Career Planning Workshop

Overview: This workshop teaches researchers what it takes to be strategic and proactive in planning and developing a career, both inside and beyond academia.

The agenda addresses how to explore career choices based on individual strengths and preferences. It explores how identify ‘what’s out there’ in the employment market, and how participants can build the contacts and skills they need to pursue their preferences successfully.

Workshop aims: The training introduces the strategies and tools that researchers need to take effective charge of their own career development. It is a highly interactive course that includes both participant-specific mapping of career paths and plan implementation exercises.

The program also introduces the principles of ‘Mastermind’ mentoring that participants can use as a platform for creating their own peer mentor groups beyond the workshop.

Participants in career planning workshop for researchers

To find out more or to book a workshop for your institution, please click on the 'contact us' button above

In brief:

Workshop summary

Career planning workshop for researchers focusing on strategic career planning for careers within or outside academia

Target audience

  • All early career researchers, including PhD candidates, postdocs and early career research-active teaching staff
  • The workshop is suitable for scholars in all academic disciplines

Format

  • The highly interactive format involves short presentations, individual exercises, small ‘breakout’-style discussions and Q&A sessions
  • The event is capped at 25 participants to allow for optimal engagement

Mode of delivery

Delivered virtually via Zoom over two days, or in person over a single day

Duration and timing

  • Full-day equivalent: The workshop contains 2x 3.5hrs core + 0.5hr voluntary Q&A sessions
  • 2 successive days preferred for the virtual option (though flexibility is possible)

Core content summary

Presentations, exercises and group discussions around the following topics:
Session 1: Know your capabilities and preferences, and explore your choices
Session 2: Create your career plan
Session 3: Build your networks; develop your profile
Session 4: Develop and ‘sell’ the skills that win you jobs

Extra services

  • Creation of a workshop-specific web-page for course-related resources, including an extensive workbook and access to the presentation slides
  • Pre-event survey (anonymous) of participants’ issues and needs on the topic
  • Introduction to peer mentoring and a Mastermind group option
  • Feedback survey (anonymous, in collaboration with the client organisation)

Workshop pricing

Please contact the head trainer Dr. Kerstin Fritsches to discuss your requirements and pricing

Recent workshop feedback

Average score: 9.0 (92 feedback responses), based on the question, 'On a scale of 1-10, how likely would you be to recommend this workshop to a friend or colleague?’. For testimonials see below.

Testimonials from recent career planning workshops for researchers held for European and Australian institutions

❝

Excellent combination of theory, individual brainstorming and discussion in small groups. Good duration of sessions. Very good structure and transitions between sessions. Kerstin has a research background so very knowledgeable about the field and excellent moderator.

❝

Very interactive workshop with concrete individual results: I now have an execution plan to use for my goals. This is something which is missing all the time in comparable seminars / workshops - clarified many aspects I am confronted with currently - new knowledge and theory which I did not know about (e.g. career anchor concept) - very smooth, very well designed workshop, a dedicated webpage and great resources - great balance between theory, hands-on activities, break-out sessions, surveys and Q/A - very nice, experienced and attentive facilitator - overall, it was very enjoyable, an experience most of the time not evident with similar workshops.

❝

Very good format that was well suited for online. The workshops were time efficient and introspective, which I appreciate rather than a series of cliché lectures. The lessons were quite general but structured in a way that you can make it applicable to yourself and take concrete actions based on the content.

❝

The workshop helped me see my current challenges from a new and more positive perspective. I left the workshop with concrete ideas on how to strategise my career planning further.

❝

…In academia, especially in philosophy, most people do not have much confidence in their ‘selling themselves' skills, so I think this workshop would be super helpful to the PhD researchers. Additionally for me, it was valuable to learn how to translate some of my skills to a more academic setting. Although, I have had some ideas for the future and people to contact, the workshop really helped with structure. When you have 10 min to focus and write down thoughts about career and steps to take, it's a lot more helpful than just think about it in the background. In a way, the workshop was like a good therapist…

❝

The workshop really covered things that I need to reflect upon…. It was a great mix of listening and discussing, I really liked that we got the opportunity to meet others in a similar situation.

❝

The course was well structured and easy to follow. What was especially nice was that it demystified the entire career building process. The high level of personal reflection really cemented the ideas of your lectures and translated the course contents to my own career path.

About the facilitator, Dr Kerstin Fritsches and PostdocTraining

Kerstin is a former research fellow who spent the majority of her 12-year research career on grant funding, with first-hand experience of the challenges facing early career researchers and a strong track record in postdoc affairs and career development.

A lack of effective career training for PhDs led Kerstin to found PostdocTraining in 2011, to bridge a gap in professional development by delivering support tailored specifically for PhD candidates, postdocs and other early career researchers.

PostdocTraining delivers career development support in the form of online training and workshops for researchers worldwide and Kerstin has become a sought-after workshop facilitator on topics such as career planning, time management and research leadership, both in Australia and Europe.

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