Exploring career possibilities

Having invested considerable time and effort in getting to the position you’re in now, you may have a strong sense of your professional identity as a researcher. Rethinking your professional identity, to help you decide whether to progress your academic career or in considering new possibilities, can feel like a big step to take.  

It is difficult to leave or reimagine a career path in which you have invested so much of yourself. This is something that will take time and it will likely be an iterative process of taking action, reflecting and refining your next steps. The upside is that there’s no need to commit yourself to one thing straight away, you can use this time to explore and test out ideas before coming to a decision. 

There are several strategies that can support you with working out your next steps, which you choose will depend on your own preferences and goals. The most important thing is to act. This page will introduce you to a range of practical steps and tools to choose from. 

When it comes to making career decisions, many researchers highlight that they feel unaware of the different possibilities that may be available to them. Exploring a varied range of ideas can help you to develop a sense of what’s possible and prompt you to start reimagining your professional identity.  

• Explore researcher career paths via Research-Careers.org, Vitae’s career stories or ImaginePhD 

• Browse the destinations of alumni and former Cambridge postdocs using LinkedIn 

• Hear a range of career stories at careers events, fairs and via the Sector Information videos on our YouTube channel  

• Ask peers or colleagues about what others in your field of research have progressed into 

• Use the Careers Sectors A-Z to explore particular industries and sectors 

You may be concerned about committing to different career possibilities without having had a chance to test them out and see how they feel. There are lots of ways to test out career ideas, even small, low-commitment activities can make a significant difference in helping you consider your next steps. 

• How might you adapt or test out ideas within your current role? Perhaps you can take on a new project, pick up a different area of responsibility or seek opportunities within your wider department that enable you to do different tasks and interact with new people? Ideas could include doing some lab management, training students or new colleagues, working on an EDI project or being part of a departmental committee.  
• What opportunities are there adjacent to your research? For many researchers, activities they undertake adjacent to their research help them to test out possible ideas. This might include public engagement or outreach, organising conferences, a role in their discipline’s learned society or professional organisation or influencing policy.  
• Do you want to do something a little more involved? There are many opportunities offered via Cambridge’s plethora of societies, organisations to test out career ideas e.g. working on consultancy projects or entrepreneurship programmes at a range of levels. You may also choose to undertake an internship or work shadowing opportunity.  

Check out our page on navigating the wider Cambridge community

Explore societies and organisations via the Cambridge Students Union 

Try out free job simulations or virtual internships via IntersectJobSims and the Forage 

Use our Careers Sectors A-Z for guidance on opportunities in Cambridge to further explore sectors and industries, and advice on finding internships and work experience in your areas of interest  

Talking through your thoughts and ideas with different people can help you to practise telling your story and clarify your thinking. Talking to people you already know can feel more comfortable, but we’d encourage you to talk to those outside of your established social and professional circles. This will give you different insights and perspectives on your ideas. You can also reach out to those working in the areas you’re interested in to learn more about your potential future.  

• If you feel comfortable to, talking with your supervisor or line manager about your ideas may offer new perspectives. They may have observed strengths in you that you’ve missed, might know about the paths former PhDs and postdocs have taken to inspire you or they may even be able to introduce you to new contacts.  
• Your fellow researchers, both within your discipline and those you encounter through other fora, may provide a valuable sounding board for your ideas. They may also know people they can introduce you to.  
• Think back to people you’ve met  but may not have been in touch with recently. Course mates from your undergraduate degree, people you’ve met at conferences or through other activities you do may prove to be useful ‘dormant ties’ you can reinvigorate.  

• Use LinkedIn to find contacts working in the roles or organisations you’re exploring and ask for an informational interview. 
• Attend careers events to meet and network with speakers and other likeminded individuals, check the Careers Service event listing via Handshake    
• Access mentors via the Postdoc Academy
• Use the Career Sectors A-Z to identify additional opportunities to meet people in your areas of interest at Cambridge 

Taking a step back can give you some space to reflect and consider what’s important to you, recognise your skills and strengths and support you in exploring the professional identity you aspire to in the future.  

Draw a visual map of your career and at each point of change, identify what was the driving force for your decision. Use this to reflect on the questions in this document. 
How this helps: Understanding what you have being drawn to in the past, how you decided on it and what have you learned can offer valuable insights for future decisions. 

Spend a bit of time naming your priority work values and what is important for you in your work environment. This will help you to evaluate if the direction you are taking is meaningful to you. 
How this helps: Understanding your priorities offers clarity on what’s ‘nice to have’ and what’s non-negotiable in your next role. 

Identifying your key strengths can help you consider which you’d like to use in a role going forward or help you assess whether a career may suit you.  Use this tool to identify your strengths. 
How this helps: If something gives you a buzz, it’s probably using some of your strengths. You are more likely to succeed and enjoy jobs which leverage your strengths. 

Researchers wear many hats, and therefore have a range of skills they can bring to the jobs market. Use this document to identify the skills you’ve developed through your research and other activities  
How this helps: Identifying your skills can build confidence, while thinking about which you would like to use in your future career can help you consider which possibilities may suit you.  

Prosper is a career resource specifically built for post docs but useful to all researchers, it will support you to work out what you want from your career, create an action plan and help you to figure out opportunities outside academia. 

Personality questionnaire - Types Dynamic Indicator - Personality profiling tool provided by Profiling for Success and accessible free to users of the Careers Service. Online questtionnaire generates a personalised report. 

My IDP - Developed for STEM PhDs by Science/AAAS, provides self-assessment tools to help evaluate your skills, interests, and values, and compare these against a wide diversity of careers that value a STEM PhD. 

Imagine PhD - Developed specifically for humanities and social sciences PhDs in the US, this career exploration and planning resource provides comprehensive assessment tools to evaluate your interests, skills and values and contains information on a diverse range of job families that value a PhD. 

The British Academy's Right Skills - For Arts, humanities & social sciences 

iBiology - careers exploration resource for biologists 

Where Historians Work - An interactive, online database that catalogues the career outcomes of the 8,523 historians who earned PhDs at US universities. 

Research Careers - explore more researcher career case studies across a range of disciplines and career paths. 

Researcher career stories - Video and written career stories covering a range of disciplines and industries.