A blog for LSE PhD students, postdocs and LSE students considering a PhD
GalleryHacking the USA academic job market
The team from ‘The Professor is In’ visited London to speak to PhD students about academic careers in the US and the messages were hard-hitting. For example 76% of academic staff in the US are on short term contracts; academic departments are shrinking; each vacant position attracts 200-900 applications; there are not enough academic positions to go round, and getting […]
GalleryThe Value of Volunteering during your PhD
Finding time to volunteer can be challenging, especially if you are a PhD student. Whilst it’s important to note that volunteering is not for everyone, maybe due to personal responsibilities, family or financial constraints, it can be a very enriching and rewarding experience for doctoral students.
Here Hannah Cottrell, a doctoral student in the Department of Anthropology, shares some of […]
GalleryLearning from PhD Alumni: working in International Organisations
Multiple factors influence career development and for PhD students, the interaction between external circumstances and personal priorities make every individual story unique. We regularly host alumni PhD career panels to learn from the experiences of our talented PhD graduates. Progression into roles in international organisations and think tanks is a popular topic. In this blog PhD and Research Staff […]
GalleryWork with the UK Government and Parliament: Opportunities for PhDs
Guest Blog from Megan Marsh, Public Affairs Team, LSE
Working with the UK Parliament
Parliament wants to know about the latest PhD research. And there are a number of ways you can feed your research into policy creation, from placements in Parliament specifically for PhD students, to special opportunities to highlight your research for a political audience.
The Parliamentary Office for Science […]
GalleryFinding your own path: one PhD’s non-traditional career journey
LSE PhD students move on to many and varied careers. The options are vast and you probably don’t yet know all those that are relevant to you. Here, Teresa Whitney (LSE PhD 2015, Social Psychology) describes how she taught herself about her dream job and offers her insights for how you might do this too.
The challenge
I didn’t go in […]
GalleryHow to ‘engage’ with public engagement
PhD students probably tire of hearing about public engagement, and how their research ‘fits’ in. It’s too niche, how will I explain it, would the public be interested? Taking the chance to get involved in school-wide activities provides a fantastic opportunity to raise a public profile about your research, without much effort and build a personal research portfolio at […]
GalleryPhD Internships? Yes, it’s a thing!
A good thing.
PhD internships provide you with an opportunity to widen your experience and achieve knowledge exchange. Find out more about what’s available for PhD students and learn about one student’s recent experience during his summer internship.
During summer 2018, LSE PhD student Tim Monteath from the Sociology Department spent 12 weeks at the Alan Turing Institute, the national institute […]
GalleryWomen’s careers in academia: ‘Institutions are greedy’
Experienced women academics shared insights regarding the early development and progression of careers in academia, from both their own career experience and from their research and leadership experience in academic institutions at an event recently hosted in the PhD Academy by LSE Careers. We agreed that ‘Institutions are greedy’ and individuals benefit from: 1) reflecting on their career; 2) working […]
Getting started on your PhD
With Freshers Week over and term starting proper, we thought it would be helpful to share some top tips with different groups of you about getting started and making the most of your time.
Here PhD student Mia Certo shares her top 5 tips for anyone about to embark on a PhD about how to make the best start possible.
[…]
GalleryInterview with an LSE Alum: Dr Natalia Buitron
This week read all about LSE Alum and current LSE postdoc fellow Natalia’s experience and journey as student, teacher and researcher, and her plans for the future. We hope it inspires you!
Tell us about your career path to date.
After I finished my MSc in the Anthropology of Learning and Cognition at LSE, I started a PhD in Social Anthropology […]
GalleryLife after the PhD: A Mature Student’s Perspective
Dr Keren Darmon spoke at a mature PhD students’ lunch about her experience of working in the communications industry before studying for her PhD as a mature student. Keren is an associate member of the Department of Media and Communications at LSE, where she completed her PhD. Her thesis is a feminist media studies project, entitled “Representing SlutWalk London in […]
Interviews for Academic Posts
If you’re currently undertaking a PhD you may already be thinking about life after the viva, in particular, securing an academic position. But before that happens, you have to have an academic interview! Fear not, our recent PhD Seminar with Anton Harder, LSE PhD International History (2016) and Bernard Keenan, LSE PhD Law (2018) covered just that. Both Anton, who […]
GalleryWhat to do after a PhD
So, how do we learn about career development outside academia from LSE PhD graduates?
We want to know about PhD graduates who leave and how they move on so we use statistics and stories. In this Blog, I’ll focus on what we have learnt about moving into roles outside academia after graduating from an LSE PhD.
Statistics
We collect data on the […]
GalleryHow to plan your PhD application
The LSE Careers team have been seeing quite a few students asking about the process of applying for a PhD. Here Hannah Cottrell, a PhD student in the Department of Anthropology, shares her insights into the process and some of the things you need to think about when putting together a PhD application.
Know the PhD application requirements inside out […]
GalleryStarting again: an ‘emerging scholar’ at 50-odd?
Guest post by Ruth Garland, LSE PhD alumna:
A late career change is exciting and energising but it throws up many contradictions. Last week, for example, I was honoured to be asked to chair a conference session on behalf of the youth section of the European media and communications research association, ECREA. I was one of the oldest people in the […]
GalleryCareer options after a PhD. What are you thinking? How are you feeling?
Are you thinking about roles in or outside academia? Could you have both?
Are you feeling curious, confident, confused or concerned?
Career conversations with PhD students tend to focus on two employment sectors: in and outside academia. But in a complex labour market is there a simple binary divide between these employment worlds? Your future might involve both. Putting aside tricky questions about […]
GalleryMaking the transition from a PhD to a permanent role
Guest blog by David Hope (PhD Political Science), now a permanent Lecturer in Political Economy at King’s College London and a Visiting Research Fellow at the LSE International Inequalities Institute:
It is a daunting prospect coming to the end of a PhD and looking to take that next step and secure a permanent job in academia. For four or five […]
GalleryDo you want to try the UK academic job market?
The first destination employment rates for LSE PhD graduates are consistently high at over 90% and about 60% of LSE PhD graduates tell us that they have jobs in teaching and or research in higher education six months after graduating. The majority of jobs in academia are advertised on the easily searchable Jobs.ac.uk.
What type of roles are available?
Alison C […]
GalleryCrafting PhD CV(s) – yes you will have more than one CV!
More than half of LSE PhD students work outside academia after their studies. For some, the transition is smooth, for others the journey is longer and involves some rejections from employers before securing the first post-PhD position. A well prepared CV or application form will increase your chances of success in any sector and many PhD students and graduates […]
GalleryFinding your way after a PhD – lessons from your peers
To learn more about PhD career progression, we invited four LSE PhD alumni to speak about their experiences of finishing up and moving on to work beyond traditional academic roles. They told exciting stories from a variety of perspectives of people working in research, writing, and thought leadership in different sectors.
Having some ‘hutzpah’ was mentioned as a great way […]
