Supporting students' career development

LSE offers a range of support to PhD students to assist with employment both while they are working on their doctorates as well as for their future careers. For both academic and non-academic employment, point students to LSE Careers, which offers specialist support for doctoral students. It is recommended that PhD students engage with LSE Careers early in their period of study so that they can find out about and take advantage of career related opportunities available to them during their time at LSE.  

They can book appointments and events online on Career Hub and there is web information here. Early engagement can also help to minimise career-related anxiety later during the final stages of their PhD. LSE Careers has a specialist adviser for PhD students who can help with job search, strategy, applications and interviews preparation, and with prioritising study and career related activities so that students can decide how best to focus their time throughout their studies. 

LSE Careers offers services for Alumni up to five years beyond graduation. 

t is likewise important for supervisors to be aware of some students needing to work alongside their study, balanced against expectations of the School and (where appropriate) funders and the UK Visas and Immigration concerning employment generally. As it is not feasible for the School to provide definitive guidance covering employment-related restrictions for all possible combinations of funding source and visa type, it is students’ responsibility to ensure that they are aware of the terms and conditions associated with their funding source and visa type, and students are encouraged to contact the relevant teams for advice where necessary. 

As with all other jobs and commitments your students have, it is important to talk to them about time management and balancing their studies with their other responsibilities. 

Gaining teaching experience alongside doctoral study can prove highly rewarding for doctoral students, be useful for future careers, and provide doctoral students with regular contact with others and a clear structure to their working days during the period when they are most likely to be engaged otherwise in quite solitary study. It can also, particularly for first time teachers, prove challenging and time consuming. Supervisors should make space to discuss these challenges and opportunities with their students. LSE does not guarantee the opportunity to teach to all doctoral students, and needs to balance carefully the quality of teaching delivery with the opportunity for such experience. That said, most LSE departments do offer teaching opportunities (though this is not usually possible in the postgraduate institutes). If you have a student who is having difficulties finding openings, you may suggest they contact relevant departmental managers for information. LSE doctoral students also seek teaching employment outside LSE – there are plenty of options in London. 

Do give careful thought to employing your own doctoral students to teach on your courses. Often, keeping supervisory and employment relationships a bit more separate is beneficial for all involved, and while there may be very obvious benefits in terms of discipline knowledge, it is important that you maintain professional working relationships and have consideration for their research needs as well as your own teaching support needs. Keeping supervisory and employment relationships a bit more separate can be beneficial for all involved. 

Supervisors do not have a role to play in the quality control of their doctoral students who teach, but do need to be aware that this is an important part of the School’s overall quality assurance provision and encourage their students to take teaching and any training seriously. 

LSE provides information on the employment and support of PhDs who teach, including a guidance document on good practice for the employment of Graduate Teaching Assistants. 

There are both compulsory training requirements and the opportunity to gain professional recognition for teaching and learning, which can enhance their job seeking potential. For more information about GTA induction training and teaching accreditation, see the Eden Centre’s website.

There are many opportunities open to LSE students for short term/part-time employment and volunteering. LSE Careers has details of jobs, volunteering and internship opportunities both within and outside of LSE. Employers that advertise with LSE Careers are also often interested in recruiting researchers for short-term consultancy projects and there are some internship programmes aimed specifically at PhD students. LSE Consulting has short term opportunities and PhD students can express interest using the email address on this page. 

Employment that is not directly relevant to a particular career can help students to develop evidence of skills such as team working that may be important when applying for jobs later.  

Such opportunities might also emerge from fieldwork or similar organisational connections, and it is important to discuss with students how these opportunities should be managed - both from the perspective of career development and from the perspective of research ethics and integrity, and the methodological risks as well as benefits of blurring research and consultancy and straightforward employment relationships.