PhD and next…? Career Workshop and Panel Discussion (Oct 12-13, 2022)

Through the 2-day-workshop “PhD… what next? Which career path is right for me?” the doctoral researchers got to know their personal career-wise significant skills better, as well as how to increase their career opportunities. The aim was to motivate them and support them in determining how and where they want to stand in their further professional life. The coach of the workshop, Dr. Matthias Schwarzkopf, is specialized in such workshops and coaching for young researchers.

On the first workshop day “How to become a professor – how to structure your career in Academia“ they discussed the academic career path. Now the doctoral researchers know the structure of a scientific career in Germany, and how to increase their career opportunities during their doctorate and postdoc stage. The second workshop day “How to find your job on the non-academic labor market“ aimed at determining the participants technical and personal skills, and at improving the job hunting on the non-academic labor market.

The following panel discussion, a few weeks after the workshop, enabled the  doctoral researchers to get in touch with speakers who have embarked on different career path inside and outside the university, as well as to get to know skills and competencies valuable for different careers and the opportunities and challenges associated with moving between university and industry. In the panel discussion different questions regarding the pros and cons of an academic or non-academic work place, work-life-balance, networking etc. were approached.