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Everyone has been so helpful to me with advice on how to escape academia, and a few people have emailed me to ask for advice. So I have compiled it all together into what I hope is a vaguely useful resource. It's a bit confusing as it is quite a few emails, and was also originally written as an email to someone. Kat >> My personal feeling is that I should be working on tunnelling out- building up as much experience and as big a portfolio as possible while still in the lab (where I have unrialled access to scientists, and scientific resources) before majestically bursting out somewhere. Knowing my luck I'll probably pop out in a field outside the M25. One MASSIVELY important piece of advice that has helped me tons is "always be friendly and helpful, and always get your copy in ahead of deadline". It makes people massively more predisposed to helping you if you are reliable and easy to work with Next wave, run by Science (http://nextwave.sciencemag.org) has fantastic advice for alternative careers out of the ivory tower- it was my starting point for realising that if I wanted to get out of the lab, my life didn't have to become a crashing failure. I also made some useful contacts through the Association of Bristish Science Writers http://absw.org.uk Try approaching some science websites to see if they want freelance stuff (you should have a few examples up your sleeven to send them). You could try writing for BioMedNet's Research Updates (see www.bmn.com)- they don't pay but it's good experience. [log in to unmask] should be a contact point for this. If you're into more practical things,try going into schools to give talks or demos- I have instructions for making DNA out of kiwi fruit if you're interested. Voluntary work will probably get you the experience in organisation/communication you need for jobs in that area while still in the lab. Alot of people suggested the MSc in science communication available from a few places (Birkbeck and Imperial are the London ones though I think there's others around like Bath, maybe also stuff via the Open University). It's one year with lots of media training in all sorts of things. Speaking to people who've done the courses like that, it's about 70:30 or 80:20 helpful:unhelpful in terms of career advancement in science communication. It's probaly worth it if you have no idea quite what area you want to go into, or have no contacts or previous experience, as they set you up with work placements. One problem is that unscrupulous companies can exploit the students, offering unpaid "experience/freelance" work that doesn't really get them far. If you've got the cash, time and inclination I think it would be a good idea though. Other advice (cut'n'pasted from the mails I got- long, sorry) >>Maybe take a look at SPRU the Sussex university science policy research > > unit > > (do a google search for it) >>Have you checked out the > > Centre for the Cell? It is headed up by Fran Balkwill. Google will get you > > there. >>I think volunteering is always a good one (if you have the time and > money > > to do it). If you get into a health charity let's say, and they have half > a > > brain, they'll notice that you can write and do research and so on - which > > will lead to you getting interesting things on your CV. I felt when I was > > moving out of academia that I just needed to put 'real life skills' onto > my > > cv, rather than some more cleverness: organising meetings, bringing > together > > varied groups of people, office communications that kind of stuff. > > ..I would certainly recommend that you don't list all your publications > when > > you send out a cv. Just give a sample and add a heading along the lines of > > 'I have published more than 15 (or whatever) articles and papers' blabla. > > People aren't interested in the intricacies of academic writing, really. > > ..One place that's particularly good is Science Line > > (www.sciencenet.org.uk) - they're always looking for volunteers. >>I did the same, about 2 years ago. It was a long process, and I took ~18 > > months looking at and applying for (and being offered) a variety of jobs. > I > > had been building a 'dual-cv' since my degree days, doing as much PESTy > > work alongside my academic work as possible. To be honest this move out of > > academia wasn't intentional, I just liked the bits of (voluntary) work I > did > > on the side more than my real job (space physicist). In the end, I decided > I > > wanted to move more into the education/policy side of things than > > writing/pest/media, but maybe the list of things I did might help you: > > > > * A lot of 'student mentoring', getting myself in school, helping in the > > classroom, giving talks to school groups as a 'role model'. > > > > * Organising various science week events, for the Uni(s), from giving > talks, > > to writing press releases, to raising funds etc. > > > > * Organising research group meetings, writing/managing the groups website > > etc. > > > > * Teaching from small groups to lecture courses. > > > > * Courses that were offered by the Uni and research council on media > > relations, lecturing, management etc. > > > > >>http://www.ifr.bbsrc.ac.uk/stempra/ > > >>http://www.bbk.ac.uk/study/fce/scisociety/scicommd.html > > >>Do look at "So You Want to be a Science Writer" > > http://absw.org.uk/SYWTBASW.htm ********************************************************************** 1. 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