Hi guys,

So I'm in the final stages of writing up and will be submitting soon, and so have been applying for jobs... both lecturing and research.

So far I've heard back from two of the posts I applied for, and both were unsuccessful. These were two research posts I applied for, and as I'm not overly keen on going into lecturing just yet, I was really interested to hear why I wasn't short listed. So I emailed the designated professors for feedback, and got the exact same feedback from both - that they were really impressed with my application, and my experience and knowledge in my specific area, and that they felt my skills would be useful for the projects, but that I didn't have as much bid-writing and experience of securing funding as other candidates and so was not short listed.

I'm not upset or anything, because the feedback I've had has been really positive, and I have a "plan B" in place for if I don't get a job by the time I finish, but what I'm interested in finding out is, how do I get more experience of writing bids, and securing funding, etc if I'm not in a research position? Obviously I'd like to improve my applications to include more experience of this sort as it seems this is what employers are looking for, but I'm not sure how to go about it. Do you think I should be applying for research assistant posts to try build on my experience first? I think I'll chat with my sup about this, but just interested in what your thoughts are, or if anyone is having similar experiences?

I'm in the social sciences by the way... might make a difference?

Hey! Yeah, this is a tricky one. It's one of those circular type things where you kind of already need the experience to get the experience if you see what I mean. I don't have any of that sort of experience although I am currently applying for a small research grant to help cover some of my research costs that the PhD funding doesn't cover. My supervisor said that would look good on my CV if I got it, but this doesn't really compare to winning large grants for whole projects. I don't think research assistant work would really cover this- there are a lot of RAs in our department (Psychology) but they don't seem be involved with grant applications and so on. Could you think about collaborating on a post-doc project and applying for funding as a co-applicant with a more established researcher? This way you could get a position that's tailor-made for you and get experience of writing grant applications... KB

======= Date Modified 23 Feb 2010 16:18:06 =======
double post... oops

Hi KB,

Thanks for your reply. I figure a post doc would generally be more suitable for me, but my major problem is that there just aren't any post doc positions out there which would be suitable to my area of expertise, or even a similar area. Most of the post docs I've come across are for science-related subjects or very much statistical, and I'm a qualitative researcher (although can do some stats).

My supervisor in the past has mentioned bidding for funding to keep me at my institution, so i think I may have to go down that route, and bid for money from a research council to do research in my current institution. Short of that though, I'm really not sure what to do.

It drives me mad when you apply for jobs to get experience of the thing that they want you to have experience of. If no-one gives me the opportunity, how do I get the skills. It's an annoyance. Grrrr!!

Good luck with your funding application!!

I'm in the same boat - although there are NO postdocs to apply for. Some people have said to apply for ESRC funding, but most of the grants seem to need someone who is a Dr already, and connected to an institution. Come October, I will be a 'floating' unemployed academic trying to get their thesis done, so don't think the ESRC will even entertain an application from me and my sup doesn't see the urgency - all her other supervisees seem to have rich partners who can fund them through writing up. Mine's lovely, but pretty poor!

Well at least I know I'm not alone!

I'm going to check out some funding boards and see what they have on offer but think I'll be in the same position - no institution to tie myself too. I may have to beg my supervisor to keep me on as a dogs body or something, so I can get some work.

If all else fails i figure Tesco's are always hiring. ;-)

Yeah-I think I'm gonna be in the same boat. My PhD consists of both quant and qual studies, but to be honest, I have yet to see a single post-doc advertised that would seriously interest me, and I had the same issue when I was looking for PhDs. I don't know whether I'm just seriously fussy, but I just can't see anything on a topic that really interests me, so I am going down the route of coming up with my own research study and trying to get it funded with the help of my supervisor, who is keen to keep me on fortunately. This was how I did it for my PhD and I am really enjoying the topic, so at least this way I can hopefully get to design a project that will build on my PhD work and that I will enjoy. If it gets funded...the big if! Best, KB

Me too, same boat. I also have yet to see any post-docs to apply for, not that I've even finished yet, and have also been looking for a research job for about 6 months and haven't found a single job to apply for. But - I've also worked as an RA, in social sciences, and could see how that would lead to writing grant applications. My sup writes a lot of them, and I offered to do this for her, but it just never came to that - but this is a possibility.

As for applying by yourself - that's tough. I actually did see a big grant I could apply for, and know some of the other applicants - consortiums of professors - so there goes that idea. Latch on to a more experienced researcher I reckon, either as an RA, or even just volunteer to do it, then you could generate your own job. It's a tough life, and one I don't think gets much easier...

I talked to my sup yesterday about the whole job issue and he thinks this is all down to economic decline. Doesn't leave me/us with many options really. In terms of applying for research grants, he gave me some advice about where to look and it seems I can still apply for them through my institution even if I finish my PhD.

Problem I'm finding now though, is that a lot of grants want the institution to pay half of the salary fees, which I doubt mine will because they're cutting budgets.

I've now started to apply for posts abroad... any advice on good websites to find overseas posts would be great!! Especially in the USA, as I'm resorting to looking on individual uni websites which I don't think is the most effective method!