Workshop

Career Paths

What comes after your current position – in academia, at its edges, or beyond it? The workshop gives doctoral researchers and postdocs clarity: they map their own profile of strengths, values, and skills, survey realistic paths inside and outside academia, and turn that into a viable plan with concrete next steps. Instead of a yes/no decision, what emerges is a preferred path together with a serious alternative.

The question of what comes after the current position faces nearly every researcher – and it is rarely a simple yes or no to academia. What makes it hard is usually not a lack of options but a lack of criteria: which paths are realistic, and which of them fit the life you actually want to lead? For the path to a professorship, the The Path to Professorship workshop offers a dedicated deep dive.

Even before the workshop, participants use a worksheet to sketch a preferred path and a serious alternative. In the workshop, these plans are sharpened, checked against realistic options, and translated into concrete next steps. Anyone who wants ongoing support with implementation can get it in optional follow-up peer-coaching sessions.

Topics & Methods at a Glance

Content

Forschende bei der Karriereorientierung im Workshop

The workshop content is hands-on and conveyed through short input sessions, individual and group work, and interactive exchange formats.

  • Taking stock: strengths, values, motives, and skills
  • The career map inside academia (postdoc positions, professorships, research management)
  • Non-academic fields and how they work (industry, public service, NGOs, self-employment)
  • Transferable skills: translating your academic profile
  • Career goals in the context of your own life goals
  • Decision-making models and handling uncertainty
  • Developing a preferred path and an alternative (Plan A/B)
  • Job-market research, informational interviews, and networking
  • Self-marketing: visibility, profile, and application materials

Nach dem Workshop können die Teilnehmenden …

  • Assess your own profile of strengths, values, and skills in a structured way
  • Get a realistic overview of the spectrum of academic and non-academic career paths
  • Translate research skills into transferable strengths that make sense in other fields
  • Weigh career options against your own life goals and choose a well-reasoned, multi-track direction
  • Leave the workshop with a preferred path, an alternative, and concrete next steps (research, networking, self-marketing)
At a Glance

Key Facts

Duration & Format

One day, in person
Optional follow-up peer-coaching session to support next steps. Also available as a half-day taster or a two-day deep dive with individual profiling; online is possible.

Audience

Doctoral researchers in an advanced phase and postdocs

Group Size

Recommended: 8–15 participants

Languages

German, English
I'll be glad to put together a proposal tailored to your needs

Interested?

Nächste Schritte für den Workshop
  • Tailored: Every format is customized to your context – from methodology to scheduling
  • Practical: Grounded in academia, field-tested, and immediately applicable in everyday research
  • Efficient: Clear structures and methods deliver fast results
  • Sustainable: Materials and transfer tasks secure the learning effect long-term
  • Motivating: Interactive formats boost engagement and team spirit

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