Building skills outside of research

In the midst of a PhD it can feel like all focus should be on research. There are always results to collect and deadlines to meet, and that next experiment could just be the one that leads to a breakthrough. It’s no surprise then that with so many demands on their time, developing soft skills is a low priority for many students. But transferable skills such as communication, leadership and organisation are incredibly valuable, whatever career a student plans to pursue after graduation.

‘Everybody with a PhD will be very strong on the research side. But what makes the difference when you go to the job market is the other activities that you do alongside your PhD,’ says Allegra Franchino, a catalysis researcher at the University of Durham, UK. ‘More and more supervisors and students are realising that to succeed in their future, they need much more than just being able to do research to a very high standard. They need to cultivate soft skills and there are now plenty of opportunities for students to get involved in activities to build these skills.’

Learning by teaching

For Franchino, who started her independent career in 2022, this extracurricular development took the form of undergraduate teaching. Over two years during her PhD, she delivered organic chemistry tutorials to small groups of first and second year biochemistry undergraduates, giving four two-hour sessions each term. ‘I set problems and marked their scripts before the lesson and then in the tutorials we discussed the solutions together and did mock exam questions,’ she recalls. ‘I really liked it because I could revise all of the basics of organic chemistry – and then you discover you don’t know something until you’re able to teach it!’

The moderate time commitment and flexibility over when to organise preparation and marking time worked well for Franchino alongside the demands of her research project. Unusually, her teaching work wasn’t paid. Despite this, she considers the skills developed from this opportunity – particularly empathy and communication – more than worth the time she invested. ‘You are reminded of when you were a student. Then you are able to be in that person’s shoes and help them where they are currently at, rather than where you find yourself,’ she says.

This insight has certainly proven to be an asset in her career since. As a permanent member of academic staff, Franchino’s commitments include both teaching and supervisory responsibilities. It’s clear that her own positive experiences have also fed into how Franchino runs her research group. ‘I’m very favourable towards my students having these experiences,’ she says. ‘It takes time away from their day-to-day research activities but they do come back with a different skill set and I see it as a massive opportunity for them to improve their CV.’

This active encouragement is part of the reason second year PhD student Riccardo Parolin became involved in lab demonstrating. These paid teaching opportunities were advertised by the department at the beginning of the academic year and Parolin signed up for two three-hour sessions a week to supervise first years in the organic chemistry lab. As in most teaching labs, Parolin demonstrated the correct setup of experiments to students, helping them as they subsequently performed and analysed the reaction themselves. Like Franchino, he found breaking down complex concepts to make them accessible to new chemists an excellent opportunity to deepen and expand his communication skills.

‘You have to learn how to explain it properly to someone who doesn’t really understand practical chemistry because at the level we’re at, this stuff is our bread and butter,’ he says. ‘It’s also important to find those critical points in the reaction and check if any students are having problems.’ Like supervising a master’s student, demonstrating requires a heightened awareness of the inexperienced scientists in the lab – how they’re working and if they need help – but with the additional challenge of distributing attention over a much greater number of people.

Even though a future in academic teaching is not on the cards for Parolin, he is keen to take advantage of opportunities to develop these skills. ‘My ultimate career goals are to go into industry but I wanted to challenge myself,’ he explains. ‘I need to improve on the things that I’m weaker at to be a better candidate. That way in the future, if I’m leading a team and I need to explain something to someone, I will know how to do it.’

Organising for the future

While teaching is perhaps the most widely advertised opportunity, it’s certainly not the only way to develop complementary skills. Departmental events including poster sessions, conferences and social gatherings usually include at least some student organisers.

It was a desire to invest in transferable soft skills in a research adjacent setting that motivated PhD students Zhihang Li, Annabel Phillips and Xiyue Leng to join the committee responsible for organising the Bristol-Syngenta Award. During this annual two-day event, an invited speaker presents a series of lectures to the department at the University of Bristol, UK, participating in a Q&A session with students and one-on-one meetings with senior researchers. This popular event is entirely student-led, with nominations for possible speakers submitted by department members each year.

‘You get to know the academic from a different perspective,’ says committee chair Li. ‘Another motivation to join was that I wanted to gain transferable skills from organising the visit that I could use in other aspects of my future career.’

