Cycling past the Sheldonian Theatre and the Clarendon building on Broad Street.

Career planning

It is never too early, or too late, to start planning your career. As fixed term researchers or teaching staff (grade 6-8) you have full access to Oxford’s Careers Service during your contract period and for one year afterwards.

We have a range of specialist services available to support you.

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One to one guidance

The Careers Service provides dedicated support to Oxford researchers from all parts of the university. Help is available whatever your career-related question, or even if you’re not quite sure what your question is but you need support with your career development. You can book a 20-minute video or telephone appointment with any careers advisor using your Career Connect account. Alternatively please contact the Careers Service Reception at hello@careers.ox.ac.uk for assistance.

Coaching

Coaching is available to fixed term researchers via the Oxford Coaching Network (OCN). You have the opportunity to select a coach with appropriate experience and understanding of the researcher context. Many researchers find this support very beneficial in supporting their career thinking and planning process.

Useful career resources

The Careers Service website contains a wealth of resources on our pages exclusively for researchers, with an extensive range of tips whether you are looking to explore local opportunities, or find ways to boost your employability. Extensive guidance on networking, CVs, applications, interview skills and much more, is also available on www.careers.ox.ac.uk.

It is quite common for researchers at Oxford to experience setbacks, then feel uncertain or anxious about progressing in academia, or indeed more broadly. The Careers Service led a collaboration with PhD students, postdocs and established academics to produce a workbook and five podcasts to help researchers understand what can trigger a sense of academic failure and how to overcome this.

Workshops and events

Careers workshops and events designed for researchers run throughout the year. These cover career management, exploring your transferable skills and potential options, writing effective CVs and cover letters, and how to shine in an interview. Insight events include discussions with academics plus people who have transitioned from academic research into a variety of sectors.

Sessions take place at The Careers Service and periodically in locations on the Headington medical science sites.

To see the full range of events and make a booking, go to CareerConnect; if you do not have a CareerConnect account - set one up by emailing hello@careers.ox.ac.uk.

The annual Careers Conference for Researchers, offers an excellent opportunity to talk to employers who recruit highly skilled researchers, listen to former researchers speak about the experience of moving beyond academia and brush up your key employability skills. Book your place via CareerConnect.

Researchers move on to a wide range of exciting roles within and beyond academia. Get some ideas by browsing our expanding database on research-careers.org to get a flavour of what they enjoy in their new roles and how they made the transition. And if there’s a sector you’d like to explore, get in touch with the team of Oxford researchers running this resource via contact@research-careers.org.

Bolstering your core employability skills

You will gain many valuable and transferable skills in your role here at Oxford. At the same time, you may want to bolster other skills such as leadership, teamwork or commercial awareness.

The Researcher Strategy Consultancy is an experience-based learning programme run by the Careers Service that complements training for researchers and the Centre for Teaching & Learning.

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