What is the course?
A four week online course focusing on all aspects of career management designed specifically for researchers. It is aimed at those exploring their career options and preparing for the next stage of their career. The course is hosted by Future Learn and provides six weeks of free access (until the end of July 2022). You need to sign up and register to undertake the course. Four weeks is sufficient to complete the 4 modules if you complete them on a weekly basis. However, you can work through them at your own pace as long as you have completed it before your six week sign up window runs out. It may be possible to complete the course in less than four weeks if you are able to dedicate a few hours a week to working through the resources and exercises.
What does the course cover?
The course covers 4 modules – Making Career Plans and identifying what you want, Exploring opportunities beyond Academia, Careers within Higher Education and lastly Job Search (CV’s, Applications and Interviews within and beyond Higher Education). Each module explores the topic in more detail and provides different resources, there are videos to watch and individual exercises to complete designed to get you to think about your own goals and aspirations.
Why Complete the course?
If you have questions on any of the topics that the course covers you are going to get detailed answers. For example, if you have concerns or queries over interviews the Job Search module will help you to better analyse a job description so that you can predict questions that might be asked. It also provides examples of interview questions.
Early Career Researchers who completed the course last year provided very positive feedback about the usefulness of the course and one went as far as to recommend that all researchers should undertake it! Finally, thinking about the different issues and reflecting upon your circumstances can sometimes raise more questions. This year participants have access to a learning community hosted through Padlet. Participants can post questions and interact with each other and make comments on key learning points from each module. For further discussion the IAD Research Staff Careers Consultant is also running 1:1 Career Development Discussions throughout the summer which can be booked here https://www.ed.ac.uk/institute-academic-development/research-roles/research-only-staff/career-management/career-dev-booking.
Eleanor Hennige is the IAD’s Research Staff Careers Consultant, supporting fixed-term research staff at the University with their career planning and options. Eleanor runs our 1:1 career development consultations, she delivers our suite of career workshops and works with Schools/Research Staff Societies on career specific events and workshops. Eleanor works on a part-time basis (5 mornings a week) and can be contacted at ResearchStaff.Careers@ed.ac.uk
