1. Yr2 Career Planning
What are your options with a
chemistry degree?
Deborah Fowlis
Careers Adviser
www.chemistrycareersmole.blogspot.co.uk
2. This session will cover:
Information on the graduate labour market
Career options for chemistry graduates
Recent job adverts for chemists & the skills &
experience required
Suggestions for developing your skills and
work experience
How to actively CHOOSE your career rather
than let it choose you
3. Career Management Programme Yrs 1-5
Year One – Getting the most out of University
Year Two – Career Planning
Year Three – Implementing Career Decisions (Where to look
for jobs, applying for placements, making successful applications/getting
through the selection process)
Year Four/Five – Career Review – how to review career
progress and plan for the future)
5. 1. Approximately how many UK students
graduate with a degree in Chemistry EACH
year?
A) 2,330
B) 5,729
C) 19,106
D) 284,165
Source:www.prospects.ac.uk
6. 2. How much more can a 2010 chemistry graduate
expect to earn over the course of their career
compared to someone with A-levels?
A) £1,395
B) £77,197
C) £108,020
D) £214,626
E) £403,353
Source: www.bis.gov.uk
7. 3. What is the average 2011 graduate
starting salary?
A) £20,000
B) £25,000
C) £29,000
D) £40,000 + car
Source: various
8. 4. Play your Cards Right (or Guess the
2011 median graduate salary by sector)
Energy/Water/Utility £25,000
Investment bank £39,000
Science £25,000
Actuarial £28,500
Logistics £25,000
Managt. Consult. £27,750
Law £35,500
Source:www.agr.org.uk-Winter 2012
9. 5. On average, how many applicants were
chasing each graduate-level job in 2012?
A) 35
B) 47
C) 52
D) 127
In 2012, 69% of top employers stipulated a 2.1
Source :http://www.highfliers.co.uk/download/GMSummerUpdate12.pdf
10. 6. Which of the following are NOT
possible career options for a chemistry
graduate?
Human Resources Officer
Health and Safety Inspector
Recruitment Consultant
Petroleum Engineer
Accountant
Investment banker
Marketing Executive
Prison Governor
Management Consultant
12. First destinations of Edinburgh
chemistry graduates 2011
http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/career
13. First destinations of Imperial
chemistry graduates 2011
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/careers/resources/dest
inations/undergraduates/chem
14. Where could chemistry graduates
work (as chemists)?
•Food & Drink
Manufac.
Industry
•Brewing &
NHS Pharma Distilling
. •Toiletries
Academic
Oil & Gas •Paper
Research
•Plastics
Chemists
Env Power •Metals
Protection Gen
•Paints
•Polymers
Consultancies Gov’ment
•Fine
Water chemicals
Education
Industry
16. Websites …
www.rsc.org/Education/courses-and-careers/profiles/in
- profiles of people with a chemistry background.
http://careers.abpi.org.uk/case-studies/Pages/default.as
- 97 profiles of people working in chem/pharma
industry
www.careersbox.co.uk/films/royal-society-chemistry/
- 8 talking heads of chemistry graduates
www.rsc.org/images/gotadegree_tcm18-48908.pdf
downloadable booklet from RSC covering everything
www.chemistrycareersmole.blogspot.co.uk
17. Websites……..
www.prospects.ac.uk
See “Options with your Chemistry Degree”
for a range of possible careers.
See ‘Types of Jobs’ provides further
information on jobs eg entry requirements, job
content
‘What Job would Suit Me?” (Prospects
Planner) -interactive interest/skills programme
generates list of possible careers based on
your answers.
19. Vacancies/Job Descriptions:
What are they?
Description of the essential and desirable qualities
wanted in potential employees
MOST candidates will have the essential qualities to a
greater or lesser extent.
SOME candidates will have SOME of the desirable
qualities
FEW candidates will have ALL the qualities
20. *Matching vacancies to your skills
1. Find a position that interests you from the vacancy list.
2. Identify the 3 main “general” skills that are looked for.
3. Outline an example of how you would demonstrate each
skill right now.
4. Add another example of how you could develop that skill
further or in a different way while you are at university.
