Careers in Your Ears

Kinga Bercsenyi, VP of Business Development at Arctoris, shares her inspiring journey from academia to industry. She discusses the unexpected career paths that can arise through networking and adaptability. Kinga emphasizes the importance of work-life balance while navigating family demands and professional growth. Learn about the essential skills in business development, including communication over traditional qualifications. She also highlights the power of on-the-job learning and collaboration in shaping one’s career.

This mini-series of Careers in Your Ears is hosted by King's PhDs and researchers. In this episode, Tisha Dasgupta, Research Assistant and PhD student in the Department of Women’s & Children’s Health, School of Life Course and Population Sciences at KCL, interviews Sam Mukhopadhyay, Head of Programme Management Office and senior events lead at Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (ESNZ). Sam talks about her career to date in the Civil Service and shares what the civil service is looking for in recruits and importantly what attributes and skills researchers have to offer this type of work. Please note this episode was recorded in February 2023, when the UK Government had just newly formed the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. If you would like a transcript of this episode, please email careers@kcl.ac.uk with 'Transcript, CinYE, S8,E3' in the title. KCL PhDs and Research staff can access specialist careers support: from 1-1 appointments and tailored workshops. More information is available on our KEATs page https://keats.kcl.ac.uk/mod/page/view.php?id=5279350&forceview=1

In this special episode for International Women's Day 2023, Dr. Risha Govind, Senior Clinical Informatics Scientist at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, speaks about her career journey and the challenges faced by women like her from traditionally patriarchal cultures in getting a professional career started. The interview is hosted by Donald Lush, Careers Consultant for PhDs and Research Staff at King's College London.

In this engaging discussion, Dr. Emily Prpa, Science Manager at Yakult UK and Ireland, shares her unique transition from academia to industry, highlighting the importance of communication in healthcare. Alongside Donald Lush, a careers consultant from King's College London, they explore career consulting experiences and the unexpected challenges faced. They also emphasize the value of honesty and self-reflection during career guidance, showcasing how personalized insights can lead to fulfilling professional journeys.

Join Mackenzie Jorgensen, PhD student in machine learning models (and our takeover host for this episode) as she interviews Dr Luis Pizarro, Global Responsible AI Leader at EY and Visiting Senior Lecturer at King's College London. The first half of this episode covers a great discussion about Luis' career in academia, the importance of collaborations and keeping your career options open between academia and industry and the second half delves into the challenges we face in using AI, including responsible AI and how it could be used to counter disinformation and fake news. Please leave us a review wherever you listen to your podcasts; it really helps us to share the podcast and to know whether the content works for you.  Thank you. Follow us on Twitter @kcldo1thing to learn more about our careers support for researchers at King's College London. If you would like a transcript of this episode, please email careers@kcl.ac.uk with Careers in Your Ears S.8 E.2 in the title.

Join Aline da Silva Cerqueira, PhD student (and our episode takeover host!) researching sea birds and marine soundscapes in the Dept of Geography at King’s College London, and Dr Maud Borie, Lecturer in Environment, Science and Society in the same department, as they discuss an academic career and the politics of environmental knowledge.  Maud talks about her teaching, about wanting her students to be critical of received wisdom, the power that universities have over what is or is not researched, and who gets to conduct that research. To hear more about Dr Maud Borie’s work you can follow her on Twitter @maud_bo, and if you are interested in seabirds and how soundscapes can support biodiversity conservation, you can also give Aline a follow on Twitter @aline_marine. Let us know what you think about these podcast takeovers - get in touch with us if you're a KCL researcher and you'd like to interview an interesting guest for us!

Dr Melissa Willis is the Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Research Team Lead at Sellafield Ltd. Prior to this she was a PhD researcher in material sciences at the University of Manchester. Melissa shares her experience of guilt, low self-esteem and anxiety during her PhD. She shares advice about what helped and talks about how she handled her career change from academia to industry. Importantly Melissa discusses how she’s worked through these issues during her career transition and in her current workplace. She hopes that other PhDs in a similar situation will make use of the support available to them and her top tips: talk to someone and take real breaks. King's PhD students can access support for their mental health and wellbeing.  Visit the new PGR Wellbeing Hub (internal) for easy access to all the support available including KCL counselling services: https://tinyurl.com/y25w75er King's Research Staff can access support through visiting the Pathways to Wellbeing pages (internal) https://internal.kcl.ac.uk/staff/experience/wellbeing/index  If you're a PhD student or member of Research Staff from another institution, please do contact the student and staff support sites at your university for local support. More information about the NHS' Talking Therapies can be found here: https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/talking-therapies-medicine-treatments/talking-therapies-and-counselling/nhs-talking-therapies/  If you require a transcript of this episode please email careers@kcl.ac.uk citing CinYE Series 7, Episode 6. Please do rate us wherever you listen!

In this episode we hear from Dr. Nigel Eady, Dr. Amy Moore and Dr. Kathy Barrett. All our guests began their careers in research and now have roles at King's College London where they support the training and development of PhDs and Research staff. We hear from them about their own career journeys, what they do from day to day in their current roles and their professional challenges. They also share their reasons to be cheerful about the future of healthy workplaces for researchers and their top tips for someone thinking about working in their roles. You can find out more about support for PGR well being at King's College London here and how we support our staff here.

Professor Evelyn Welch, Senior Vice-President for Service, People & Planning at King’s and Professor of Renaissance Studies talks about her own career journey from when a PhD was expected to last 10 years (hers didn't!), balancing temporary jobs with childcare and no maternity leave to today, in her new role as Senior Vice-President and a Wellcome Senior Investigator. She is keen to use her experience and role to support researchers to thrive in their careers through job design, career planning, secondments, collaboration, community and more. 

Listen to this episode of Careers in Your Ears to understand more about a very experienced academic's route.  Kate Murray talks to Simon Wessely (https://www.kcl.ac.uk/people/professor-sir-simon-wessely), Professor of Psychiatry at King's College London, about his experiences as a clinician and epidemiologist, about the peaks and troughs of research life and the excitement of making an impact.  We also discuss the SMaRteN (https://www.smarten.org.uk/) network, a student-led research network looking at student mental health issues, and talk about the issues involved in understanding research studies looking at perceptions of mental health and stresses in occupations.  Simon describes the importance of a healthy social network, and of a good manager, in promoting good mental health. KCL PGRs can access the new PGR Wellbeing Hub here: tinyurl.com/pgrwh  Please email careers@kcl.ac.uk if you would like a transcript of this podcast.