Would you like to learn more about Management Consulting and the business world?

If you are not sure about your career path but want to know about management consulting and how your PhD credentials could fit the bill, McKinsey & Company’s Insight Programme may be just the thing for you.

McKinsey & Company is inviting outstanding PhD students, Post-Docs and Scholars to apply to attend a 3-day programme in Austria from 29 September – 1 October 2011. They are looking for students who have a proven record of outstanding leadership, personal initiative and achievement, and are due to graduate in 2011, 2012 or 2013.

McKinsey & Company prides itself as a place where you can serve leading clients, develop your talents, and be part of a team that generates high-calibre ideas.  It is also one of the few places where you can have immediate and direct contact with some of the world’s top CEOs and public leaders and where you are encouraged to give your opinion.

As one of the world’s leading management consultancies, McKinsey’s goal is to provide distinctive and long-lasting performance improvements to their clients, who range from governments and multinationals to charities and entrepreneurial firms.  Their work cuts across every business sector – from multimedia to energy, banking to retail, e-commerce to healthcare. They currently have over 90 offices operating in over 50 countries.

The Insight Programme

Insight 2011 offers you a unique opportunity to learn about different techniques for solving problems and an insight into the day-to-day life of a consultant.This 3-day programme will offer you the chance to meet consultants with diverse backgrounds from McKinsey’s world-wide offices and work together in teams to solve a typical McKinsey case.  You will also be able to have your questions answered in a relaxed and informal atmosphere and have fun, whilst discovering exciting career opportunities.

To find out more and to apply visit http://www.insight2011.mckinsey.com/

The application deadline is 17 July 2011.

Selection decisions will be communicated to all applicants by 28 July 2011. The selection process will involve taking the McKinsey Problem Solving Test, and candidates will be notified if they have a place on the Insight Programme by 19 August 2011.

Your Academic Career: Going Global

For many people an academic research career involves global mobility, re-locating to key facilities and research groups to enhance your personal productivity. For those of you who are thinking of working in an institution outside the UK as the next step in your career we highly recommend that you visit our ‘International Academic Careers’ page, located in the Resources section our website for UCL research staff; www.ucl.ac.uk/researchcareers.

This essential resource, created partly from a survey of visiting overseas academic researchers, contains information on the academic career structure and culture in a number of key country destinations, as well as lists of useful online resources. The countries covered by our academics survey are the USA, Germany, Brazil, Japan and France. Lists of key information sources are also available for China, India, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and the Russian Federation.

Posted by Calum Leckie, UCL Careers Service

‘Leadership in Action’ course from Vitae

Interesting upcoming workshop from the researcher development organisation Vitae coming up in June:

Do you want to…
develop your leadership skills?
explore the concept of leadership?
build confidence in your own leadership style?

Vitae is running the ‘Leadership in action’ course on 8-11 June following the success of the pilot last year. The course is for both postgraduate researchers and research staff. It is a three-day residential course which will allow you to explore and develop your leadership skills. This course takes a ‘learning by doing’ approach. There will be presentations on leadership theory, but for the most part, you will be actively participating in the sessions and activities.

The course will be led by a team of experienced facilitators who will work with you throughout the three days to support your learning. They will be from a variety of backgrounds with experience in leadership, academia and other sectors. Places are limited so book now!

Posted by Calum Leckie, UCL Careers Service

What is a Postdoc?

Useful set of slides and an audio recording of a talk by Dr Jannine Clapp on “What a Postdoc is and what they do” over at the Careers After Biological Sciences Blog maintained by Dr Chris Willmott from the University of Leicester.

What is a Postdoc?

View more presentations from cjrw2.

Career Stories On Film

Finding someone who has followed the exact career path as you is pretty much impossible, but if you hunt around enough you can find someone who has a similar direction, and may give you some pointers.

There are a range of video examples like the one above on the iCould website, but you’ll need to dig for research focused subjects, so here is a handy list of some of them to get you going

If you are a UCL Researcher and fancy documenting your experiences then get in touch.

Want to improve your chances of remaining in academia?

For many PhD students a successful career in academic research is their preferred career goal. However, most of you will be keenly aware of the challenges that this will entail, not least the pressure to publish and build your research reputation and the competition for permanent positions and research funding.

Help is at hand, however, in the form of a forthcoming careers event called ‘Careers in focus: Careers in Academia’ from the researcher development organisation ‘Vitae’.

The event takes place on the 30^th March 2010 in Manchester and provides you with an opportunity to network with academics and get some ‘top tips’ for a successful career first hand, find out what life is really like as a postdoctoral researcher and gain practical insight into making successful applications for research positions and grant funding. More information is available at their event webpage.

If you don’t fancy a trip to sunny Manchester then there are similar events closer to home; The ‘Getting into Academia’ forum at UCL takes place on the 17th May 2010 and there are regular ‘Academic Career Planning’ workshops delivered by the UCL Careers Service.  Details of such activities are advertised via the UCL Graduate School website.

Calum Leckie

UCL Careers Adviser

GradBritain

GradBritain is an online magazine written by researchers for researchers. It’s published three times a year by Vitae, the national organsation who support PhD students and research staff.

The new spring 2010 edition has a number of interesting articles, including ‘Postgraduate Funding – Another Way’; ‘To Post Doc or Not to Post Doc’ and ‘Generation X Need Some X-tra Help’.

To access the latest edition of GradBritain, see:
http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/3909/GRADBritain-online-magazine.html

Karen Barnard

Head of UCL Careers Service

UCL Careers Site for Research Staff

Did you know UCL Careers Service has a dedicated site for UCL Research Staff?

The site gives you an overview of the range of specific provision available to research staff  tohelp you advance your career whether it be in academia or beyond

This information includes; getting individual help from one of our two specialist Careers Advisers in a Face to Face consultation, weekly career skills Training workshops and extensive online careers Resources relating to academic and non-academic careers (of particular use to those of you who are unable to visit our careers library in person).

In addition, the site also contains further help and support that you can access from other organisations both within UCL and externally in our General Links section.

The direct link for the UCL Research Staff Careers Site is  http://www.ucl.ac.uk/researchcareers/