Beyond Your Research Degree beyondyourresearchdegree

Welcome to the Beyond Your Research Degree podcast from the University of Exeter Doctoral College! The podcast about careers and all the opportunities available to you... beyond your research degree!  In this episode we talk to Dr. Demelza Curnow, Quality Enhancement Manager for the QAA!
Music from https://filmmusic.io ’Cheery Monday’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses
 
Transcript
 
100:00:10,890 --> 00:00:23,850Hello and welcome to the Beyond Your Research Degree podcast by the University of Exeter Doctoral College.
200:00:23,850 --> 00:00:27,450Hello and welcome to the latest episode of Beyond Your Research Degree.
300:00:27,450 --> 00:00:28,890I'm your host, Kelly Preece
400:00:28,890 --> 00:00:39,330and today I am talking to Dr Demelza Curnow and Demelza works in one of those many sort of academic related jobs or academic related fields,
500:00:39,330 --> 00:00:46,020but this time at an organisation outside of academia called the quality assurance agency.
600:00:46,020 --> 00:00:51,720So Demelza, are you happy to introduce yourself? My name's Demelza Curnow
700:00:51,720 --> 00:00:56,610My Ph.D. was in mediaeval English.
800:00:56,610 --> 00:01:03,330The title of it was five case studies in the transmission of popular middle english birth romance
900:01:03,330 --> 00:01:07,830Possibly not the most catchy and as where I am now.
1000:01:07,830 --> 00:01:12,630I'm based in the far tip of Cornwall, down near Penzance in.
1100:01:12,630 --> 00:01:23,220a little village called Ludford and I came back to Cornwall pretty close on on finishing my Ph.D. and my
1200:01:23,220 --> 00:01:32,160work over the last 15 years or so has been in academic quality and standards and governance.
1300:01:32,160 --> 00:01:37,860That wasn't what I went into immediately after my Ph.D.
1400:01:37,860 --> 00:01:41,850And I can say more about that, if you'd like me to. Yeah, absolutely.
1500:01:41,850 --> 00:01:48,110So we will get on to kind of how how you got to academic quality and standards, definitely.
1600:01:48,110 --> 00:01:57,310But. So what was the initial transition you made or the first role that you did after you finished your Ph.D.?
1700:01:57,310 --> 00:02:01,420Well, I'm from a farming family, and I finished my Ph.D. realising this,
1800:02:01,420 --> 00:02:09,100I knew nothing about anything apart from farming and middle English, which is an unusual combination.
1900:02:09,100 --> 00:02:13,390And I guess one of the big differences is I'm conscious of between
2000:02:13,390 --> 00:02:22,570When I did my Ph.D. 20 years ago, when they're done now, is that all I did was my Ph.D.
2100:02:22,570 --> 00:02:29,650There was nothing around the edges in terms of employability and other skills.
2200:02:29,650 --> 00:02:34,900And also, I wasn't doing lots of teaching or doing the conference rounds either.
2300:02:34,900 --> 00:02:41,630Just specialising in my manuscripts. And then I suppose the first.
2400:02:41,630 --> 00:02:48,350What if you could quote a proper job that I had outside of family really was working at the cider
2500:02:48,350 --> 00:02:56,350farm up near Truro where I worked for about nine months as a tour guide and tractor driver
2600:02:56,350 --> 00:03:02,650And in some respects, I can actually trace my career journey from that point.
2700:03:02,650 --> 00:03:10,090And I think one of the the really important things it did for me was forced me to stand in front of people and speak,
2800:03:10,090 --> 00:03:13,720which was something that was complete anathema to me.
2900:03:13,720 --> 00:03:20,620And one of the reasons that I didn't want to go into an academic career, I never planned to go into an academic career.
3000:03:20,620 --> 00:03:27,490I was simply doing my Ph.D. for the sheer enjoyment of playing with mediaeval manuscripts.
3100:03:27,490 --> 00:03:33,820This was quite fortunate in many respects because at the time this, I was doing my my Ph.D.
3200

Welcome to the Beyond Your Research Degree podcast from the University of Exeter Doctoral College! The podcast about careers and all the opportunities available to you... beyond your research degree!  In this episode we talk to Dr. Holly Prescott, Careers Advisor of Postgraduate Researchers at the University of Birmingham!
Music from https://filmmusic.io ’Cheery Monday’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses
 
Transcript
 
1
00:00:10,890 --> 00:00:23,630
Hello and welcome to the Beyond Your Research Degree podcast by the University of Exeter Doctoral College.
 
