{"id":142,"date":"2015-01-07T08:59:13","date_gmt":"2015-01-07T08:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/?p=142"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:58:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:58:47","slug":"just-finished-your-phd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2015\/01\/07\/just-finished-your-phd\/","title":{"rendered":"Just finished your PhD?"},"content":{"rendered":"

We're seeing quite a few people at the moment who have recently finished their PhD thesis or are close to finishing. If that's you, you're probably exepriencing a range of emotions, which will vary according to the time of day, your caffeine levels and how many times in the last twenty-four hours someone has asked you when you will be finishing. We see people in various states of blearly-eyed exhaustion, relief, and uncertainty about the future. It's vital to manage your stress levels and to seek help from a range of sources (friends, family, supervisors, the University Health and Wellbeing Service<\/a>). Questions about 'what's next' will almost certainly be in your mind, and people manage these in different ways, perhaps setting aside a little time each day or each week (perhaps not at the most optimimum time for thesis writing) to look for jobs and plan your career next steps. I read a helpful article a few months ago on the benfits of having a 'Career Exit Strategy'<\/a>; a short term plan to get you through the period immediately following a PhD thesis or research contract which can help pay the rent, build experience and give you some thinking time while you plan your longer-term career strategy.<\/p>\n

If you are in the final stages of your PhD and are confused about your career direction, try asking yourself:<\/p>\n

What kinds of activities motivate and energise me?<\/p>\n

Where\/how does work fit with the other aspects of my life?<\/p>\n

Which aspects of my PhD (if any) do I want to take in to the future? (Think broadly here; the Researcher Development framework <\/a>can help you identify the wide range of skills you've gained throughout your PhD). Think of all the people you've interacted with throughout your thesis, and how.<\/p>\n

If I want to continue in research, what does 'research' mean to me? (working in a lab, analysing data, literature searching, conducting interviews? Where and how might my research be useful?<\/p>\n

Do I want to use my subject? In what ways? Why or why not?<\/p>\n

Do I want to live in any particular geographical area? If so, what work opportunities are available in that area?\u00a0Our jobhunting by UK region <\/a>webpages will be useful here.<\/p>\n

Here's how we can support you as a Careers Service if you are finishing or have just finished your PhD:<\/p>\n

- an impartial, confidential listening ear. Sometimes it's enough to articulate the contents of your brain to someone else. Careers advisers are trained listeners who work in a non-judgemental framework.<\/p>\n

- talking through your options, whether you have a clear idea of where you want to go next or no idea at all. We can help you clarify what you want from a job and create effective plans for next steps. Book a guidance appointment <\/a>.<\/p>\n

- support with identifying the most appropriate job-seeking strategies for areas that interest you. Our vacancies<\/a> web page for researchers has some links that will be of interest. Our Finding a Graduate Job <\/a>guide also has lots of useful advice on job search strategies, networking and speculative applications. Our in-house MyFuture <\/a>vacancy database includes a section specifically for PhDs.<\/p>\n

- support with creating effective CVs, covering letters and applications for jobs inside and outside of academia. Book a Quick Query <\/a>appointment for one-to-one feedback, and check out our web advice on marketing yourself<\/a>, and the researcher CV examples <\/a>on the Vitae website.<\/p>\n

- support with interview preparation and practice interviews. Check out the Vitae <\/a>website and the Manchester Aacademic Careers<\/a> website for advice and sample questions for academic jobs. If your next step will be a postdoc, check out our guide to How to Find a postdoc.<\/a><\/p>\n

- a wealth of information resources on career options; our careers web pages for researchers <\/a>have discipline-specific advice, and information on what previous Bath PhD graduates have gone on to do. The Graduate Prospects Occupational Profiles<\/a>, Beyong the PhD<\/a>, and the Vitae researcher career case studies <\/a>also provide examples and inspiration.<\/p>\n

Your access to the Careers Service doesn't end when you submit; you can register with us as a graduate for indefinite access.<\/p>\n

Finally, once the sleepless nights have come to an end, go for a walk or take a hot bath and remind yourself of what it was that inspired\/motivated you about the thesis - you might need to communicate that enthusiasim to an employer sometime soon...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We're seeing quite a few people at the moment who have recently finished their PhD thesis or are close to finishing. If that's you, you're probably exepriencing a range of emotions, which will vary according to the time of day,...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":389,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[748],"tags":[19,21],"class_list":["post-142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-phd","tag-research"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}