This session will provide different perspectives on navigating geoscience careers, as provided by a panel representing a range of career stages and positions, both academic and beyond. Each panellist with talk about their career path, provide advice and insight informed by their experience, and answer audience questions.

The academic career path can sometimes be difficult to follow, with a lack of clarity about what opportunities to exist and uncertainty about in what direction you could take your next step. Stepping beyond academia breaks opens up a new horizon of career choices, and this is often the most common track geoscientist follow: in some fields, up to 70% of PhD graduates will go into work outside of academia. Yet, despite this, these careers can be overlooked when future occupations are discussed within academia.

There are many different careers beyond academia which require or benefit from a research background, but often early career scientists struggle to make the transition due to reduced support and networking, as well as lack of information about non-academic career paths.

In this short course, our panellists will give their advice on building a career. The panel will start by discussing common career questions, such as how to transition between academia and industry, and what are the pros and cons of a career inside and outside of academia. The session will then conclude with panellists answering questions from the audience. This short course is targeted at early career scientists, but is open to anyone considering the next step in their career.