Jemma Shipton Careers talk

Posted by Ruth Chapman

13 July 2022

This week we were joined by Jemma Shipton, a Lecturer at the University of Exeter, to talk about her career so far and to offer some advice for those still on this journey. Here are some of the key themes we discussed.

FIGURE 1: “Weather Forecasting Factory” by Stephen Conlin, 1986. Based on the description in Weather Prediction by Numerical Process, by L.F. Richardson, Cambridge University Press, 1922, and on advice from Prof. John Byrne, Trinity College Dublin. Image: ink and water colour, c. 50 x 38.5 cm. © Stephen Conlin 1986. All Rights Reserved ´. (Courtesy: Hendrik Hoffmann, School of Mathematics & Statistics, University College Dublin)

Jemma began by giving us an overview of some of her work, showing us the ‘Weather Forecasting Factory’, an artist’s impression of Richardson’s fantastic forecast factory (read more here: https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wea.2652). Jemma also shared her career path so far. It is always interesting to see different career routes, and a good discussion was had around comparing your CV to others, and the difference in how things look compared to the reality often being quite different. Jemma offered some key pieces of advice that she has learnt so far…

Say what you want
- Often we don’t actually vocalise what we want for a career, and because of this opportunities can be missed. Jemma encouraged us to be open about what it is that we want, with our supervisors and collaborators.
Be active in creating opportunities for yourself and take opportunities to build your CV. This could be opportunities like leading seminar series or organising conferences. There does have to be a balance with our workload, but we can choose to take opportunities that help us gain experience, or network with potential collaborators.
Look for mentors and collaborators
- It can be difficult in academia to find formal mentors for early career researchers. Jemma spoke about the importance of having a senior woman to mentor younger women, but also having male mentors, as they may be able to pass on opportunities and advice. There can be huge benefits from having a range of mentors and collaborators, to see different approaches and to get a range of advice.

Jemma finished the talk with a discussion of balance and directed us to some wonderful resources listed below. There are always pressures on us that we must balance such as following your interests vs following the money and taking opportunities vs protecting your time. One thing we should not balance however is productivity vs self-care. Self-care should always be prioritised, and is required to attain higher productivity. We also discussed the need for resilience, perseverance and boundary setting in an academic career.

Some resources:

Talkworks (For mental health support)

RAIN (recognise, Allow, Investigate, Nurture)

Optimise your own performance (OYOP and Momentum)

Huberman Lab (“Science based tools for everyday life”)

Cathy Mazak

Thank you to Jemma for joining us, and everyone who came and participated in the discussion. We look forward to having more carers talks in the future. If anyone would like to talk, or has an idea for a speaker please email Ruth.