Chemistry: Careers - Dealing with Difficult Times

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The current situation is a difficult one, with labs closed, and the need for home-working (where possible). It is particularly challenging for those thinking about their post-Ph.D careers, where communication with potential employers is cut-off and job offers are being put back or cancelled.

This session is aimed at Ph.D students, especially those that are ‘in limbo’, unable to work in the Lab, isolated at home or whose job offers may have been delayed or cancelled.

Kevin Parker will narrate his own work experience, firstly at an Oil Company and then freelancing for 25 years, both in terms of what he did and the key personal skills needed to carry out each job.

The session will finish with an overview of the skills various important employers are looking for in graduate recruits, along with advice on how to survive job-hunting and/or home working.

• Postgraduates
• Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available

Number of sessions: 1

• One hour session delivered via Zoom

Kevin started his career with a bang by blowing up a laboratory at the University of Cambridge. Some 40 years later, he is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), and runs a training and consultancy company helping start-ups and individuals achieve their promise. In between, he has won awards for industrial research at British Petroleum, adult leadership in the Scouts, mentoring for the Princes Trust, knowledge transfer in Scotland, short story writing, and Warhammer 40K model making.

He has sold oil to the Arabs, privatised Science Institutes in Romania, been an interim manager at the Roslin Institute, delivered finance training to accountants, devised and delivered Undergrad and Post-grad University Courses at Edinburgh University, learned polite words of greeting in Slovenian, trained over 2500 students in transferable/business skills, run 22 Cub Scout camps, moved BP’s share price by 20 pence in a week, and made money performing at the Edinburgh fringe. His company’s clients have included 19 Russell Group Universities, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, various City think-tanks, and the Episcopal Church of Scotland. As well as his science qualifications, Kevin is a Sloan Fellow of London Business School.

He has survived 4 Global recessions (not counting the present one), 3 of them while freelancing. He has ‘worked from home’ for the last 26 years, managing to stay both sane and solvent for nearly all of that time, and will share some thoughts on how to manage in the current situation.

• One hour

• Chemistry: CP1 and CP2 - Career options after a PhD