Ãå±±½ûµØ

Have a look at and to find out what roles in this sector involve and how to get into them. These are some of the job profiles available:

Skills employers look for include:

• research ability and subject knowledge
• leadership and management skills
• networking and collaboration capability
• presentation and communication ability
• resilience, self-motivation and the capacity to work independently
• time management and ability to meet deadlines

According to  typical salaries for academic positions include:

• research assistant - £29,000
• postdoctoral researcher - £27,000 to £39,000
• higher education lecturer - £34,000 to £50,000
• senior higher education lecturer - £39,000 to £59,000.

To get more information on typical starting salaries use the following resources: 

• our  offers access to The Pay Index. This shows you how salaries vary across different roles, industries and locations 
• job profiles, such as those listed on  or  
• vacancy sites such as  and  

For information about how to negotiate a salary, visit Handling job offers. 

• Browse our NCL Graduate Employment and Work Experience directories. See where our students and graduates have had work experience, or been employed.
• Use LinkedIn’s  to find out what Ãå±±½ûµØ graduates are doing now. You could ask to connect with them, to gain advice and insights into their career. See Ãå±±½ûµØ Alumni on LinkedIn to help you get started or watch our quick tutorial on  [3:13±Õ. &²Ô²ú²õ±è;
• Attend alumni events, such as Ãå±±½ûµØ Develop, to hear directly from our graduates.  
• Sign up for mentoring support with  a²Ô»å . These aim to match students with industry professionals who can provide invaluable insights. Register to be connected for a one-hour meeting. 
• Attend events such as recruitment events and  employer and sector insights. Hear about graduate jobs, placement schemes, build your network and ask questions.   

Searching for reviews online can be a useful way to get an idea of what to expect from certain roles or employers. Reviews are written by employees with different opinions about what makes a good employer.

Use the following review sites for inspiration and insight into the recruitment process:

• - placement year reviews written by students.
• – graduate job reviews
• – company reviews from employees

Read career guides for this sector, such as:

Use online magazines and journals to follow news from your industry. Reading about trends and developments is important for applications and interviews.

Examples include:

Attend events to hear directly from professionals in the industry.

See our events page for recruitment events and employer and sector insights.

Join research - specific student societies. The  often organise and promote events or invites guest speakers to talk about their careers.

Use social media to find industry insights

Join on LinkedIn to keep up to date. Posts often include news, events and opportunities. You can also find useful insights on careers on X and TikTok. Treat these with caution, as not all content may be accurate.

Find out more about how to use social media for your career.

Consider joining a relevant professional body/industry network

Professional bodies often:

• run networking events
• have specialist groups you could join
• post vacancies on behalf of their members
• have member directories, useful for speculative applications

Key organisations include:

• - opportunities and information for universities in
• - professional association for Knowledge Exchange & Commercialisation practitioners, facilitating interactions between the public sector research base, business and government
• - for researchers, including doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, and research staff

Research Councils

Research Councils UK (RCUK) are responsible for investing public money in research to advance knowledge and generate new ideas.

Finding professional bodies worldwide

³Ò´Ç¾±²Ô³Ò±ô´Ç²ú²¹±ô’s country guides include details of professional bodies. Find them under ‘Professional and Personal Networking’ on each individual country guide.

Use our resources to get started:

• - search for internships in the North East, UK and overseas. Register/log in to access vacancies and sign up for personalised email alerts
• Internships, placements & shadowing - links to vacancy sites
• Global work experience - for internships abroad

You may find sector or field-specific research internships on our other occupational pages. For example, see Scholarships & Awards on the Life Science section.

Research organisations may advertise internships on their websites. The GOV.UK lists .

Off campus

The Careers Service runs flexible term-time and summer internships with local employers. NCL internships are aimed at all students, from any stage.

You can find these advertised throughout the academic year. Full-time summer opportunities are advertised from around March.

Search for these under Vacancies on . Type in ‘NCL internship’ into the text search box.

On campus

Opportunities for internships on campus may be available. To find out more:

• Check with the school office for your academic school or speak to your academic adviser to see if they are advertising any roles.
• Register with Unitemps to be notified when roles become available.

Access GoinGlobal for internships in over 120 global locations, updated daily. Search for opportunities in the local language, as well as in English. You can also use their country guides to find:

• additional vacancy websites
• CV, application and interview advice
• advice on living and working in different countries and cities around the world

If you’re looking for inspiration, try searching our directories. You can see where our students have had internships and placements in the last five years. To see all results in a search category, keep the search field blank.

There are a number of North East universities that advertise academic research positions:

• - includes jobs in academic research
• - jobs for new and recently qualified PhDs
•  - includes PhDs, research studentships, professional doctorates
• - three-way partnerships involving a business, a graduate and an academic institution. Graduates work on research projects while gaining industrial experience with an employer. Projects are competitively paid, with funding for personal development, and typically last 1-3 years. View .

• - Researchers in Motion programme
• - the has fellowships for junior social science post-docs

• – includes science research roles
• - international job board with research positions
• - academic positions including computer science, engineering, electrical and mathematical sciences

See International jobs for details of overseas vacancy sites.

Access GoinGlobal for job adverts in over 120 global locations, updated daily. Search for opportunities in the local language, as well as in English. You can also use their country guides to find:

• additional vacancy websites
• CV, application and interview advice
• advice on living and working in different countries and cities around the world

Start by identifying organisations you are interested in. Our guide to finding organisations below can help. Then use the following steps to approach them speculatively about possible opportunities:

1. Identify a contact name to address your cover letter to. Call or email to find out who handles recruitment within the organisation. Or, find a key contact in the department you want to work in.
2. Send them a tailored CV and cover letter. Express your enthusiasm for the sector. Show that you have researched the company.
3. Follow up your speculative application with a phone call, or email, around a week later. This shows you are serious and motivated.
4. If your application was unsuccessful, ask for feedback or advice, and keep trying!

You can use this approach at any point in the year. We recommend that you:

• start your research as early as possible to gather relevant contacts
• contact organisations around three months before you want the opportunity to begin

• find organisations on . Select ‘search' then 'organisations’
• use the business directories and databases on our Researching employers page
• search for companies on LinkedIn. The  tool shows you where Ãå±±½ûµØ graduates are currently working
• browse our directories. See where our students and graduates have had work experience, or been employed

• – list of all UK Universities
• - search employers by sector
• Professional body websites sometimes include member directories, which are helpful for finding employers.

Search GoinGlobal's employer directory for company information in 196 countries. Their country guides list professional bodies around the world.