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Postdoctoral
Development
Centre

Career development

It is a recognised part of a postdoc's role to develop themselves and plan their own career. To facilitate this, all researchers at Queen's are entitled 10 days per year to engage with career development activities not directly related to their project. Since Queen's is a signatory of the Researcher Development Concordat, it is even an obligation!

Postdoc and research assistant positions are almost entirely funded by research grants, and as a result are limited to a few years. These positions are meant to deliver the research of course, but also to provide the opportunity for the researcher to develop specific and transferable skills so that they can step into another stage in their career.

It is also important to recognise that career development is not limited to staff employed on fixed-term contracts. The majority of people do not stay happy when remaining in the same role or institution for too long and take on new challenges periodically in the course of their working lives.

This section includes:

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More career resources

Postdoc Group Mentoring
Personalised 1:1 support
Our pledge and your role
Our goal is to help you progress your career.

Career progression means something different to each and everyone of us. Whatever you are looking to build technical and transferable skills whilst remaining in a similar position, apply for a more senior role, move to a different sector or take a leap outside of research, the PDC is here to support you in your journey. We have no incentives for you to remain working at Queen's or in academia; our goal is to support you with what is best for you. Developing your career takes time and effort. We are here to help but can't do it for you. We can't tell you which path to follow or take any career decision for you either; you are in the driver's seat!

Career planning

Efficient career planning starts on your first day; ideally even before that!

Career planning usually involves self-reflecting on your values, what you like and need to be happy in your life, as well as your skills and experience, in order to identify potential options that would suit you. It then includes finding the requirements of positions of interest and potential gaps in skills and experience that you need to fill, before even starting applying for a role.

A postdoc is a very versatile position that allows you to take on many "side" activities to build your experience and track-record, so the sooner you know what you want and need, the better prepared you will be when the time to apply for your next job comes.

Making a career plan or Individual Development Plan (IDP) is a great place to start.

Relevant training and resources:

 

Exploring options and learning from others

Approach your career like you do your research; you wouldn't start a brand new project without searching the existing literature and hearing what experts have to say, would you?

Roles and careers are so diverse that it's impossible to get a full picture of all the positions that exist now, even less the ones that will be available in the future. A great way to identify potential career options is to see what other people in similar situations have done with their lives... And remain open to all opportunities!

Talking to people do not only provide insight into their roles but also how they got there, which can prove invaluable and demystify the process; if they did it and are happy, why not you?

Relevant resources:

  • Career Exploration Events: the PDC provides interviews, panel discussions or networking events (online or in-person) to hear about the career journeys of former postdocs or PhD students, especially outside academia (these are advertised in the PDC update emails and social media)
  • Postdoc Group Mentoring
  • The Theory of the Postdoc Evolution: PDC Podcast featuring mainly career interviews and panel discussions
  • "Networking for researchers" online course on Nature Masterclasses
  • 10 career paths for PhDs (booklet from jobs.ac.uk)
  • Prosper portal (career development tool and resources for postdocs)

Don't hesitate to contact people in roles you are interested in and ask them for a chat; people are usually happy to help, especially online.

You can even be creative with how you use your 10 career development days and shadow someone in their work to see what their role and company actually are like.

Applying for jobs

Once you've explored your options and know what you want, it's time to actually find opportunities and apply for them.

Each job application needs to be uniquely tailored to the role. This requires time and effort, especially at the start. After a few applications, you will get faster and be able to pick and choose parts of previous ones to build a new adapted one. Try to really understand the profile of person the employer wants to hire and what they want to achieve to be able to present yourself as the ideal candidate. Do your homework and be concise and relevant to increase your chances!

The job market is tough and for each position, there is one successful applicant and dozens of unsuccessful ones. It's likely that you'll be one of them sometimes, however good and suited to the role you are. Understand that this is normal, try to learn from it and try again, doing your best every time. Resilience will eventually pay off, and to avoid feeling too much under pressure, take "failure" into account in your job application timeline and don't wait until the end of your contract to start applying for jobs.

Relevant training and resources:

PDC personalised support
One-to-ones and mock interviews, just for you

The PDC offers one-to-one meetings and personal support tailored to your own situation.

These include:

  • Providing feedback on application documents you've prepared for a specific job (CV...)
  • Help preparing for interview
  • Mock interviews for a specific role, with a panel of postdoc volunteers
  • Discussing a career decision or plan

More information on Personalised Support

Prosper Portal Animation from Prosper on Vimeo.

Prosper: unlocking postdoc potential

The Prosper portal is a free resource helping postdocs REFLECT on their career, EXPLORE their options and ACT to take their next step and thrive in multiple career pathways. It hosts many resources and enables individuals to create an account to plot and track their progress as well as annotate and save resources.

Visit the Prosper portal

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