Statistics suggest that the average resident in the UK now has no fewer than three different careers or jobs over the course of their life, a number that may well go up in the wake of the economic crisis. A major problem for people who are considering looking for a new job, or who are trying to get back into employment is that they often don’t know what to look for.

The research world is a perfect example. There is a widely held misconception that all academic and research related posts are involved with universities or laboratories, but the scope is far wider than people think. Research is not limited to science or solely to the private sector.

Not many people are aware that there are a wide range of public sector jobs that deal with research matters. Of course there are pro’s and con’s associated with work in the public sector but there can be no arguing that the pension schemes are a lot more secure (if perhaps, slightly less lucrative) and many jobs in the public sector have good holiday allowances.

So if you are considering moving into the public sector, what sort of jobs are there? Well one example is the UK Energy Research Centre, which, perhaps unsurprisingly employs a large array of chemists, physicists and mathematicians to carry out the work. Obviously this may not be ideal for everyone, but this is just one example.

There are other options in the public sector. Many political bodies employ researchers, and this is the type of work that is perfectly suited to anyone with an academic background and is used to diligently researching subject material and collating information from a wide range of sources.

Just because these kinds of jobs are not widely known doesn’t mean that they aren’t advertised. They can often be found on jobs listings websites – give the public sector jobs section of the Guardian jobs website a look - and on websites that aim to cater for more specialist fields. As with any other sort of job hunting you have to know where to look. Just because you’re not a scientist it doesn’t mean that research jobs are not suited to you, and you may find, in fact, that such a post is the perfect direction in which to take your career.