2
00:00:23,630 --> 00:00:27,020
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of Beyond Your Research Degree.
 
3
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I'm your host, Kelly Preece, and in this episode, I'm going to be talking to one of my colleagues from the University of Birmingham.
 
4
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Dr. Holly Prescott, about her career beyond her research degree.
 
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Holly, are you happy to introduce yourself? Yeah, sure. So I'm Holly Prescott, and I did my Ph.D. at the University of Birmingham.
 
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I did it between 2008 and 2011. It's tough to get my head around.
 
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The fact that it's nearly 10 years since I finished my Ph.D. was a crossover between literature and cultural geography.
 
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So I was looking at the effective, and narrative agency of abandoned spaces in contemporary British fiction.
 
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And once I'd completed that.
 
10
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I felt like I'd taken research as far as I wanted to take it.
 
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And so from then, I forged a career in what we might call higher education professional services,
 
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and I'm currently the careers advisor for postgraduate researchers at the University of Birmingham.
 
13
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Amazing. I just want to pick up on a phrase that you use, though, which I thought was really interesting,
 
14
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which is that you came to the end of the PhD and you'd taken research as far as you wanted to take it.
 
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Can I ask you more about what you mean by that? Absolutely, yes.
 
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And I think what I mean by that would be in comparison to how I felt after I finished my master's degree.
 
17
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So I did, a taught MA and in literature and culture at the University of Lancaster.
 
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And I just got really into it, got really into my dissertation.
 
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And one of the main reasons I progressed to the Ph.D. was because after I've done that MA dissertation, I thought I'm not done yet.
 
20
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I felt like there was more mileage in the ideas and the research I was doing.
 
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So just to give you some context.
 
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My master's dissertation was looking at uh urban exploration photography and say where people go into abandoned buildings, take photographs,
 
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display them online and especially of maternity hospitals,
 
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and crossover between the online display of these images of these abandoned maternity hospitals and birth narratives.
 
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And and yeah, I felt like and the more I was reading, the more I was seeing abandoned hospitals,
 
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especially cropping up in and in novels that I was looking at.
 
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And so I think there's more I can get out of this.
 
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And and that was one of the main reasons I went on to do something I think kind of served
 
29
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Welcome to the Beyond Your Research Degree podcast from the University of Exeter Doctoral College! The podcast about careers and all the opportunities available to you... beyond your research degree!  In this episode Kelly Preece, Researcher Development Manager is interviewed by Dr. Charlotte Kelstead, University of Exeter Doctoral graduate about her career in research and Higher Education.
Music from https://filmmusic.io ’Cheery Monday’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses
 