21. *What can I do alongside my degree
to develop skills?
Work part time
Get vacation work/industrial placement
Sports & Student Societies
Attend skills/languages courses
Volunteer (in the UK and abroad)
Travel
Study abroad
22. Vacancy websites
Look at job vacancy websites
- to collect a ‘portfolio’ of interests
www.ed.ac.uk/careers/sage
www.newscientistjobs.com/
http://jobs.rsc.org/
www.prospects.ac.uk
www.jobs.ac.uk
27. The Career Planning Process
Making decisions Implementing decisions
Engaged Self Opportunity Making Deciding
in awareness awareness applications what next
process
Finding the Reviewing
opportunities Progress
Managing
the selection
process
29. *YOU make choices :
Your career choices are likely to be linked to
Values
Interests
Abilities and achievements
Work and life experience
Skills
Personal qualities and temperament
Subject-specific knowledge
Personal barriers and restrictions
30. Some important values…
Location
Salary
Working Hours
Opportunities for Advancement
Altruism
Ethical Companies
Working Environment
Autonomy
31. *YOU make choices :
Your career choices are likely to be linked to
Values
Interests
Abilities and achievements
Work and life experience
Skills
Personal qualities and temperament
Subject-specific knowledge
Personal barriers and restrictions
34. So what happens next?
Use the booklet to help you think about your own
career management
Start to use careers service centre, sessions and
activities
Research any ideas you have in more detail –
www.prospects.ac.uk & www.ed.ac.uk/careers are
good places to start
Talk your ideas through with a careers adviser
35. Where is the Careers Service?
Weir Building, KB
Tel: 0131 650 5773
9.15 to 4.45 Mon- Fri, except Tues 11-4.45
20 min appts booked on the day 1-3
Longer if necessary
DROP IN CHEMISTRY MUSEUM THURSDAY 1-2
Main Library, Central Area
Tel: 0131 650 4670
Email: careers@ed.ac.uk
www.chemistrycareersmole.blogspot.co.uk
Editor's Notes
HANDOUTS NEEDED 1.Vacancies for chemists lists 2.Skills for chemists sheet 3. Making the most of university 4.Career Management booklet Intro self and careers service Ask for show of hands – how many know exactly what they want to do when they leave? How many have a vague idea? How many have no idea?
Check what expected
Yr 1 Some of you will have had this, but not everybody attended and anyone coming straight into second year wont have had any input from careers service before Yr 2 input is in two parts – today we are going to look at your options with a chemistry degree and then in three weeks time going to help you work out a strategy for choosing between all the hundreds of options open to you. (if not done at start) Show of hands for who knows exactly what they want to do after uni? How many no idea? How many vague ideas? Hopefully be something for everyone. What happening in the years ahead Yr 3 – sources of vacancies, putting Cvs and applications together, interviews etc Final Year – review and thinking about after you graduate
Just to see what your awareness of the labour market is, I thought we could do a quick quiz…
Set you off with a quick quiz, just to see what your knowledge about the Labour market is. Answer A is correct 2330 (http://www.prospects.ac.uk/assets/assets/documents/wdgd_2011.pdf) B is total number of Science and Engineering undergrads at Edinburgh University right now (http://www.docs.sasg.ed.ac.uk/gasp/factsheet/StudentFactsheet310711.pdf) C is the total no. of undergrads at Edinburgh University right now (http://www.docs.sasg.ed.ac.uk/gasp/factsheet/StudentFactsheet310711.pdf) Answer D is the total no of undergrads graduating each year in UK (www.prospects.ac.uk/assets/assets/documents/wdgd_2011.pdf)–so actually a very small proportion of graduates are chemistry graduates – 2330 out of 284165 - 0.82% -another way to look at it is if there are 120 graduates applying for a very popular any discipline job, only one on average will be a chemist (so you can sell yourself as having a very particular set of skills and expertise) Updated FDec 2011 djf
INFO from http://www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/higher-education/docs/r/11-973-returns-to-higher-education-qualifications.pdf June 2011 data – NO DATA in 2012 A- for male with philosophy degree B- male with biology degree c –for male with chem or phys degree d –for male with law degree e-for male with med or dentistry degree Females tend to be about a third less less due to less time spent in the work force, either out of it completely of working part time due to childrearing Most have dropped a fair bit over the past few years, except for med/dent Dept for Business Innovation and Skills -120 page document – give them URL if they want as interesting reading Updated Dec 2011
