Here to provide you with the tools to build a successful career

Share this |

Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linked More...

Latest Posts

Archive for January, 2014
You might have seen the Trends survey results in Chemistry World this month. The Trends survey has been run by the Royal Society of Chemistry  (and it’s predecessor bodies) for almost 100 years and this is our 40th edition. The first survey of Fellows and Associates of the Institute of Chemistry was carried out in December 1919, just over a year after the end of the First World War. The report was published in 1920, the year that Walther Nernst, of Nernst Equation fame, won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on chemical affinities. We have come a long way since 1920 when the average chemist aged 25 working in industry could expect to earn the princely sum of £320 per annum, including bonuses!
 
We use the survey to inform and support the Careers team both in providing information as part of our consultations and to support our work in the chemical science community. We find that individual members use it when contemplating career moves and benchmarking themselves against their peers. Finally, companies use it to benchmark their salaries against their own and other industries.
 
In the Chemistry World article there are a few highlights including the well-known fact that remuneration varies across the most populated fields of employment from teaching to oil and allied products to consulting. This is something we see as part of our research into different careers and is typical of the breadth of chemistry – a good reason to have chosen it as a career!
 
The article also highlights the pay gap between men and women, comparing salary within a specific age group and also comparing industry, academia and central government. The data presented is weighted data but it is worth remembering that it is a general snapshot and doesn’t take into account length of service, job title, qualifications, careers breaks or size of company. It is also difficult to tell what potential earnings might be of any individual and of course it cannot reflect what graduates in chemistry earn later in their careers, nor the choices we make throughout our career, regardless of gender.
 
One can’t deny that there are issues with gender in the world of work and our diversity team is looking into these separately. One of the larger projects the diversity team are looking is the ‘leaky-pipeline’ and the factors which affect those women who choose to leave chemistry.
 
In my opinion the most interesting thing in the article is the fact that skills training matters most to you, our members, with 39% of you citing it as the most important benefit. Training can be an important part of your career, not only enhancing your skills but making you feel valued by your employer – it is often a reason people stay in a job. Flexible working is also important, so say 32% of you. As we become carers for members of our family, as we take on portfolio careers, as we try and cut costs and time spent travelling, flexible working is a huge benefit to us and another reason to stay or something to look for in a new post.
 
There is limited space in any article, or blog for that matter and there is no way we can cover all of the findings of the report. The Trends survey is a huge piece of work, with over a year of planning, gathering data and reporting to go into each edition. If you want to compare yourself against someone in a similar position or want to sense check your own industry or job then I would encourage you to go and look at the report yourself; it is free to members.
 
Posted by Charlotte Ashley-Roberts on Jan 30, 2014 7:32 PM GMT
Last week the Daily Mail wrote an article on the ‘MeVie’ or as we know it, the Video CV. I know it’s not something that will appeal to the masses, either candidates or recruiters in chemistry, but, for those of you who are thinking about moving out of chemistry and into something more like sales/marketing/media it may be something to consider.

In this age of technology candidates are looking at more innovative ways of getting their skills, and also their personality across when applying for jobs. This may have opened up the door for more creative ways to apply for jobs.

If you think this option might be for you, we have some tips for a video CV:
  1. Make sure it is appropriate for the role you are applying for
  2. Don’t just read your current CV aloud; use it to show your strengths
  3. Be professional but creative in your approach
  4. Keep it short – about 1 minute is a good length
  5. Think about who might see it – do you want it to go viral for the right reasons?
Of course they are not for everyone and fortunately a well-written CV  is still effective in landing you an interview. There is plenty of information about effective CV writing here but I leave you with a thought:

According to a survey of 500 CVs carried out by Brand Yorkshire

"98 per cent had gross spelling mistakes, bad grammatical errors or poor presentation.”
Posted by Charlotte Ashley-Roberts on Jan 22, 2014 2:54 PM GMT
I was listening to the news on my drive in this morning and one of the stories was about fracking in the UK. As always I was thinking about the types of roles and people who would work in the industry, but of course it raised the debate on the impact on our environment. This is something that is important to many of you and we are often asked about careers in the environmental sector. I would consider these to be green careers.

According to the Careers Development Institute, a green career is defined as:

"Green careers are careers that contribute substantially to preserving or restoring environmental quality. Specifically, but not exclusively, this includes jobs that help to protect ecosystems and biodiversity; reduce energy, materials, and water consumption through high efficiency strategies; de-carbonize the economy; and minimize or altogether avoid generation of all forms of waste and pollution." more...
Posted by Charlotte Ashley-Roberts on Jan 13, 2014 9:55 AM GMT
It’s the first day back at work for me after Christmas and also maternity leave. It’s also the first Monday in 2014 (in case you haven’t noticed!). I imagine many of you have set up new year’s resolutions, getting fit, saving money and finding a new job being in the top three of most people I know. I could talk to you about getting a new job but it’s so predictable and anyway, you can find lots of information from us about job searching here

Nope, I have a new year’s goal of my own: to blog about things going on in the world which might have an impact on you or on the advice we give out. I hope that it will be interesting for you to read and will aim to keep up to date with what is going on in different areas which our members work in. I shall start with graduates:

The graduate job market can be a minefield, ridiculous competition for little or no jobs, thus catapulting all graduates into low paid jobs – right? Not in my experience, sorry to burst the bubble. I am not saying that ALL graduates will find their dream job immediately but then how many people actually do? As a graduate you may have to take a lower salary than you hoped, but it will go up and you will gain that valuable asset - experience. In fact, many graduates find excellent jobs; their secret? They are proactive before they finish studying, provide a good application and get advice, from everyone.

 The Guardian posted an interesting article on predictions for the graduate market in 2014 with the following headlines:
  1. In 2013 there were more graduate opportunities
  2. Employers are more relaxed on your academic achievements, so don’t get hung up on your grades if you didn’t do as well as you hoped
  3. Recruitment is changing and social media is becoming an important tool in the process with VentureBeat estimating that 2 million jobs will be tweeted every MONTH in 2014.
  4. Salaries have gone up, not by much, but they have gone up.
You might be wondering about actual data on students getting jobs. Well, every year, the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA) provide data on what last year’s graduates are doing and it’s not all doom and gloom. The HESA report 'Patterns and trends in UK higher education 2013' says that:

“For example, in 2002, 32.5% of 30 to 34-year-olds in the UK labour force had a higher education qualification; in 2012 this figure was 51.0%

In addition a report from the UK Comission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) says that in 2013 86% of all graduates were in professional occupations with only 13% in low skilled or elementary positions.
 
What does this mean for physical scientists? Well, there are areas of growth predicted in some areas and declines in others however the UKCES report reinforces a valid point that although new jobs created will only account for 1.5 million openings between 2010-2020, replacement jobs (i.e. when someone moves on) will account for around 12 million openings in the same time frame. So even if the sector you want to work with is showing a decline, there may still be opportunities to get your foot in the door.
 
I hope that this brings some good news for 2014….wishing you a very happy new year from us.
Posted by Charlotte Ashley-Roberts on Jan 6, 2014 3:35 PM GMT