Even though many of our graduates will have progressed in their careers since completing a case study, they are still of interest to students who wish to gain an understanding of the world of work.

Continuation of research interests started during PhD. Management of lab tech, and supporting other PhD students in research group.

I send a schedule of the week's lab work to my technician on monday morning. We discuss it's progress as the week goes on. In the lab, I may be carrying out experiments or training other lab members. Most of my time is spent analysing data and writing research papers. I also attend meetings, both on scientific research and research policy and procedures.

Finding out new things, essentially being my own boss, working to my own schedule etc.

No job security, very high competition for job placements and funding, constant rejection, work long hours and weekends.

I get to do research every day

Scientific research training (ie. PhD), people management, writing.

Training in health and safety, grant application writing, new scientific techniques to use in lab.

PhD - University of Sheffield, Oct. 2004 - Dec 2008

Postdoc research fellow, Emory University, Atlanta, GA, USA - Jan 2009 - March 2013

Postdoc research associate, QMUL, London, UK - March 2013 - present

I would like to stay in academia for as long as possible, although realistically with the lack of funding and high competition this may not be possible. I currently have 3 years of funding, so will re-evaluate in a years time. Possibly something linking education and research.

Only do a PhD/continue into academia if you are really sure it is the career that you want. While a PhD will help you get a job in industry etc. there are currently too many people for the funding available so academic positions are intensely competitive and offer little or no job security, so you have to really want it to follow this career path. You need to show initiative to get research experience and training, and ultimately it's all about how many scientific publications you have.