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 Charlie Rex, Outreach and Communications Manager in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford. You can find Dr Rex on LinkedIn.
Name: Dr Charlie Rex
Doctorate subject area and year of completion: Earth Sciences, 2023
Role and employer: Outreach and Communications Manager, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford
Approximate salary bracket for this type of role: £35-45K per annum
It was somewhat surprising to me that writing my thesis wasn’t as painful as I had predicted. Until I started writing, I had always assumed that I was going to be better at the lab-based aspects of my research. But due to a combination of pandemic-enforced lab occupancy limits leading to me feeling very isolated, and my frustration with a lab technique which wasn’t working, I had fallen completely out of love with lab work. Add on the warnings from colleagues who had found writing up very mentally taxing, and I was very apprehensive when the day came for me to trade my lab coat for my laptop. But as I began to write, I found myself – astoundingly – recovering some of the energy I had felt during the early days of my PhD, before the prospect of leading on cutting-edge research had been tainted by a lab process which stubbornly refused to cooperate.
Don’t get me wrong, writing those pernickety paragraphs explaining outliers and unexpected trends never filled me with joy. But what did was thinking about the wider picture of my research – weaving the threads of current knowledge together with my results, and framing that in the big questions, like “why should we care?”. My PhD – which was about monsoons in Japan and how they were affected by rising temperatures in the past – was a story for me to tell, and I was finally excited to tell it. When I was in the lab, I had always found myself getting anxious over every tiny error and failed measurement. But the process of taking a step back to assess my personal “contribution to science” also gave me much needed perspective about how far I had come.
Early on in the process, when I was asked by my project PI in Japan what I intended to do after I was done with the PhD, I responded – to his mild horror – with “leave academia”. I never signed up to do a PhD with the intention of using it as a launch-pad to a postdoc. For me, it was about the opportunity to challenge myself, gain skills and experience, and see more of the world. So, throughout the process I was always looking for alternative career paths that I might like to follow. In the depths of “lab work hell” (aka my second year), I was incredibly fortunate to take on an internship with the Researcher Development Team at the University of Glasgow – which turned out to be one of the most impactful experiences of my PhD, not least because it kept me sane through some really challenging months of research!
Until I started the internship, I had very little awareness of University “professional services” – teams of people who support all aspects of a university and help it to run smoothly. Taking up this role really opened my eyes to a diverse range of potential careers which would allow me to unite my experience in academia with my passion for engaging audiences with research. I was surrounded by individuals (including the powerhouse leaders Dr Joanna Royle and Dr Kay Guccione) with PhDs who had made careers for themselves which both embraced their academic skills and awareness of higher education, and made space for creativity, compassion, and effecting change. And importantly, I had so much fun – I hosted events for PGRs, filmed videos, created a website, edited a blog, and made social media content – all of which brought me a lot of happiness.
Unsurprisingly, when I then enjoyed the thesis writing process as much as I did, it cemented my aspiration to create a career in science communication within the sphere of professional services. I love working in a university setting and staying connected to my subject, but I also like talking about the research more than I ever did researching.
Fast-forward to September 2023, and I was rushing back from a magical day in Tokyo Disneyland to do a remote interview for my current role – Outreach and Communications Manager for Oxford Earth Sciences. They asked me in the interview why I wanted the role, and I answered honestly with “Well, before I saw the advert, I couldn’t quite believe that a role like this existed – but now I do, I can’t imagine anything more exciting”. The job combines outreach (e.g., running workshops for schools, working with museums), communications (writing press releases, social media content creation), and alumni work (creating magazines, hosting events), all for the Department of Earth Sciences here at the University of Oxford. Thankfully, my enthusiasm must have travelled across the nine time zones and the panel offered me the role. A few days later, I managed to catch up with my aforementioned PI, and we laughed at the fact I had achieved my exit from academia as promised four years prior. But I also knew that he was thrilled for me – proof that your supporters will always be happy for you to find a career that brings you joy.
I have now been in post for just over a year, and have found it to be the perfect balance between building on skills and knowledge I already have, and challenging myself to grow and learn. There is also lots of teamwork involved, and the opportunity to collaborate with an abundance of talented and knowledgeable people has really enriched my experience – and helped me to overcome the isolation I often felt during my PhD. Sometimes, when I am teaching a group of primary school children about volcanoes, or creating a press release about a beautiful new fossil discovery, or welcoming groups of alumni back to the department for a reunion, I count myself extremely lucky to have found a career which fits both my experience and personality so well. I would really recommend investigating professional services roles if you want a career that builds on your knowledge – and recognises the value of your PhD – whilst permitting you to break free from the expectations of research. At their very core, this type of job lets you keep your feet firmly planted in research, whilst allowing the rest of you space to discover and grow.
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