This blog is part of the Research Software Camp series.

In 2025, I found myself out of work, and I was fortunate enough to receive an award from the Further Development Fund from the Institute for Research Software Fellowship Programme, which I put towards coaching to help me find a new job and settle in once I’d found a role. This blog post is a distillation of my previous job searches and the advice I’d give myself if I were to do it all again.

This post isn’t intended to be prescriptive; everybody has different career paths. But maybe something here resonates, and if it does, I hope you realise that what you’re feeling, or have felt in the past, is normal, and you’re not alone.

First Search, Worst Search

Jumping out of academia into the world of work is the most awful job search experience you can have, in my opinion, because it happens at a time when you have a scarcity mindset. Maybe your funding is running out, or there’s a deadline bearing down on you: the end of your degree, your PhD, or whatever it is. It is the end of a safe space.

You are also untested outside of the academic setting. You don’t have a track record yet, so there’s a feeling of having to prove yourself, and demonstrating that you’re a good fit for a role is difficult when you’ve never been in that situation before. But that’s also true for everybody else in that position!

It’s about reframing all of those projects you did in academia into the “buzzwordy” business vernacular: spinning your experiences into something that demonstrates skills beyond the answer to your research question, because a lot goes into answering one. There’s plenty of guidance out there on how to structure sentences on your CV that demonstrate what action you took and the impact it had. It will feel super cheesy! Phrases like “Delivering an automated data analysis pipeline that increased development velocity by 50%”. In the age of automated CV scans, these can help your application at least land in front of a human.

That being said, it’s easy to get caught up in perfecting the words on your CV, especially in the current age of AI as your ever-present pocket editor. Remember, the best CV is one that has been written and submitted, not the one still sitting on your computer being constantly edited.

I also didn’t really “network” during my first application phase. We can feel pressured into thinking we need a shiny social media presence to land gigs nowadays, because that’s what these platforms prioritise showing us, but I don’t believe it’s the case. Unless you’re going for a communications role, of course!

Second Search with Safety

Once you’re into your career, transitioning between jobs can feel a lot more secure, which is where I found myself going into my second job. I had a job I was happy in and probably would’ve stayed in longer. But then the unicorn job came along, the job description that read like they’d had me in mind when writing it. Part of the reason your first search feels awful is that you’re not in control of the transition; the power shifts back to you once you’re in a job.

You’ve just got to listen to yourself. If this second opportunity hadn’t come along, I would likely have stayed where I was and been happy. So I had to be brave enough to take it when it came knocking. But maybe if I had stayed I would have stagnated, and the new opportunity kick-started a period of growth.

There’s always the question of whether you tell your line manager when you’re looking for, or have secured, another job. That is a highly individual and personal decision that takes a lot of factors into account, including your relationship with your line manager and the culture of the business. I did tell mine when I found the opportunity and was considering applying, and I was lucky that in doing so, I got a great piece of advice that I still carry with me today.

You don’t actually owe your job anything.

Yes, you may enjoy it, like the people you work with, and feel like you’re making some kind of impact. These are all important factors, especially in research and academia, where we want to make a change. But they can also be what keeps you in a safe space. Jobs are also contractual and transactional in nature: you provide a certain number of hours of your labour in return for a salary, and probably a benefits package too. If a new opportunity comes along that excites you and feels like a good next step, then you’ve fulfilled your duty to your current role and should feel empowered to move on from it.

You are just as responsible for making your own little world a happy one as you may be for improving our shared world.

Third Search You Didn’t See Coming

It is a volatile job market out there at the time of writing, with factors such as funding and AI technologies disrupting hiring procedures and the kinds of roles available. Searching for a new position unexpectedly, after lay-offs or for any other reason, can be a daunting thought. It brings back the scarcity mindset from the first section, but with one crucial difference: this time you have a track record.

First off, writing CVs is a little easier. Yes, there are still all the cringey business words, but this time you have stats and hopefully publicly available links to demonstrate your experience and competence. You have a lot more to talk about in interviews, too: experiences, achievements and projects you’ve done, rather than extrapolations from theoretical academic data. Make sure to give examples: “I was in a business and this is what I did”.

Now that you have experience, other people may be observing your web presence. Make note of what prompts recruiters to reach out and the things they highlight; these are the sexy phrases that are good to leverage elsewhere!

Finally, paradoxically, enjoy doing nothing! You are likely to have more savings now, so if you can take the time, and a little financial padding, to think about what really matters to you, any future decisions you make will be more targeted and fulfilling.

Some Tips I’ve Picked Up

A few things I’ve learned about job searching over my career:

• Keep a large CV of all your achievements and pare it down for each application, so you won’t need to write from scratch every time.
• While you’re working, keep a brag document to help you remember everything you’ve achieved when it comes time to write that CV. It also helps you self-advocate for things like promotions and raises, or simply reminds you that you have achieved something when work feels like it’s dragging on a bit. It’s a very valuable habit to get into.
• Get some sort of tracking system for all your applications, so you can see at a glance what has gone in, the stage each is at, and whether you’re waiting on someone or someone is waiting on you. Collating details such as salary, location and flexible working policy also helps you compare roles at the offers stage. (Yes, I said when. It will happen!) Pick whichever tool you’ll actually use: a spreadsheet, Notion, Trello boards — there’s no right answer, and there are plenty of free templates online.
• Don’t search alone! If you’ve been part of lay-offs, it might be a good idea to group together with some colleagues and search together. You can keep each other accountable, hype each other up, proof-read each other’s CVs, and mock-interview one another. It also provides some structure that helps you detach and take the rest you need, without feeling guilty and without the search taking over everything.
• If you don’t have a group of colleagues, see if there are any job search communities in your local area or online. I joined the free tier of Tech Talk UK, who have templates for CVs and cover letters, guidance on messaging hiring managers, and interview-style questions to prep with.

I hope you found this blog post helpful!