Life After...Biological Sciences: A Practical guide to life after your degree (Life After)

189 Pages·2007·1.07 MB·English

by  Sally Longson

Life After …
Biological Sciences
Thousands of students graduate from university each year. The
lucky few have the rest of their lives mapped out in perfect detail
– but for most, things are not nearly so simple. Armed with your
hard-earned degree, the possibilities and career paths lying before
you are limitless, and the number of choices you suddenly have to
make can seem bewildering.
Life After … Biological Sciences has been written specifi cally to
help students currently studying, or who have recently graduated,
make informed choices about their future lives. It will be a source
of invaluable advice and wisdom to graduates (whether you wish to
use your degree directly or not), covering such topics as:
(cid:138) Identifying a career path that interests you
(cid:138) Seeking out an opportunity that matches your skills and
aspirations
(cid:138) Staying motivated and pursuing your goals
(cid:138) Networking and self-promotion
(cid:138) Making the transition from scholar to worker
(cid:138) Putting the skills you developed at university to good use in
life.
The Life After … series of books are more than simple ‘career
guides’. They are unique in taking a holistic approach to career
advice – recognising the increasing view that, although a successful
working life is vitally important, other factors can be just as essential
to happiness and fulfi lment. They are the indispensible handbooks
for students considering their future direction in life.
Sally Longson is a life coach and well-known writer and media
commentator in the fi eld of careers.
Also available from Sally Longson
Life After … Business and Administrative Studies
978-0-415-37591-7
Life After … Engineering and Built Environment
978-0-415-37592-4
Life After … Language and Literature
978-0-415-37593-1
Life After … Art and Design
978-0-415-37590-0
Life After … Social Studies
978-0-415-41247-6
Life After … Biological Sciences
978-0-415-41249-0
Life After …
Biological Sciences
A practical guide to life
after your degree
Sally Longson
First published 2007
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library,2007.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2007 Sally Longson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Longson, Sally
Life after – art and design: a practical guide to life after your degree/
Sally Longson. – 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Art – Vocational guidance. 2. College graduates – Vocational
guidance.
I. Title: Practical guide to life after your degree. II. Title
N8350.L66 2006
702.3´73–dc22 2005036629
ISBN 0-203-94056-3 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN10: 0–415–41249–8 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–94056–3 (ebk)
ISBN13: 978–0–415–41249–0 (pbk)
ISBN13: 978–0–203–94056–3 (ebk)
Contents
Preface vii
1 Decisions, decisions … 1
2 Creating your career 14
3 Working out the ‘how to’ 33
4 Connecting with your network: the world’s a network 47
5 Hunting out that right opportunity 63
6 Proving yourself: from scholar to worker 78
7 Promoting yourself 94
8 What’s stopping you? Make it happen! 111
9 Moving on … Your future 124
10 Here’s to life! 139
Further reading 150
Useful addresses and further information 155

Preface
Your degree over – or nearly over – you contemplate your next
move, rather like a game of chess. You plot your next move, you
fall into it, or someone makes you fall into it. Life is continually
like a game of chess, but checkmate – the end result – is entirely
where you or someone else decides it is to be. You can plan to move
forward and make progress, or you can feel like a pawn, moved
around a board at someone else’s bidding.
As you read this page, look out across the blue sea and skies
before you and cast your mind and eyes to the opportunities beyond
them. Life lies before you like a huge ocean. The question is, where
are you headed next? Who and what do you want on board? Where
will your future port be?
Opportunities abound for the biological sciences graduate
in a world full of discovery and the quest for knowledge and its
application to business, life, communities, the planet, people and
animals. You could be working on a research project which takes
you to meetings and conferences in Stockholm, San Francisco and
Shanghai, working with like-minded people, comparing notes,
exchanging ideas, sharing frustrations, hopes and excitement.
Collaboration, team work, autonomy, responsibility, the search for
answers … the scientist has an exciting career ahead indeed. The
knowledge economy in many countries is growing, with clusters of
companies, spin-offs, national health authorities such as the National
Health Service (NHS) in the UK, local government, research
institutes, government agencies, health organisations, the water,
agricultural and environmental industries, conservation charities,
and more, all looking to recruit biological science graduates who
can work well in a team, meet deadlines, communicate to those who
have no knowledge or understanding of science, and use the skills
they have to discover, research, amaze and track down answers.
viii Preface
The stock of biological science students, certainly in the UK,
is projected to increase by 76.7 per cent between 2004 to 2014,
according to the Department of Trade and Industry’s report of
March 2006, Science, Engineering and Technology Skills in the UK.
The Sector Skills Development Agency report Working Futures
2004–2014 projects that there will be an 18 per cent increase in
science and technology professionals, and a 30 per cent increase
for associate professionals. The increased demand for science
and technology professionals in the UK will, in part, be due to
expansion but also to replace those staff who are retiring or leaving
the profession for other reasons. And of course, the science,
engineering and technology sectors need young people to come
through, excited and enlivened by what they have been taught at
school, college and university, and also by the way they have been
taught. Teachers, tutors and lecturers play a key role in producing
the scientists of tomorrow, and therein lies opportunity for the
person who can inspire, excite, enthuse and lead others. Our world
needs you to help bring on the future scientists, mathematicians,
engineers and technologists of tomorrow. The profession also needs
those strong in communication so that the rest of us can understand
the implications of research, discovery and development, and deal
with them accordingly.
Of course, many biological science graduates choose to move
on and do something else, rather than remain in academia and/or
research. Many enter professional services where their knowledge of
science will be invaluable to a future employer and will complement
their work nicely. Elsewhere, if you choose to leave your scientifi c
knowledge behind and move to fresh fi elds, your drive to be
meticulous, thorough and accurate, and to question and resolve will
be appreciated by many employers.
Having a degree does not guarantee having a good job. Nothing
in life guarantees you a job. You may experience stints of lower
level work in retail, leisure and tourism, and administration, as sales
assistants, waiters and administrators, and fi nd yourself wondering
what university was for. The key to success is to keep your head, and
put your career and life desires fi rmly at the forefront of your mind,
focus and efforts. There is expected to be a signifi cant increase in
the numbers of managers, professional occupations, association
professional and technical occupations, and personal service
occupations, especially in teaching, research and science, business
and public service. Those who persist in striving for a career and a
Preface ix
life will succeed in their efforts; those who give up will have a lesser
quality life than they could have and deserve.
You may land yourself a job, but if you want a great job you
need to put in persistent effort to think long term and not just to
pay day, and to give back and contribute rather than take. Like any
relationship in life, a career needs nurturing.
Whatever stage you have reached, you are at a great time to assess
your life and what you want out of it. Use the exercises in this book
to help you determine just that. A career is only part of life – there
are a whole host of other things which are important too, such as
relationships, fi nance and lifestyle. The main emphasis of this book
will be on career and work, but you can transfer many of the tips
and advice regarding those on to other segments of life.
While you were at university, you chose to head straight out of
those zones you normally felt comfortable in. You tested yourself in
every aspect of life, and enjoyed it. It is time to leave that comfort
zone again and take risks to move on and make the most of your life
ahead. Let’s get started.