Career options for Management researchers
Find out about the different career options available if you're undertaking research in Management
Career options
Broadly speaking, your options are the same as those for researchers in other disciplines; see the career options page for more details. The aim of this page is to look at some career options that may be particularly suitable for researchers in management. One important question to ask yourself is the extent to which you want to use your subject in any future career move. It's entirely your choice - you will have acquired and developed many skills during your doctorate which are complementary to the research skills and knowledge you might think define your career choice.
If you'd like to continue using your Management and would like some ideas as to how, see details of what previous Bath Management doctoral graduates have gone on to do.
This covers the most obvious choices (academic and commercial management or consultancy jobs) but there are many other options.
If you are considering management consulting, it's worth being aware that management consultancies value the high level research and problem-solving skills of doctoral graduates, and some companies, such as Mckinsey and The Boston Consulting group have specific entry routes.
You might want to move away from Management themes, but stay within your broader subject area. There are many occupations in which your PhD would be valuable, including training and development, policy, systems or business analysis, sustainability, human resources, data analytics, logistics, procurement, industrial relations and marketing, among others.
To find out more about what these jobs involve, check out the 'Information sources' section below.
Options outside of your subject
If, having got to this stage, you're not sure that you want to use your Management any more, don't despair! You have many skills and experiences that are highly valuable to employers and you can choose from the huge range of graduate jobs on offer, from structured training with large financial services firms to analysing policy for governmental departments. The key is to think of the skills you have and enjoy using, and explore occupations that use them to suggest possible career options. To find out more about different types of jobs, explore the occupational profiles on Prospects.ac.uk.
You may be interested in starting your own business, or working on a freelance basis. If this is the case, take a look at the section for researchers on working for yourself, the self-employment pages on Prospects.ac.uk, the self-employment pages on the gov.uk website and the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship website.
Information sources
Some key resources to help you research career options for management researchers:
- To find out more about academic career pathways in management, see the academic careers page and talk to academics in your department.
- Careers Service occupational research - has other useful links relating to business, management and finance.
- Prospects.ac.uk - see in particular the Options with business and management studies page.
- If you are interested in operational research, check out this description and profile provided by the University of Kent Careers Service.
- Association for Qualitative Research has a very useful list of qualitative research organisations and consultancies in a wide range of sectors.
- Target jobs - has information, advice and vacancies relating to business, consulting and management.
- Chartered Institute of Marketing
- University of Oxford Guide to Working in Local Government & Public Administration
- Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development - Professional body for fields of human resources, training etc. Includes careers information as well as a wide variety of information on training and current trends and opinions.
- Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply
- Chartered Institute for Logistics and Transport - includes job vacancies and a careers section.
- Chartered Management Institute - engage in research and policy work on management and business themes.
- Management Consultancies Association - Organisation representing consultancy industry. Includes careers resources and vacancy listings.
- University of Oxford Guide to working for think tanks
- Public Affairs Links - vacancies, industry information, and advice on getting into public affairs.
- Market Research Society.
Jobs in industry
This is a huge sector and so we can't provide an exhaustive list. However, these are some of the more popular places to look:
- Careers Service MyFuture database - look at the vacancies relevant to your subject area and also in the sections 'For PhD Students' and 'For Postdocs'. As Bath is highly targeted by the financial and consultancy sectors, this is likely to be an excellent source of opportunities. Use the 'organisations' function to identify potential employers that you may want to work for or could approach speculatively.
- Careers in logistics - for logistics and supply chain jobs
- Individual company websites (use our Employer Index to search by category and link to their websites).
- MarketingWeek for vacancies in advertising, PR and market research.
- People Management jobs section, covering all sections of HR as well as training and development roles.
- Supply Management jobs section, for jobs in purchasing and supply as well as logistics.
- Top Consultant - for vacancies in management consulting.
- The national press carries many vacancies, although these tend not to be entry-level positions.
- Specific recruitment agencies (for a complete list visit agencycentral.co.uk).
Jobs in the public sector
- Civil Service Recruitment - This site contains links to civil service vacancies. In particular you may be interested in in the Government Procurement Service Graduate Scheme. Entry into the Government Operational Research Service is via their graduate scheme or via the Civil Service Fast Stream.
- Jobsgopublic contains a wide selection of jobs throughout the public sector, including education, health, local and central government and charities.
- Local Government Jobs.
- NHS Graduate Scheme (HR and General Management).
- ThirdSectorJobs for opportunities in the charitable and voluntary sector.
- The Research Councils also employ researchers in their work, to assess and review grants among other things, as do other funding bodies.
- Policy Library - has job postings and a World Directory of Think Tanks.
- Public Affairs Links - website with vacancies in the lobbying industry.