Training in career planning for PhD students

Why plan your career?

A well-informed career plan is central to your motivation, speed of progress and long-term success. To secure rewarding roles and succeed in them, inside academia or beyond, you must know your options and plan your preferred destinations early. You also need to make choices that leverage your chief strengths and priorities. Career Control for Researchers is designed to help. You can read more here and register below by 31 October 2022.

With thanks for your interest, registrations for the online Career Control for Researchers programme at Lund University have now closed. Please visit LU’s career development site for doctoral students to explore other options or contact Heidi Nilsson at HR’s System Support and Professional Development team on heidi.nilsson@hr.lu.se with questions about the career training and other support available to you.

Whether you do not yet know your preferred path or are looking for the best way to reach a goal you have already picked, the programme will equip you to plan and prioritise your efforts, and pursue your choices with confidence.

Course structure and mechanics

This eight-week online and on-demand programme combines four core training modules, including exercises, with three 45-minute webinars and two tutorials, all designed to support you in creating a detailed career action plan. Once published, this material is available to you whenever you want to give time to it, throughout the course period and beyond.

Extra resources include an extensive case-study database of careers starting from the platform of academic research.

The course has been adjusted to allow you to start at the most suitable time for you, with no time-critical live events to attend.

Course eligibility

All doctoral students at Lund University in 'Ladok', in any discipline, who have not yet been awarded their PhD may apply.

Register and more information

If you are ready to register your interest and are prepared to start the course within two weeks at most, use the left-hand button to submit your details before close on 31 October. If you are not yet ready to register and would like to know more, use the right-hand button for further information.

What LU participants say (2018-21)

'I would recommend this program to all PhD students regardless how motivated they feel because knowing what you want and what others felt in the same situation made me feel I am not that crazy.'

'I think the programme focuses on questions and issues that are not usually addressed while pursuing a PhD. It encourages you to think outside the box, to see things from a different angle and to consider things you might not have thought about before at all. I can not imagine a PhD student for whom that wouldn't be a valuable experience.'

'Getting a wide-ranging insight into the career paths that people end up choosing for themselves after finishing a PhD was inspiring.'

'I am no stranger to long-term planning and goal setting professionally but I lacked experience of how it works in academia. I found the tools incredibly useful as well as facilitating my own understanding of why I love my job so much and confirming that a career in academia is, as I thought, exactly what I want.'

'Unique opportunity to receive tools for and consciously reflect on dreams, plans, concrete strategies. The main problem when planning my career on my own was that it's difficult to know what options exist. The Career Options Master List provided for course participants was a welcome resource.'

'I had no idea that something like a career plan existed. Now that you helped me make one, I can finally think about my future in a more structured way, without feeling overwhelmed. I'm so grateful!... Every Ph.D-student should know about the program. I finally have some concrete ways to pursue my career goals without constantly panicking over the scarcity of fundings, opportunities etc... Everyone should get the chance to learn that.'