Transcription
100:00:10,880 --> 00:00:23,790Hello and welcome to the Beyond Your Research Degree podcast by the University of Exeter, Doctoral College.
200:00:23,790 --> 00:00:29,550Hello and welcome to the latest episode of Beyond Your Research Degree, I'm your host, Kelly Preece for this episode.
300:00:29,550 --> 00:00:34,800We're going to be doing things a little bit differently. I'm delighted to be joined by Dr Charlotte Kelstead.
400:00:34,800 --> 00:00:41,310Charlotte graduated with her Ph.D. in history from the University of Exeter recently and is
500:00:41,310 --> 00:00:46,740currently working as an event coordinator at the European Centre for Palestine Studies.
600:00:46,740 --> 00:00:49,200But I'm not going to be talking to Charlotte about her career.
700:00:49,200 --> 00:00:57,690In fact, we're switching around and instead Charlotte's going to be interviewing me about my career in research and higher education.
800:00:57,690 --> 00:01:02,550So take it away, Charlotte. OK, fantastic so
900:01:02,550 --> 00:01:10,140I have lots of questions for you because I feel like you've been part of my experience at Exeter for quite a long time.
1000:01:10,140 --> 00:01:19,890So I remember when I was when I was back doing an undergraduate doing the Exeter The X Factor introductory thing about seven years ago.
1100:01:19,890 --> 00:01:23,370I remember you being there and having a wonderful personality and brightening up,
1200:01:23,370 --> 00:01:31,170brightening up the end of the day when we were all starting to flag a bit. So I'm just really interested to hear all about your career,
1300:01:31,170 --> 00:01:40,080especially because I've just submitted my corrections and I'm now starting to think about careers beyond academia and within academia.
1400:01:40,080 --> 00:01:46,110And I'm just really interested to hear today about how your career has progressed, things that you've learnt along the way.
1500:01:46,110 --> 00:01:51,330Any advice you might have and how it's all come together to be where you are now.
1600:01:51,330 --> 00:01:56,320So perhaps you could start by just giving us a bit of background on your career.
1700:01:56,320 --> 00:02:05,220So how you got to where you are now? Yes, so am I.
1800:02:05,220 --> 00:02:16,950I always say, like my, my career has been incredibly eclectic in every possible way, so I actually started working professionally when I was 14, I.
1900:02:16,950 --> 00:02:22,080So I was a theatre kid in all of its stereotypes.
2000:02:22,080 --> 00:02:24,330And I was a dancer and an actor and a singer.
2100:02:24,330 --> 00:02:31,560And so I was in the the youth company actually at the Northcott Theatre on the University of Exeter campus when I was a teenager.
2200:02:31,560 --> 00:02:37,570And so I was working all through secondary school and then.
2300:02:37,570 --> 00:02:43,160Decided kind of had a decision to make between going to stage school and going to university, I was always quite academic,
2400:02:43,160 --> 00:02:52,720so I thought I'd go down the university route, but I did a degree in dance and theatre, perhaps unsurprisingly.
2500:02:52,720 --> 00:03:02,290And I always say, look, that within about a week of starting my undergraduate degree, I met a Ph.D. student who I just actually,
2600:03:02,290 --> 00:03:10,070I think just passed his viva called Martin Hargreaves, who was one of our what at Exeter would be a PTA,
2700:03:10,070 --> 00:03:15,1

Welcome to the Beyond Your Research Degree podcast from the University of Exeter Doctoral College! The podcast about careers and all the opportunities available to you... beyond your research degree!  In this episode Kelly Preece, Researcher Development Manager talks to Dr. Ruth Gilligan, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Birmingham University and author of The Butchers.
Music from https://filmmusic.io ’Cheery Monday’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses

Podcast transcript
 
100:00:10,910 --> 00:00:23,720Hello and welcome to the Beyond Your Research Degree podcast by the University of Exeter.
200:00:23,720 --> 00:00:26,600Hello and welcome back to Beyond Your Research Degree.
300:00:26,600 --> 00:00:33,830I'm really delighted to be back with you after our summer hiatus and to be bringing to you a conversation with Dr. Ruth Gilligan.
400:00:33,830 --> 00:00:38,810Ruth is a senior lecturer and academic, but also because she's in creative writing.
500:00:38,810 --> 00:00:46,010She is a published author. And so I thought it would be interesting for us to have a conversation with someone who is an
600:00:46,010 --> 00:00:52,820academic but maintains a professional profile and creative practise alongside their academic work.
700:00:52,820 --> 00:00:57,890So Ruth, happy to introduce herself, certainly. Well, firstly, thanks so much for having me.
800:00:57,890 --> 00:01:04,400It's lovely to be chatting to you and reminiscing a little bit about my time at Exeter.
900:01:04,400 --> 00:01:12,650I came to Exeter in two thousand and eleven to start my PhD in creative writing,
1000:01:12,650 --> 00:01:18,110and then I actually went straight for my PhD into my first academic job.
1100:01:18,110 --> 00:01:24,860I the first interview I went for my creative writing role had come up at the University of Birmingham.
1200:01:24,860 --> 00:01:31,010So despite the fact that I was still finishing my PhD, I was like, ah sure, I'll apply and see what happens.
1300:01:31,010 --> 00:01:40,790And anyway, I got offered a job. So I started as a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Birmingham in kind of August twenty fourteen,
1400:01:40,790 --> 00:01:44,690at which point I was still in the final two or three months of my PhD.
1500:01:44,690 --> 00:01:50,900So I was kind of trying to pretend that I was a lecturer and seem very grown up and important to my students,
1600:01:50,900 --> 00:01:58,880despite the fact that I was secretly still a student myself and trying furiously to dot all the T's and cross all the I's on my thesis.
1700:01:58,880 --> 00:02:07,040So yeah, it was a bit of a mad time, but yeah, then I started out at Birmingham and seven, maybe eight years later I'm still there.
1800:02:07,040 --> 00:02:16,610So I'm now a senior lecturer. Since that time, I've also published two more novels and I had published three novels before my PhD at Exeter,
1900:02:16,610 --> 00:02:23,660but I went on to publish two more, one of which was the novel that I wrote as part of my creative writing PhD.
2000:02:23,660 --> 00:02:26,960And then my most recent book The Butchers came out last year.
2100:02:26,960 --> 00:02:35,300So yes, I am now kind of fully fledged novelist, academic, creative writing lecturer and still very much in touch with Sam
2200:02:35,300 --> 00:02:41,090And Sinead my two wonderful supervisors and have very, very fond memories of working with them.
2300:02:41,090 --> 00:02:43,490There's a number of things I think I want to pick up on in that.
2400:02:43,490 --> 00:02:50,120And the first is something that comes up a surprising amount, actually, in talking to people for this podcast,
2500:02:50,120 --> 00:02:58,430which is about kind of seeing an opportunity when you've not actually finished the PhD and going for it and getting it,
2600:02:58,430 --> 00:03:05,060and then how you go about juggling, working and finishing up.
2700:03:05,060 --> 00:03:13,820Co

