Exciting careers event run for students and early-career researchers

The Department of Biology recently ran a careers event for MBiol students, DPhil students, research assistants, and postdoctoral researchers. ‘Speedy Careers’ was a half-day event which linked attendees with individuals in different scientific professions, spanning bioinformatics, academia, start-ups, charity, and industry (including the pharmaceutical sector).

While the professionals were from different professions, all had a background in biology. Speakers gave a brief presentation of their career paths, including turns and breaks they had along the way. This made them much more personable and approachable for the participants to ask questions.

The event was conceptualised by Kasia Parfitt, a postdoctoral researcher. Kasia reflected:

“I am still unsure of where my career will take me and what options are out there, particularly outside of academia. I knew I couldn't be alone in this feeling, and so the idea of a cross-departmental Speedy Careers was born. Not only did I want to include DPhils and post-docs, but felt it would be highly beneficial for MBiols too, as they would be looking for their next steps soon – and they had the biggest turn out across the board.”

Attendees said:

• "I was profoundly grateful that each speaker was so open about their career trajectory, because I think this is often the most mysterious part to me."
• "My favourite part was getting an idea of the breadth of professions biology can take you into."
• "I really enjoyed the theme that you don’t have to have everything all figured out to be successful."
• "The speakers also spoke quite openly during the discussions about salaries and lifestyle, which I feel like are centrally important to your day-to-day, and which we all have many questions about, but are somehow taboo to discuss in academic environments."

Invited speakers said:

• "The format was innovative and worked very well, it allowed for engaging dialogues and for some great questions asked by the students."
• "I was apprehensive beforehand whether there would be enough questions from participants to sustain a discussion, but in fact the engagement interest was fantastic."

Kasia concluded:

“The event was a real success overall with very positive feedback. We will be reviewing it to make sure it is even bigger and better for future events, in the hope of running it annually.”