Anyone who's left academic science?

[bigkidsmademe]

what job do you do now? Can you work from home or do flexible hours?

I'm a postdoc in biology at a Russell Group uni. I enjoy my work now but my grant finishes in January and I'm pondering what to do next. As I'm on my second postdoc and have good pubs I realistically would need to go for a lectureship or fellowship and the thought of writing grants all day fills me with dread. Especially with funding as it is! I can't stay on where I am as there is no available funding.

The thing is, I'm in a lovely position now. I only went back to work last week after mat leave and now I work 6.30-2.30 so DH takes DS (6 mo) to the childminder in the morning and I can pick him up at 3.30 and have plenty of time for playing, tea bath and bed. I love these hours!

Can anyone suggest a job that would be fulfilling and challenging but allow me to keep these hours? Ideally from home if that's not too much to ask. Anyone know anything interesting?

Thanks

[MovingAndScared]

hi there are fellowships which offer flexiable working - this is the best known
royalsociety.org/grants/schemes/dorothy-hodgkin/

your university should have some people supporting researchers who could offer carreers advice etc which might be helpful

however without being unkind loads of people want that kind of job -and they are and they are hard to come by -
depends of course how much money you need earn

[bigkidsmademe]

Yes I realise I'm on a winner now! But I know that even getting another postdoc somewhere else won't be as good - for various reasons I am doing work which is mostly computer based and I have no teaching at the moment

I looked at Dorothy Hodgkin but success rates are tiny!

To be honest my question should be - I don't want to do academic science any more. Are there any jobs with flexible hours I could do? If not normal hours will do, it's not flexible or nothing. I need to work full-time.

[MovingAndScared]

I think what you need is to do a standard carreer change process - eg what are your skills, what do you enjoy doing? What is around in your area - assuming you don't want to move, and then add the flexibility thing in -also what have your collegues/peer group gone on to do?
have you come across Vitae they have lots of info for researchers, and your carrers services in the university could be helpful and as I said there should be some specialist support for researchers in your university - some even do carreer change courses

[SarkySpanner]

IMO university careers people can be very helpful.

What about speaking to hr about a move within the uni to a more admin role? My head of hr has been very helpful in this situation. Unis are always keen to recruit staff who know the job from the research side.

And take advantage of the wide variety of skills courses that most unis offer. This will help your cv whatever you decide to do.

[bigkidsmademe]

Thanks everyone

It shows how one-track I am that I hadn't even considered moving within the uni. I just got masters, signed up to PhD to avoid thinking much, then got postdoc as it was easier... And here I am! That's a useful suggestion to look at courses too. We're forever getting emailed about them, maybe I'll stop just deleting the emails!

[ILoveUMama]

Most hospitals and buisnesses associated with them have 6:00-2:00 and 6:30-2:00 hours avaliable for all sorts of positions from surgery techs, Pharmacy techs, to Nurses and Doctors. With a Biology Degree you could probably find something in the chemistry end of the feild working for medical labs. Good luck on feild research jobs with any good pay or hours though. I have been looking for those and they are few and far in between.

[fastweb]

Go have a chat with KTP too. You never know what projects might be bouncing around. If nothing else they will have loads of contacts and may know of a something that didn't become a project, but still points to a company with a need for specialist knowledge.