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=418655 -2012 survey £20K for all uni leaver, 29K for Times Top 100 Tricky one A Times 2012 above, all uni leavers B is from a survey where the employers are mostly large multinationals, like Shell or GSK or Accenture ( http://www.agr.org.uk/Content/Graduate-Recruitment-Survey-2012 Winter Review). 200+ employers. C. Times Top 100 Graduate Employers 2012. 100 employers (elite) D- Starting salary with Aldi big supermarket for graduate trainee manager (in Prospects Directory 2008 and still on Aldi web dec 2011/dec 2012). Highest publicly promoted general graduate entrant scheme salary for the past 4 years Salaries have barely changed from 2008 but predicted to rise this year
Just to get you thinking about the fact that different sectors offer different salaries, thought we could do a little Play your Cards right sessions AGR 2012 winter reviewhttp://www.agr.org.uk/CoreCode/Admin/ContentManagement/MediaHub/Assets/FileDownload.ashx?fid=69172&pid=11533&loc=en-GB&fd=False (from page 33) Some of these came down from last year!
All from http://www.highfliers.co.uk/download/GMSummerUpdate12.pdf Answer is C (52), 47 in 2011, 35 in 2008, pre recession Note that this is from High Fliers – based on times 100 top employers (most sought after). Does include the multinat pharma, food and oil Depends on the sector too – 121 apps for every BANKING vacancy, 67 apps for every OIL vacancy, 55 for public sector, 24 for accountancy ( Biggest increase in grad vacancies in 2012 over 2001 was IT -39%, Public Sector 21%, Oil 18% and Chem/Pharma 14% (so recovering slowly but from 2007-12 chem/pharma has had overall drop of 47%) Biggest drops in Consulting 31% and media 20% 69% employers looking fro a 2.1 or above (but smaller employers not so fussy)
All are perfectly possible, most would need training on the job. Loads of others such as GP, Lawyer, Social worker, ilbrarian, weher you would probably need a further qulification but there are usually accelerated courses for gradautes, so you wouldn’t be having to plod through a normal degree . So from that wee quiz, a few things to note – you have a relatively unusual and a very useful degree, and one that has a huge range of transferable skills. You will on average gain a lot financially from having a chemistry degree – as well as that, if you are a graduate you are more likely to have good physical and mental health, to be happier, and to be more tolerant of others. There are near limitless opportunities for what you can do with your degree Wee downside is that you are going to have to try harder to actually get a job, if present trend continues.
Destinations – coming onto that in a minute
Pages 99-105 BSc mostly finance or business Further study – small sample but wide range – people changing slant – eg as well as PhD MChem some science based jobs, but bad year, quite wide array, lot of phd and again a couple of changes of direction – MChem Ind Placement – more sciencey jobs, lot of PhD
Just to give a wider flavour, can see where recent Imperial graduates have gone (pick them cos good chemistry dept). Not wildly different destinations and Good News! actually edinburgh has fewer unemployed
Obviously they work everywhere, but where do they actually do chemistry? Where do they not work is more the case. Just put this in to show that there really is a weallth of other places you can work, not just the oil industry! MANUFACTURING: - Includes a huge range, includes brewing, distilling, food industry, chemicals, AKzoNobel, Johnson Matthey,Procter and Gamble etc PHARMA/RESEARCH –GSK, AstraZeneca, Pfizer OIL & GAS –Extraction and Refining POWER GENERATION – Gas, electric, nuclear, renewable fuels GOVERNMENT eg DSTL www.dstl.gov.uk Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (advice and research for National security and other govt bodies) DESG Defence Engineering and Science Group (bigger group, more research-based, more Defence) Central Science Laboratory - involved in research into food safety, Health and Safety Executive , Met Office, Scottish Agricultural Science Agency - in Edinburgh, GCHQ – weapons systems analysts EDUCATION – School, FE, HE, science centres, science publishing, WATER INDUSTRY CONSULTANCIES : Environmental consultancies, engineering consultancies ENV Protection – companies dealing with waste and recycling, and protecting our waterways ACADEMIC RESEARCH – universities or research council institutes NHS – can apply to be a HEALTHCARE SCIENTIST Other: BNFL www.bnfl.co.uk nuclear waste management & decommissioning.
