The Careers team is excited to announce our latest project, Careers in Your Ears: a podcast for PhD Students and Research Staff at King’s College London!
Careers in Your Ears will be available starting 1st February with new episodes available weekly. You can find us on seven podcast platforms, including Spotify and Google Podcasts. To find all availability visit anchor.fm/careersinyourears.
Why a podcast specifically for researchers?
For many researchers and PhD students, it can be difficult to picture a career outside of academia or figure out how to pursue one. Careers in Your Ears is a series that explores various researchers’ journeys through their careers and offers insight for listeners who are finding their way through their own path. While King’s Careers has events, workshops and webinars available to researchers, quick interviews are an informal and enjoyable way get some advice from those who may have similar experiences.
Vicki Tipton, Career Consultant for PhD and Research Staff says, “I think it’s a new way to access career inspiration, tips and helpful information about career progression and transition. They’re intended to be short, so it’s not too time-consuming for busy researchers and accessible whilst on the go. You don’t have to be at your desk or in a workshop to learn something!”
What can we expect from the first series of Careers in Your Ears?
In Episode 1, Vicki Tipton, Donald Lush and Kate Murray, Careers Consultants for researchers and podcast hosts, introduce themselves and their role in supporting researchers at the university.
How do Careers Consultants help students and staff on their journey?
“I think we’re about building for the next step. As soon as you start a PhD or research contract, we would like to encourage you to think about the exit. We suspect that probably everyone is thinking about it or maybe just a little bit fearing it without even realizing it… we’re really about helping people understand who they are or where they’re going and then trying to support people with the practical steps between those two stages.”
Throughout the rest of the series, we’ll hear from other professionals on how their careers have developed and you might even get inspired by their top tips for success! Our guests come from a range of industries and will share their experiences in research and how that built a career outside academia. Some of our guests include Dr. Asma Ounnas, who shares her experiences starting in Banking and Finance with a PhD in Computer Science and how she believes she was at an advantage because of her ability to learn quickly. Another includes Dr. Nicola Leveringhaus, Lecturer in War Studies who shares some tips on time management habits and how to profile your research interests when applying to jobs.
No two careers paths are the same and it can often be useful to see how other researchers connected their specialised skill set from a PhD programme to a role outside of academia. By hearing what others found helpful in their journey, you might even identify some skills that you can offer as well!
Be sure to listen to our first episode and keep an eye out for the rest of the series! To stay up to date about what’s going on for researchers at King’s Careers, follow us on Twitter – @kcldo1thing.