Human Resources Division

Cake and Careers: Departmental Seminars

The ‘Cake and Careers’ seminars were a new addition to the WiSETI project in 2009/10. They were created as a result of a request from the Vice Chancellor that WISETI offer something specifically targeted at PhD students and Postdocs. The seminars include speakers who are only a few career stages ahead of the audience and include a mix of different careers e.g. science policy, industry and academia. The aim of the sessions is to give the audience information about different careers options available to them and information about the work involved in these fields, including details about specific jobs, what is appealing about them and why the speakers chose their particular role. The seminars conclude with a networking session with tea and cake—hence the name.

The first ‘Cake and Careers’ seminar was held in the Chemistry Department in June 2010, and included talks from four women scientists (all with PhDs) currently working in the fields of science policy, industry and academia. Two of the speakers had only finished their PhD within the last three years, whilst the other two had completed their PhDs between eight and ten years ago.

The next Cake and Careers event is for Biological Sciences PhDs and Postdocs and is being held on 29 June 2011 from 3–5pm in the Main Lecture Theatre, Sanger Building, Biochemistry Department.

For more information on these seminars please email us at equality@admin.cam.ac.uk.