Websites – profiles on RSC, sectors in Prospects
I know some of you are probably sitting there thinking that that wasn’t very detailed – well in (30mins it wont be) BUT here is how you follow up and get more information RSC profiles- not that many but growing, look at sales a& marketing?, lots outside of chemistry field ABPI profiles – 88 of them, many chemistry based, a few others like HR and sales, finance and medical writing. Show the Analytical Chemist (top) CareersBox talking heads –8 of them, good= show them policy researcher on 2 nd page (5 min)
What job would suit me? –based on your own answers to questions, suggests possible options Options Explore Types of JObs
Websites – profiles on RSC, sectors in Prospects
START HERE Going to look at some real vacancies now…. But first, how do employers decide which candidates to interview? Might be hundreds of Cvs – need to sort into a Yes pile, a possible pile and a Definitely not pile. Don’t worry if you don’t have all the skills, knowledge, attributes that they ask for- few people have. Like to now look at some real jobs, which ask for certain qualities
Handouts of JOB VACANCIES FOR CHEMISTS and SKILLS LIST Work on their own – choose one job that interests them out of the nine. If you really don’t like the look of any of them, choose the one that is least abhorrent to you. Identify 3 essential skills that you would HAVE to have to do the job If finish quickly, can do another vacancy off list Examples of Skills: Self-motivated, team player, delivering business intelligence solutions Flexible and enthusiastic, knowledge of second language useful Ability to problem solve Present and defend your opinions Think creatively Ability to learn new skills and assimilate large amounts of information Initiative Ability to motivate others Think there is a postdoc in there too, if you want to be planning for really far into the future. How many think they would have a chance of getting an interview as they stand? Can you see how you could make yourself a better candidate?
Part time work & Vacation work – will talk more about this in a moment. Sports & Student Societies – there is again lots of choice – something for everyone. Good just to find something you enjoy doing, so that you will stay committed to it and perhaps end up in some sort of position of responsibility. Employers love to see that. Examples on page 1 of handout Languages and skills courses are offered by the university, either through Students Association (eg they run Tandem, where you can be paired up with a native speaker of another language and you can learn from one another), Careers Service, Office of Lifelong learning and a good chance to access training in something you want to improve, whether it’s business awareness or giving presentations. Examples on Page 1 of Handout Volunteering – lots of opportunities to do this while at university, often right on your doorstep and with flexible hours. The student volunteer centre at Potterrow is very good and can fix you up with almost anything in the UK and they also do sponsored exchanges throughout the world. May also be international opportunities to volunteer via the University expeditions society and other student organisations. Examples on page 2 of Handout. Travel – You can travel and then use it as useful evidence of how you have developed your independence, flexibility etc whether it’s working on a children’s summer camp in America (BUNAC) or backpacking around Europe, or though a summer work exchange such as IAESTE. See Page 2 of Handout Study abroad. In chemistry can do an Erasmus year in a European University in 4 rd year (have a chemistry project and can attend lectures but you don’t have to pass the exams in a foreign language!) can also do a year in an Asian university chemistry department, or a year in industry, very flexible degree– a lot you can do to make yourself stand out. See Page 2 of handout. You don’t have to join everything, and you don’t need to focus just on what’s going to improve your CV later on – do things that you enjoy, that you feel are worthwhile and that you will stick with – your level of involvement may become important later on. Keep a record of what you have done – it’s easy to lose track.
