C3: Planning for additional skills development

Introduction

Whether you are looking to move into a very different career or stay in research, there will always be opportunities and scope for you to enhance and add to the skills you offer to employers.

If you are planning a significant change of sector, it is likely that you will have some gaps in your skills and experience (and you may have identified some gaps if you have already worked through sections A4 (Audit your Skills) and C1 (Do you fulfil employers' expectations?) of this resource). This could limit your chances of success when you submit your application.

The earlier you can start planning to develop these skills the better. The easiest time and place to do this is BEFORE you leave your research post. This means that you can start to look for opportunities to diversify your role or take on extra responsibilities. It will also enable you to ‘try out’ new experiences before making a decision to move into a new career.

Activities

Planning for skills development (Office document, 14kB)

Case study quotes

I took some editing classes online (including editing itself, using tools like Word more effectively, and business aspects), attended the EFA conference, read books about editing as a career, created a new website for my editing business, and began researching places to find work. Emily Buehler, Freelance Editor and Author. MySciCareer Case study.

I served on committees related to recruiting a diverse pool of graduate students. I was a founding member, vice president, and then president of Graduate Women in Science and Engineering (GradWiSE). For two summers I was a mentor in a program that provided underrepresented, undergraduate science students with an intensive summer research experience in preparation for graduate school. I participated in both neuroscience and genetics science outreach programs in public schools and at the local science museum. All of these experiences helped me to develop a unique set of skills, including the ability to work on collaborative projects with every possible campus constituent from students and faculty in other departments to senior staff and administrators. Alycia Mosley Austin, University administration. MySciCareer case study

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