Generating Career Ideas Online

Stuck for ideas?

Fortunately, there’s help. Below are links to various online resources that contain detailed descriptions of various occupations as well as online tools that help you to generate lists of career options that you can explore further (using the activities in this course):

• Your careers service may offer a programme called “Profiling for Success”. Complete the Careers Interest Inventory (CII). This has two advantages for you. It can help you review Week one activities from a slightly different perspective. The CII will also provide you with a list of suggested (broad) career areas to evaluate and further research. If you are research staff and not an alumnus of the university you currently work for, you may not have access to your employers’ subscription; if you attended a UK HE institution, enquire if you have alumni access to this resource.

Other options are:

• If you don’t have access to Profiling for Success, try Career Planner. It requires registration but is free to use.

• Prospects also provides you with over 400 job descriptions which you can use to evaluate against your values, interests, strengths, and lifestyle choices: Prospects Job Profiles

• Look at some of the non-academic jobs in Higher Education by browsing jobs.ac.uk and choosing ‘professional and support roles’. Set filters so you are looking at roles that expect higher qualifications (minimum salary). What can you see that looks interesting / surprises you / may suit someone with a research background? We’ll discuss this broad area of work more in week three.

• Have a look at research jobs outside academia (Guardian jobs or any other internet jobs site – use ‘research’ as a key word). Or look at industry sectors that you think align with your interests. What can you see?

• Browse What do Research Staff Do Next? attached below to find out what other researchers have done. It may give you some ideas of areas of work that could be of interest to you.

• Go to employer events organised by your institution to find out more about particular jobs and working for particular organisations – you can do this as a PhD student or as research staff. Also, professional bodies or societies associated with your discipline may also offer careers events, as well as career advice or support.

• You may find this article, ‘Non-academic careers for PhD holders’, from FindAPhD.com reassuring and helpful.