Too early to think seriously about vacancies yet, but sometimes looking at whats available and what sort of skills and experience you need to have for certain jobs can get you thinking. Have a look at vacancy sites maybe once a month, and if there is something you fancy, in come way, regardless of where it is, or the level of expertise required, print it out and over the next few years you can add to it, and perhaps see a pattern beginning to form.
Websites – profiles on RSC, sectors in Prospects
Imagination, Wishful Thinking – you might already know what the perfect job would be for you – eg Astronaut, Professional footballer, film star, but being realistic your chances are slim. Think what factors specifically that attracts you to those roles – are there any other jobs where they’d be present to some extent? EG I would really like to a codebreaker, like they used to have at Bletchley Park in WW2. Couldn’t apply to GCHQ as need to stay in scotland, bit tricky so I thought what do I like about it? Solving puzzles, using brain, attention to detail. So I thought it would be good to be a proofreader for puzzle companies, so that’s what I do when I’m not here –work for a publishing co. editing puzzles and ensuring they are solvable. CA, - as well as us, you could use the career contact database in careers service Events, Fairs (will point out a few at the end) Talk to people – your friends, family, family friends, people at bus stop, ask them what they do, what they like/dislike about it, what they would like to do if they were starting over. People love talking about themselves!
So that’s all loads of ways to generate careers ideas. But what about you? The other way to go about it is to give some deep thought about yourself, and people don’t like doing this, its hard and they would rather pigeon hole themselves into an existing job description than to think about what they really really want. Will give it a try today, but we don’t have much time, so we can only just scratch the surface but hopefully you can go away and think about it
Think about all the different factors you need to think about and how these factors link together. Give you 15 seconds – try to write down 3 issues, factors, information, things, whatever you want to call them that you need to take into consideration when you are choosing and planning
This is a career planning continuum which we use – but there are lots of ways of doing it – series of circles, jigsaw. Maybe some of your factors are in here (Have stopped asking them to do this themselves as a 10 minute exercise as they never quite get it.) This model of Career Planning/Management represents a view of the stages which make up career planning. It provides a route map by establishing the way forward 2 parts - MAKING DECISIONS & IMPLEMENTING DECISIONS To take charge of your career planning you need to WANT to do it, and be sufficiently MOTIVATED to do it. HOW MANY OF YOU ARE AT THAT STAGE? REalise that some of you are not,but 2 nd year best time to do it. This is being ENGAGED in the PROCESS. This process can help you take control of your career. It is applicable at all stages in a career, and highlights your own responsibility for your career development. To be able to manage your career throughout your working life, you need to be an autonomous career planner. SELF AWARENESS and OPPORTUNITY AWARENESS are not discrete and cannot be considered in isolation. These change over time,, as always getting new insights about ourselves and opportunities which exist. All experience is useful. New knowledge about opportunities will trigger thinking about how these might match our own particular characteristics. Need to move back and forward between self and opportunity awareness to develop a good understanding of what sort of person you are and what type of work would match your qualities. All this helps you make a realistic decision about what is right for you. Let’s illustrate this with an example . (GRAHAM NORTON)
Let’s illustrate this with an example. (GRAHAM NORTON) DO EXERCiSE NOW You quickly assessed the pros – money and lifestyle and cons – long hours, putting work before your own needs. When you make a decision about your career, you use a combination of POSITIVE choices (things you like) and a process of ELIMINATION ( things you don’t like) If you are not sure about your preferences, it is harder to make those decisions.
Giving out a booklet which is yours to work on and record the important elements you need to look at when you are making a choice. Go through one element with them. Just to get you started, try the first one – VALUES on Page 4,5,6. Only takes a minute or two Values – very important – if your job does not fulfil your personal values in life, it can make you very unhappy. Interests – if a job is not interesting to you, you tend to be bored, but not usually unhappy.
These are factors (values)that are commonly important to the general population, most are impt to me – l ocation – I live in the Borders and would love a job there, but there are very few that I could do that would pay above the minimum wage, so edinburgh is the next best thing. Working Hours really important to me – got young kids and I need to leave at 5pm on the dot Opportunities for advancement – used to be important to me, but not really bothered now – VALUES CHANGE OVER TIME. Often the reason people will consider a big career change in their late thirties.