Welcome to the Beyond Your Research Degree podcast from the University of Exeter Doctoral College! The podcast about careers and all the opportunities available to you... beyond your research degree!  In this episode Kelly Preece, Researcher Development Manager talks Dr. Katie Finning, who recently made the transition from a postdoc to a research role outside of academia. 
In the podcast Kaite mentions the Civil Service Job site and the Glassdoor repository of interview questions.
Music from https://filmmusic.io ’Cheery Monday’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses
 
Podcast transcript
100:00:10,890 --> 00:00:23,730Hello and welcome to the Beyond Your Research Degree podcast by the University of Exeter College.
200:00:23,730 --> 00:00:32,340Hi, it's Kelly Preece and welcome to the latest episode of Beyond Your Research Degree, continuing our series on getting jobs during covid.
300:00:32,340 --> 00:00:35,190I'm really excited to be talking to Dr Katie Finning.
400:00:35,190 --> 00:00:44,220So Katie was up until recently a postdoc at the University of Exeter and has during the pandemic made the transition into a non-academic role.
500:00:44,220 --> 00:00:49,680So are you happy to introduce yourself? Sure. So I'm Katie Finning.
600:00:49,680 --> 00:01:01,540I am. I'm currently working as a senior researcher at the Office for National Statistics, so I was in academia for about nine years before I left.
700:01:01,540 --> 00:01:11,790I'm originally joined not long after I finished my undergraduate degree, I took a job as a research assistant to university.
800:01:11,790 --> 00:01:18,810So I was working on a clinical trial of a behavioural therapy for adults with depression.
900:01:18,810 --> 00:01:23,130And I kind of worked on that project from start to finish when I joined.
1000:01:23,130 --> 00:01:27,070And we were still kind of gaining all of our ethical approvals.
1100:01:27,070 --> 00:01:33,870And I stayed working in that job right up until the end where we published the results of the study.
1200:01:33,870 --> 00:01:43,530So that was a really great experience because I kind of saw the whole research lifecycle from start to finish.
1300:01:43,530 --> 00:01:48,780And in that job, my main job for most of that time was data collection and recruitment.
1400:01:48,780 --> 00:01:56,910So that was great. I spent most of my job kind of going out and meeting people and interviewing them and talking to them about their experiences,
1500:01:56,910 --> 00:02:02,160which was was a really interesting and fun job. And then I did my PhD.
1600:02:02,160 --> 00:02:06,510I moved over to child mental health, so I was still at Exeter university.
1700:02:06,510 --> 00:02:13,230So I'd always been kind of interested in mental health from a research perspective, but particularly child mental health.
1800:02:13,230 --> 00:02:18,910And a PhD opportunity came up just as my contract on that clinical trial was coming to an end.
1900:02:18,910 --> 00:02:27,150So it was kind of perfect timing. It was in a team I was really keen to kind of make my way into and the topic was really interesting.
2000:02:27,150 --> 00:02:35,700So it was advertised as a job rather than me kind of submitting my own PhD proposal.
2100:02:35,700 --> 00:02:39,090And my PhD was kind of epidemiological.
2200:02:39,090 --> 00:02:51,150So it looked at kind of patterns and trends in data, looking at the association between anxiety and depression in young people and school absenteeism.
2300:02:51,150 --> 00:03:00,690And so I used a variety of different research methods during my PhD, did a bit of systematic review, some quantitative work, some qualitative work.
2400:03:00,690 --> 00:03:02,520So it was a really kind of nice,
2500:03:02,520 --> 00:03:10,410well-rounded project that gave me experience and methods that I hadn't experienced when I was working as a research assistant.
2600:03:10,410 --> 00:03:16,530And I think

