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Archive for May, 2014
When I see the words "I am an excellent communicator" I think to myself, "are you?". How do I know? How does any potential employer know? This empty statement doesn't provide me with any information and there is the additional problem that we all have different perceptions of what excellence might be.

So, how do you get around this kind of statement and make your applications stronger? Quantitative statements. "A what?" I hear you cry. A quantitative statement gives the reader information that allows them to quantify the statement they are reading. Let's take my earlier example:

"I am an excellent communicator"

We could change this to give a stronger example by providing some context

"Invited to present my research to an audience of 200 people at the Joliot-Curie Conference where I received positive feedback from the delegates"

The second statement tells me that you were confident to present to a large group and that your presentation skills must be good enough to have been invited, backed up by the positive feedback you received. You haven't need to tell me that you were an excellent communicator as you have given me that information anyway.

You could also add in a portfolio of your work e.g. a link to your publications, blog or any articles you have written; this is especially important if you are applying for a role which needs written communication skills.

There are three common ways to give context to your application:
  1. budgets - are you a budget holder? If so, how much are you responsible for?
  2. people - do you manage anyone? If so, how many? This could also include training others, demonstrating, supervising etc.
  3. streamlining - saving time or money by making a process more effective - can you quantify it?
These examples can be from work, study, hobbies, voluntary work - there is no restrictions on how you share your skills.

An added bonus of preparing these examples for your CV/application form is that you then have a bank of examples for your interview too.
Posted by Charlotte Ashley-Roberts on May 19, 2014 2:32 PM BST
Over the last year or so my colleagues have been beavering away at a new careers website....and I am happy to announce that the first part has  been completed. A Future in Chemistry is full of information and advice about finding out more about jobs in chemistry. Who is it aimed for? anyone at school, up to age 18, parents, guardians and teachers.




Forty Career profiles for you to explore jobs that other chemists do
Options for study
Career options including more about employability, earnings and jobs you can do
Future options in the chemical sector

We are working on some extra content too, for people who are older than 18 and also some more in-depth information for Royal Society of Chemistry Members only, but of course if you are a Member now and need advice, just email careers@rsc.org to talk to one of us.
Posted by Charlotte Ashley-Roberts on May 13, 2014 9:18 AM BST
I have just returned from my last careers hub of the Spring and what a hub it was! I went to Hull, a place I haven't visited for a number of years and it was lovely. I saw 12 people for consultations and we had over 32 people attend our Profiles in Chemistry talk...you can find pictures on our Twitter page (@CareersRSC)...where we had the following speakers to talk about their career paths and experience:



  • Dr Mike Scotter from FERA
  • Ian Rippin from National Laboratory Service (NLS)
  • Stephanie Sleightholm and Stephen Hebron from Novartis in Grimsby
This was all followed by an evening of networking over food and wine (soft drinks were also available) and from my perspective and the feedback I received, it was a really good event.

We do these hubs all over the UK and you are welcome to attend them. They are primarily set up to provide local careers advice to members and so we do them regionally, trying to allow every member to get an opportunity to talk about their career development with us. We rotate the cities to help with the travel aspect for members e.g. we do Reading one year and Oxford the next.

In addition to talking about your career development there are also opportunities for CPD. You can attend our Profiles in Chemistry talks and find out more about career paths and local companies, as well as different areas of chemistry. You can expand your local contacts through attending our networking evening and there will be opportunities in the future to attend training seminars on topics that interest you (suggestions welcome).

All of these events are designed to let you take hold of your career and travel in the direction you want to.

Posted by Charlotte Ashley-Roberts on May 7, 2014 11:40 AM BST