Pathfinder Career Narratives 40: Research and External Engagement Officer

Pathfinder Career Narratives is an ongoing series tracking the career choices and experiences of doctoral graduates. You can see all of the posts in the series here. You can find all the Pathfinder resources and opportunities here. Today’s blog is written by Dr Elisabeth Loose, Research and External Engagement Officer at the John Smith Centre at the University of Glasgow. You can find the John Smith Centre here and Dr Loose on LinkedIn.

Name: Elisabeth Loose

Doctorate subject area and year of completion: Interdisciplinary Studies, 2020

Role and employer: Research and External Engagement Officer, John Smith Centre, University of Glasgow

Approximate salary bracket for this type of role: £32,332 – £39,347.

From PhD to John Smith Centre – the what

I submitted my PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies on 17 February 2020 – 4 weeks before lockdown in the UK. Needless to say the process of looking for and finding a job got somewhat more tricky. I knew pretty early on that I did not want to stay in academia (more on that later on), but I wanted to dedicate my life to the third sector where I had been active through various volunteer and paid roles long before my PhD and during it. Specifically, I was hoping to contribute somewhere with either project management, research or communication skills (you might be able to tell that I am way more of a generalist than specialist). Through an internship I had undertaken during my PhD with a research centre in the College of Social Sciences, I learned of an opportunity to work for a newly set up creative agency that was specifically looking for someone to oversee their third sector client base. It was perfect – I always struggled to divide my free time between multiple causes and here was an opportunity to support various charitable organisations while expanding my arsenal of creative skills.

I stayed with said agency, MultipliedBy, for 3.5 years during which I acquired design, web development and maintenance, and marketing skills, on top of a first impression of working in the private sector. However, I was getting restless. Even though I supported many different causes through that work, I didn’t feel as though I made a massive difference with any of them. I missed working in the third sector, and I missed research. Cue: post-PhD job search #2. This time, I went about it a bit more methodologically and hired a career coach. I wasn’t quite sure where I wanted to go, and my coach was brilliant at helping me figure this out and preparing me properly for the application process. After what felt like a very long time (don’t let a long search put you off!), I got hired by the John Smith Centre in the College of Social Sciences as their Research & External Engagement Officer. It ticked all the right boxes: creativity & communications, a cause I believe in, involvement in research activity, a chance to grow my network, and being back at the UofG which I was (and still am) absolutely delighted by.

Since starting this role, I have had the most amazing opportunities to contribute, grow my skillset and meet inspiring new people. It’s tricky to describe a normal week as my remit is quite broad – excitingly so. I love a varied workload and I love learning and challenging myself to new things. Some of my core tasks include overseeing our brand development and implementation, managing and leading on our digital estate, including social media, newsletter and website, curating relevant research reports and contributions, and advancing our public relations. As part of all that, I have been given the opportunity to represent the Centre on the BBC twice, to meet MSPs and government ministers, and to actively contribute to the strategic direction of the Centre and its activities. The team at the Centre has taken me by surprise with the sheer trust they have put in my abilities to contribute and lead from day one.

From PhD to John Smith Centre – the why

I loved doing my PhD. It’s not necessarily a popular opinion among PhD students, but I did. Of course, there were bad days and weeks and months, but the overall experience is something I would happily repeat. The two things that convinced me fairly early on that academia as such was maybe not for me were teaching which I don’t enjoy, and a perceived lack of impact and a sense of not feeling like I was actively involved in the world happening outside my office. Now both of these can be contested as reasons to leave academia, but that’s what I felt to be true at the time. During my PhD, I always made use of training and internship opportunities (during my first APR I was actually kindly asked to take it down a notch with the amount of training I was doing) through which I met many other PhD students, staff and external trainers, as well as broadened my horizon for work beyond academia. As described above, that side of things actually got me my first job out of uni.

Even though at the beginning I didn’t think I had a lot of the necessary skills that would be needed to work in the private sector, let alone in a creative agency, I was positively surprised by how much the skills acquired during my PhD helped me. Don’t get me wrong, the learning-curve I was on with design, web development and marketing was a very steep one, but my professional skills made that process easier: I was methodological and easily grasped new concepts and ideas, my analytical thinking and thirst for knowledge made it fun to learn and led me to develop full online-courses for clients. On top of that, my ability to manage my own time and work independently came in very handy. In general, my love of learning and not being afraid to start afresh has proven to be very beneficial many times over the past years. I am particularly grateful that I made use of all those training opportunities – I still regularly recall lessons from a Professional Skills Programme I undertook with the university during my PhD. Equally, I have always very much valued all those ‘side’ opportunities that I have been given, whether that’s internships, training or ‘just’ hobbies I was able to explore. They have often been the things that turned out to be more important to me than I would have originally anticipated.

From PhD to [insert your next job here!]  – the how

If like me you are thinking about a career outside academia, some of the lessons I’ve learned might be of value to you:

• Know your strengths – you have them and they are highly applicable to other jobs! If you are unsure what they are, talk to friends, colleagues or…
• Find yourself a career coach. I was hesitant at the beginning whether it would be useful; plus, it’s an investment. But it pays off massively. 
• In a similar vein and as mentioned above, make use of all the training you can get. If you are currently a member of the University of Glasgow, it is such a privilege to have access to all this training and develop yourself. It is so valuable. Plus, if there are skills you feel you are lacking and you might need going forward, this is an easy way to build them up.
• Don’t be afraid to follow side-interests. A LOT of my educational and career path has sprung up from those interests and commitments that were originally never supposed to take centre stage.
• Be brave and be proactive. If you had told me a year ago about the things I would do in the next 12 months, I would not have believed you. Don’t get me wrong, there were obstacles and fear involved at almost every step of the way. But that’s not a reason to bolt if you’re facing something you truly want. Feel the fear and do it anyway.