BSA Annual Conference Postgraduate Forum
5 April 2011
Negotiating Careers Outside Academia
Undergraduate Degree Sociology
University of York
Aviva (Norwich Union)
Data Analyst
MA Social Research
University of York
Senior Research and Intelligence Officer
Lancashire County Council
JSNA Manager
Lancashire County Council
Career History
Using Social Theory
Social Capital
Inequality
Social Care
Using Research Methods
Postal Questionnaires
Online Surveys
Focus groups
Hints and Tips
Befriend 'evidence based policy making'
Trend towards what can be easily measured, not what is best to measure
Learn to love (or at least not hate) numbers
Write reports with unambiguous recommendations
It will give you extra flexibility
Relinquish some creative control
Use 'conservative' methods:
Focus groups fashionable
Conversation analysis less so
Quantitative preferred
Methodology often prescribed
Given research questions
Get used to dressing smartly (no jeans!)
Except on dress-down Fridays
But...
Enormous job satisfaction
Intellectually challenging
Reports used to inform:
Council communications strategy
Social capital policy
Budget decision making
Social and health services commissioning
Get used to working on short-term projects
Typically a month to two months per project
Little time for background reading
Quick turnaround (like, yesterday!)
So also enormously rewarding!