Career orientations

No.2 March 2000 first page CONTENTS Method The Contract Research Experience Opportunities for progression and training Perceived advantages and disadvantages Career orientations The next steps Contact details SHEFC project home page SHEFC IER home page

		CAREER ORIENTATIONS OF CONTRACT RESEARCHERS Although some contract research staff are younger, just starting out on their careers and gaining valuable experience in the early years, others have been in contract research for a prolonged period of time and may have reached a point where they have to take serious decisions regarding their longer-term future and security. Most would prefer to remain in academic research, as an ideal option, but may feel the need to move on to a more secure, if less satisfying position as a lecturer or outside academia altogether. In these cases, valuable experience, skills and knowledge built up over time may be lost to institutions. Lecturing opportunities are relatively few in some fields and contract researchers may not have been given the opportunity to gain experience in lecturing in order to progress a ‘traditional’ academic career, if that is what is desired. Some people are ‘late entrants’ to academic contract research, entering it as a natural progression from research or practitioner work in a related area, directly after completing postgraduate degrees as a mature student, or in order to change career. In certain cases, support may be lacking for this group, who are not in the same position as younger contract research staff, in that they have a range of experience behind them which is not necessarily put to full use. Training, development and guidance needs vary according to the reasons for entering research, future aspirations, career stage and age of contract researchers. In the course of the qualitative research, we identified four main ‘types’ of contract researcher based on these categoristics: Career starters: those in their first or second contract, who enter contract research as a means of gaining experience in order to move into a tenured academic position or a more permanent research career, possibly outside academia. These tend to be individuals who stay in contract research for a relatively short time and may require specific guidance in relation to their expected transitions. Career researchers: those who have been in contract research for longer, usually on a series of fixed-term contracts. Career researchers are keen to remain in research, ideally within an academic environment. Within this broad category, we identified two specific types of researcher: those who are being promoted up the career ladder, and those who have experienced a number of fixed-term contracts, or renewals of contract, without necessarily gaining additional responsibilities- moving ‘along’ rather than ‘up’. This latter group of career researchers, who often have much to contribute in terms of skills and expertise, may find that fewer career options are open to them as they get older and therefore become more ‘expensive’ in the contract research market place. Greater support from their institutions, particularly in relation to careers guidance and mentoring, would be particularly beneficial for this group. Job entrants: those who enter contract research because it is a job, rather than for specific career-related reasons. They may opt to remain in research or related academic work, but might equally move to another sector. The development and guidance needs of this group are likely to vary according to individual circumstances and aspirations.
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