 Coles advises LGBT scientists not to worry excessively that their sexual orientation will retard their careers.He enjoys a wide range of music, especially classical and jazz and he listens to Radio 3, but he does not like the sound produced by harpsichords.During 1988 and 1990 he was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Sussex, before moving to the mathematics department of the Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London, where he worked from 1990 until 1999, first as a temporary lecturer, then as a PPARC Advanced Fellow from 1993 to 1998, becoming Lecturer-in-waiting in 1994 and Reader-in-waiting in 1997.