The five-strong committee handles every aspect of the event, from practicalities such as transport, accommodation and catering to the logistics of the day itself like scheduling and room booking. Budgeting and time management are crucial considerations and discussions as a team are instrumental in making the best decisions during the organisational stages. Indeed, it’s this collaborative aspect that Phillips cites as the most valuable and eye opening takeaway from the experience. ‘Often a PhD student might have their own project within a big group and not necessarily have to collaborate with other people. But when you’re on a committee, it’s all about working as a team,’ she says. ‘I’ve noticed since that in my group, we tend to have more discussions about each other’s research, which is really valuable. Having that crosstalk might give someone ideas or solve a problem.’

The committee welcomes new members every year and students and postdocs from across the department are welcome to get involved, with roles distributed evenly to avoid overburdening any individual member. ‘We probably have monthly meetings, and then two weeks before the award, that’s a bit more full on. But it doesn’t take up too much of our time,’ says Phillips.

‘The school in general is quite encouraging and I think supervisors understand that this is something that will work well for us in the long term,’ says Leng. In fact, she adds, many of the skills involved – communication, leadership, time management and budgeting – are all skills that PIs themselves need.

Reflecting on their experiences, the team members believe their involvement in the award will stand them in good stead for the future and all feel inspired to pursue academic careers beyond their PhDs. ‘It was interesting to hear about awardees from different countries and how academia is there,’ shares Leng. ‘It’s made me think about whether I want to apply for postdocs in Europe or in the [United] States.’

‘Looking at a distinguished person’s research has enhanced my interest even more in this area,’ adds Phillips. ‘It’s really reaffirmed for me that I want to stay on and continue in this research field.’

Reaching out towards a different career

In stark contrast, Isabelle Moss’ experience of outreach during the first year of her PhD completely changed the course of her career. ‘When I started my PhD I became more aware of the unconscious bias and sexism in chemistry in the UK – I was shocked that it was still a problem,’ she recalls.

Moss quickly became involved with Oxford Women in Chemistry, a society promoting the achievements and participation of women in the field, and it was here she met departmental outreach officer Saskia O’Sullivan. ‘Outreach is all about reaching people who maybe didn’t consider that there was a place for them in science,’ Moss explains. ‘I started learning more about the colonisation of Stem and the experiences of other marginalised groups in Stem and began working on different projects and events to widen participation with Saskia.’

Beginning by delivering practical interactive science workshops in schools, Moss soon found her niche in project management, helping coordinate a national outreach initiative. The Women in Chemistry Making the Difference project, funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry, brought together six research institutions across the UK to create chemistry challenges, competitions and events, highlighting the work of women in Stem careers. Working alongside O’Sullivan and one other student, Moss was able to flexibly balance planning and developing the events with her research, contributing an average of two hours a week. ‘I really loved working on that project because it gave me an outlet for creativity and a chance to come up with new ideas. And obviously I was building project management skills too,’ she says.

A common misconception about outreach is that it’s only about standing in front of a classroom of children. But there are a huge number of different ways people can get involved, says Moss – whether that’s planning a new project, managing a website or social media account, creating written and visual content or delivering a workshop in person – and they all develop a different set of skills. ‘A lot of these relate really closely to research,’ adds Moss. ‘Communicating to people who aren’t specialists can help if you’re presenting at a conference, creative thinking is important for coming up with new ideas or solutions to problems, and obviously time and project management skills are important in a PhD.’

Ultimately Moss found that she was enjoying outreach more than her day-to-day research and this was a contributing factor in her decision to leave academia at the beginning of the second year of her PhD. Since then, she has pursued a vibrant career in outreach, working with the charities Creative Tuition Collective and In2Science before recently transitioning to her current role as diversity and inclusion officer at The Royal Society. The variety of experiences and skills gained during her university outreach work were a real asset and Moss strongly advises everyone to explore other opportunities alongside their research. ‘During a PhD it’s easy for those four years to pass you by without developing additional skills which make you competitive in the world of work,’ she says. ‘But having different and diverse experiences means that you have extra tools and techniques, which is really beneficial no matter what pathway you end up going down.’