Midlands Philosophy Research Training Network
Birmingham, Birmingham City, Keele, Staffordshire, Warwick
Event 4: Employability for Early Stage PhD Researchers
Staffordshire University, 11 March 2009
REPORT ON FEEDBACK
Attendance: 4 PhD students (Staffs : 3, Warwick : 1)
Quantitative questionnaire scores (averages, marked out of 5):
Sessions:
Comparative National systems of doctoral training 5.0
Reading and understanding job advertisements 4.5
What to expect in application & interview: 4.5
How to start preparing your CV now. 4.5
Overall:
Content of the workshop: 4.8
Presentation of the workshop: 4.8
Overall satisfaction: 4.8
Everyone said they were ‘very likely’ to change some aspect of how they approach their PhD/professional development activities as a result of the workshop.
Some comments from participants:
- “Very pleased with the discussions and concrete advice”
- “[This] helps me reflect on the wider professional context of my work”
Suggestions for improvement/additions from participants:
- “I’d like it better if the workshop started in the morning and finished earlier in the afternoon”
- “It would have been nice to have longer discussion periods at the end of each session”
Comments from workshop presenter:
Professor Douglas Burnham: The aim of this session was to work backwards from what a well-qualified candidate looks like to the steps that a PhD researcher can take now in order to reach that point. I think this went down well, and there was some revealing, detailed and practical discussion. I picked up on the idea of looking at real job advertisements from the feedback to event 1. The international dimension to the presentations was welcomed.
I believe I made a mistake in timetabling, in not quite leaving sufficient time in each session for discussion – once the ideas and examples start flowing, in fact, each session could have been double the length – and in running rather too long into the afternoon. The latter decision was to try to encourage more part-time PhD students to come along,