths outside academia are also varied, and there isn’t always one path to a particular career. Decisions aren’t just binary (academia or something else); elements of academic work might be found in other careers. We can support our PGRs to consider the shape of their future career though helping them discover the range of options open to them. For example, you could share blogs posts like these, or even use them as conversation starters as you support your PGR to consider what their future career might look like: Academic-adjacent careers or How can you ‘use’ your PhD in future work?
Pathfinder career narratives are blog posts from other researchers about their careers. They serve as an excellent illustration of the rich and varied career paths that researchers pursue and might be just the thing to share with PGRs as they plan their own future.
Focus on achievable action
As supervisors, we want our researchers to own their professional development journey. We can help them to achieve this by supporting them to set themselves achievable goals and timeframes in which to achieve these. These will naturally vary depending on the person, the situation and their goals, but may include things like: building a detailed picture of the skills or features that are important to them in a career; identifying two relevant professional networks; or something like identifying 5 potential employers they could explore opportunities with. You might like to encourage your PGR to share those goals and timelines with you, and support their progress by checking in as they work towards their self-directed career goals.
Understand that there is an ecology of development opportunities
Some PGRs might be unclear exactly what professional development looks like and where to find it. For many there is a piece of learning in identifying that opportunities for development will come from many places, including hidden learning spaces they might not be aware of.
The Researcher Development Team at the University of Glasgow are part of University Services. We offer development opportunities for PGRs across all disciplines through workshops, events, competitions, and community spaces. Discipline specific opportunities are typically offered through Graduate Schools.
Additionally, PGRs may find development opportunities outside of their home university, for example through funding bodies, learned societies, other universities, professional networks and at conferences. There are many opportunities out there and PGRs should be encouraged to look widely when planning.
Some common concerns
Not being Careers Advisers
You don’t need to be a professional Careers Adviser to support career development, but researchers can speak to a Careers Adviser if needed. At the University of Glasgow, PGRs can book individual appointments with a Careers Advisor, with the Careers Service, via Glasgow Careers Platform: your instutition may have a similar service. Try to avoid giving direct or prescriptive advice. Instead, support researchers in identifying what they need to move forward. Kay Guccione explains this approach in the context of mentoring, and the same can be applied here: “Not giving advice, instead we listen, in order to support our mentee to reflect on and articulate the issues they face”. As supervisors, we may not be careers advisers, but we can create supportive listening spaces for our researchers.
Sharing our experiences can be useful but remember everyone’s journey is unique. Use open-ended questions to help them explore solutions, such as:
- What else could you do?
- What would help you feel more confident about this decision?
- What would you advise someone else in your position to do?
- Have you resolved a similar issue before? How?
Not knowing enough about career paths in different sectors
As supervisors, our role isn’t to provide detailed career advice but rather to help researchers identify the information or support they need. Even if we have experience in their specific field of interest, things may have changed in the time that has past since we began our own careers. Instead of feeling out of your depth and unable to help, you could consider being honest with your researchers about your career path, where your expertise lies, and the path you took. Their path will look different to yours, and that’s more than okay; it’s a cause for celebration! Encourage PGRs to explore networks, professional bodies, and platforms like LinkedIn to discover potential employers, career paths, and insights as they look to forge a career that is meaningful to them. This is their journey, and we want to support them to take control of how they shape their career path.
Finding the time
Incorporate career development into regular meetings. While the responsibility for professional development lies with the researcher themselves, regular discussions can signal the importance of their development and your support, regardless of their career aspirations. This might not always mean setting aside a portion of every meeting (although it might for some), but could instead be: asking key questions, checking in on professional development plans, and establishing a working environment in which professional development is appreciated, valued and supported.
Annual Progression Reviews often offer a formal opportunity to discuss a PGR’s professional development over a year. This conversation can be made effective by creating a space for reflective practice on what is most valuable to a PGR to help them identify future development opportunities. By creating spaces in which our PGRs can reflect on their development, we can support them to value their strengths and identify areas of practice they are interested in developing further, based on their own motivations and ambitions.
Professional development is such a personal journey, and can be full of unexpected twists and turns. By fostering self-awareness, exploring diverse options, understanding common concerns, and leveraging available resources, we can support our researchers to take control of their own development, and begin to actively manage their careers.
The Auditorium: a research culture and researcher development blog 