Welcome to the Beyond Your Research Degree podcast from the University of Exeter Doctoral College! The podcast about careers and all the opportunities available to you... beyond your research degree!  In this episode Kelly Preece, Researcher Development Manager talks Alexandra Smith, who is finishing up her PhD and has just started a job as Public Health Research Support Officer at Devon County Council.
 
Music from https://filmmusic.io ’Cheery Monday’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) License: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses
 
 
Podcast transcript
 
100:00:10,840 --> 00:00:15,700Hello and welcome to the Beyond Your Research Degree podcast by the University of Exeter, Doctoral College
200:00:15,700 --> 00:00:27,660Hello and welcome to the latest episode of Beyond Your Research Degree.
300:00:27,660 --> 00:00:36,820I'm your host, Kelly Preece, and in this episode, we are continuing our series on securing jobs during covid-19.
400:00:36,820 --> 00:00:44,460I'm speaking to another of our current PGRs who's not quite finished writing up, but has started a job in a local authority.
500:00:44,460 --> 00:00:54,810So, Alexandra, you happy to introduce yourself? So my name is Alexandra Smith and I'm a student at the University of Exeter.
600:00:54,810 --> 00:01:00,720I based in business school, but my PhD is on what I call the holistic health benefits of working groups.
700:01:00,720 --> 00:01:05,820So essentially I'm looking at five different variables organisational landscape, physical health,
800:01:05,820 --> 00:01:14,430mental health and social capital and their influence on working group participant motivation for joining, remaining and leaving.
900:01:14,430 --> 00:01:18,210So at the moment, I am working with Devon County Council.
1000:01:18,210 --> 00:01:23,790I'm a public health research support officer and it's a role funded by the NIHR.
1100:01:23,790 --> 00:01:31,320That's the National Institute of Health Research, and it sits within the the CRN the Clinical Research Network.
1200:01:31,320 --> 00:01:37,560So essentially, NIHR is really interested in expanding its public health portfolio.
1300:01:37,560 --> 00:01:45,990So my role is to sort of link up researchers to populations to to get data from so I can
1400:01:45,990 --> 00:01:50,880do that through Connections that I have through the team within Devon County Council,
1500:01:50,880 --> 00:01:58,440but also to to create spaces for collaboration for public health.
1600:01:58,440 --> 00:02:09,780So I work across lots of different teams, so I will work with different individuals in D.C.C public health, but also broader DCC.
1700:02:09,780 --> 00:02:15,060So I'm also linking up with people in sort of who work more in the environment who are
1800:02:15,060 --> 00:02:22,140interested in working in transport and also working with sort of more partners as well.
1900:02:22,140 --> 00:02:31,500So community and voluntary sector NHS CCG Trust those different kind of partnerships, academics as well.
2000:02:31,500 --> 00:02:39,180And at the moment I'm working towards creating a webinar which DCC will be hosting on the 8th of July,
2100:02:39,180 --> 00:02:46,650and that's really a great collaborative forum to get academics and other partners together,
2200:02:46,650 --> 00:02:54,660to really talk through some of the pressing public health issues that we have in public health is such a huge area,
2300:02:54,660 --> 00:02:58,770really covers all aspects of life, really.
2400:02:58,770 --> 00:03:03,150It's very interconnected. So it's really important to have those collaborative spaces.
2500:03:03,150 --> 00:03:08,100And currently what I'm designing is a kind of like a platform.
2600:03:08,100 --> 00:03:17,220I'm looking to do this through sort of SharePoint and also through Microsoft teams to enable
2700:03:17,220 --> 00:03:25,560researchers and other collaborators to get together to put together grant applications.
2800:03:25,560 --> 00:03:35,250The r