The Academy's careers team recently held a workshop in Birmingham on how to make the most of opportunities in academic medicine. Our intern, Lucia Possamai, shares her experiences of the day.
The Academy’s afternoon event ‘Capitalising on opportunities in academic medicine’ was held at the University of Birmingham on the 8 May 2014. It was well attended, with a great mix of delegates ranging in experience from medical students to clinician scientists, and drawn from diverse specialities including surgery, dentistry, informatics, anaesthetics, paediatrics and medicine.
After lunch, a networking session got everybody talking and interacting. Based on the principles of ‘speed dating’, the networking session allowed small, mixed groups of delegates a series of seven minute slots to introduce themselves and get chatting. E-mail addresses and advice were exchanged and a relaxed, friendly atmosphere was established for the rest of the afternoon.
Delegates then split into surgical and medical groups for more focused talks on research careers in these disciplines. Each session featured talks from both a Fellow of the Academy and an early career clinical lecturer, giving a great balance of advice, motivation and inspiration.
In the next session, delegates were offered an insider view of the funding process from Dr John Williams of the Wellcome Trust. Pointing out the pitfalls and common mistakes made on fellowship applications, he offered invaluable advice on getting the application and the interview right. Professor Phil Newsome developed this topic with his perspective on successful grant writing and some really interesting personal reflections on choices and turning points in an academic career.
Professor David Adams finished the afternoon’s session with a wonderful account of his own career that drew out many of the themes from day. He discussed the importance of perseverance in pursuit of a question that interests you, of taking risks, and of good mentorship and advice.
The day was capped by The Arthur Thomson Memorial Lecture, given by Sir John Bell. His thoroughly engaging and inspirational talk detailed how advances in genomic technology promised to transform future healthcare; from accurate drug targeting to diagnostics, stratified medicine to public health. Drawing on the UK’s past and present world-leading expertise in genetics research, he demonstrated our unique potential to be at the cutting edge in translating this research into health care benefits.
Find out more about upcoming careers events at the Academy by visiting our events calendar, or by following the mentoring team on Twitter.