SCOPE - Search for Career Opportunities that value PhD Experience
A careers event organised by PhD students for PhD students
Working towards a PhD is hard enough, even without thinking about what happens once your thesis is submitted. Do you want to stay in academia and do a postdoc? Do you want to go for an industry research position? Or maybe take a huge career turn and apply some of the transferable skills you’ve developed during your PhD?
To help PhD students and postdoctoral researchers in the College of Science and Engineering answer some of these questions and learn about potential careers outside of academia, SCOPE was organised. SCOPE is a careers event that provides PhD students and postdocs the opportunity to Search for Career Opportunities that value PhD Experience. It was first organised last year by a group of students from the College of Science and Engineering and was operated in a speed networking fashion where attendees rotated around representatives from a variety of industries ranging from aerospace engineering to teaching and patent law.
This year, SCOPE will take place on November 21st and will have representatives from medical physics, media and broadcasting, intellectual property and many more. All the representatives work in industries that actively hire PhD students, and many have studied for PhDs themselves before moving on to a career outside of academic research. They will be able to tell you all about the transition from academia to industry, and how they are applying the skills they gained while in academia to their current job. Apart from having the opportunity to chat with the industry representatives during the event, there will also be a chance for more informal networking afterwards!
So if you are currently doing a PhD or a postdoc and would like to learn more about the careers available to you, check your email for updates and sign up for this careers event! It is free to attend but since spaces are limited, attendance will be by reservation only. In order to prioritise later year PhDs students, the event is not open to first year students – but you will have a chance to attend it next year.
At the moment, SCOPE is only available to PhD students and postdoctoral researchers from the College of Science and Engineering, however last year the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences organised a very similar event with the same format and there are plans for it to run again in the coming year so keep an eye out!
(If students from the other colleges are interested in organising a careers event like SCOPE or widening the availability of SCOPE, they can contact me and we can chat about it!)
