Events for researchers

Programme for researchers

Research students and research staff on a fixed-term contract are also eligible to attend any events from our wider programme of training, which covers a range of topics including online assessment centres, psychometric tests, LinkedIn and many more.

Visit the Careers Portal to register for external careers events, including careers fairs, recruitment sessions, conferences, workshops and more.

Research students can count attendance at any of these training sessions towards their training hours as recorded in their Personal, Professional and Career Development Planners.

LinkedIn for researchers

Thursday 6 February 2025, 11:00am to 12:00pm, Online.

Online networking is now an essential way of increasing your visibility, gaining useful sector connections, researching companies and organisations and finding and applying for roles. But how can you be sure as a researcher - whatever your career plans and aspirations - that you are making LinkedIn work for you?

This workshop will:

introduce you to the main functions and benefits of LinkedIn as a professional social media platform
help you work out how you can tailor your profile to have maximum impact
explore the practical art and etiquette of building your network on LinkedIn
help you to manage your LinkedIn presence for prospective employers and active job search.

Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions throughout and by the end of the session you will know about further resources and support available to you to help you make best use of LinkedIn as part of your ongoing career management.

This session is open to all Oxford Brookes research students and fixed-term research staff. If you are unable to attend but would like to receive the session materials please feel free to register.

How to get a job: effective written applications for researchers

Tuesday 25 February 2025, 3:00pm to 4:00pm, Online.

Whether you are intending to apply for academic or further research roles, or for non-academic roles within or beyond higher education, learning to market yourself on paper is an essential step towards gaining that all-important interview and then the job itself.

In this session you will learn:

how applications are shortlisted for interview
how to decode job adverts and target your information to employers’ needs
conventions for CVs and covering letters within and beyond academia
how to approach online application forms.

Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions throughout and by the end of the session you will know how to find lots of useful resources specifically for researchers including sample CVs and written applications.

This session is open to all Oxford Brookes research students and fixed-term research staff. If you are unable to attend but would like to receive the session materials please feel free to register

Job hunting tips for researchers

Thursday 13 March 2025, 2:00pm to 3:00pm, Online.

Job hunting can be both exciting and anxiety-provoking as well as potentially labour intensive. So how do you devise an efficient job search strategy to match your needs, maximise your time and maintain motivation throughout the process?

Whether you are looking for academic or non-academic roles or both, this session will help you to:

assess priorities when drawing up your own job search strategy
know where to look for advertised vacancies and how to assess them for suitability
draw on networks and connections, including social media, to gain an ‘insider’ advantage
understand the hidden jobs market and how to tap into it
adopt helpful practices and self-talk to look after yourself throughout the process.

Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions throughout and by the end of the session you will know how to access a range of resources and careers support to help you manage the job hunting process effectively.

This session is open to all Oxford Brookes research students and fixed-term research staff. If you are unable to attend but would like to receive the session materials please feel free to register.

Interview skills for researchers

Thursday 9 April 2025, 10:00am to 11:00am, Online.

Whether you’re applying for academic or non-academic roles, learning how to perform well at interview is a prerequisite to getting the job. Brush up on the practicalities of preparing for, and performing in, interviews in this interactive workshop designed specifically for researchers.

This session includes:

what to expect from interviews, academic and non-academic
common questions and how to tackle them
how to talk about your research for different audiences
a chance to share interview experiences, tips and strategies with your peers.

This session is open to all Oxford Brookes research students and fixed-term research staff. If you are unable to attend but would like to receive the session materials please feel free to register.

Thinking of an academic career: what can I do now?

Tuesday 3 June 2025, 2:00pm to 3:00pm, Online.

Many researchers harbour aspirations of an established academic career. But in a sector with fewer permanent roles than highly qualified candidates, what can you be doing now to help increase the likelihood of turning your academic aspirations into reality?

This session will introduce you to a range of resources for researchers and help you to:

explore some of the important issues, roles, and responsibilities integral to working in academia
find out about different early academic career paths in the UK and in other countries
reflect on your suitability for an academic career
identify the common requirements for success in securing your first academic post
prioritise practical career-building activities you can undertake alongside your research.

This session is aimed primarily at research students in the early to mid-stage of their research degree, although later stage research students will also gain awareness of helpful resources to support their academic career aspirations.

Open to all research students and fixed-term research staff.