Other factors are just as important – you need to do something you are interested in, you work well if you are using a specific skills or ability that you know you are good at, you need a job that suits your personality etc Need to work through all the other factors in the booklet, then On the last page there is a blank space for a summary of all the important factors. To fill it in, think back to the career planning continuum I have shown you, and your thoughts from the exercises we’re doing today and in this book when you get time (done Graeme Norton, not done Golden Ticket yet)
That’s great, you know yourself inside out and whats impt to you at the end of that. Unfortunately this doesn’t lead to a Eureka moment where you can say, Ah in that case, I should be an actuary or an academic librarian or a forensic scientist.. NOW you have to back to the lists of ways of generating careers ideas that I showed you last time, find a range of jobs that grab your attention in some way, then find out more about them from reading, speaking to people, getting some experience in them and only then you can see if they will be a good match to yourself . The slides from last time, showing you how to generate ideas, are all on chemistry WebCT.
Sometimes people can panic a bit at this point, saying, all very well knowing what’s important to you AND knowing where to find out about the range of jobs available, but me, well, I know nothing, have no imagination, can only imagine jobs that you come across in every day life, like teacher, doctor, scientist, I know nothing. Just to give you a wee bit of confidence to show that you already know more than you think, I am going to ask you to guess some job titles relating to some values or skills or interests.
Wont have time for this – just flash up and say will be on Learn if want to think through them Can work in pair or threes if you want Just scribble them down or shout them out down, first thing that comes into your head, dont try and be ultra-sensible,, only give you about three seconds for each Just fly through. 12 categories there – hands up who had more than 8 answers? Read them out? Anyone else? See they are not the same? Might not have an answer for all of them, but will have thought of a few, if you swap with others, you can see that their list will be different, the factors that are important to them, or the way they think result in very different answers.
NOTE _ IN COMBINED SESSION< NO TIME> JUST GET THEM TO THINK ABOUT WHERE THETY WANT TO BE ) WHO WITH< DOING WHAT< WHAT INTERESTS. Now going to think about your future. Advance 5 years – 4 years after graduation. Whats happening in the world? Its now 2020 – you graduated 4 years ago. Oil is fast running out, electric cars are the norm, Space tourism is real –you can buy tickets over the counter We’ll know what dark matter looks like, still looking for the Higgs Boson The focus of this exercise is thinking about where you’d like to be in your life, the sort of person you are, what you are doing, how your lifestyle looks. Start by writing down the date on your Golden Ticket (ie today but 2020) ………You may also like to write down your age. In a moment I will read out a series of questions….you should write down what comes into your mind. This exercise is just for you! You will not be asked to share your ideas so write freely. Some of you will find this easier to do than others – but just have a go and write down what you can – even it’s just a few words or random thoughts. This is your golden ticket – a ticket to whatever future you would like. We are talking about ideals here – it can be anything you want it to be. More complete picture of your future than you did 10 minutes ago. Not all of you will find it useful but some people do, because it makes them realise that they never think about where they are going in life. We know that if you have avision, or a future plan, that you are more likley to be satisfied in your life generally and you career in particular. Even know that you earn more if you plan ahead. But not all about money, its how you can plan a life that is satisfying.
So what now? Well it would be nice to get the ideal job delivered to your doorstep after 10 minutes of self reflection, but it doesn’t happen sadly. You need to have the opportunity awareness too. Remember three weeks ago, I showed you a range of different jobs, and lots of websites with profiles and further information about the hundreds of options open to you.. The next step is to think about yourself and factors mentioned in this booklet then check with the relevant job descriptions/ speak to people doing the job, to see if it fits in with your profile. We can help you find information or people that might be useful. At beginning of 3 rd year we will send you information about things happening in the Careers Service programme – Careers information sessions where employers come in to talk about a whole range of careers. Skills training. Your careers adviser is pleased to see you at any time during your course. Sometimes you have no ideas, dozens of ideas. Might be helpful to narrow it down to perhaps three or four and do background research on each. Then we can help you work out the most impt factors for you
