Career training for postdoctoral researchers
Postdoc Career Success offers practical training and one-to-one mentoring to support the career development of the MN Faculty's researchers. You can read more about the programme here before registering your interest.
The course introduces essential skills and tools that you can apply immediately in your daily work. The aim is to help you create and execute an effective career plan, improve your productivity and accelerate progress towards your career priorities.
The programme's approach, training material and resources have been created specifically to motivate and support postdoctoral researchers in structuring their careers and tackling all their roles with assurance, with maximum impact.
The training aims to equip you with skills and strategies that will help you to make the fullest contribution and achieve your potential, wherever your career choices take you.
The approach
The programme's core of 15 online modules in English ('eclasses') offers greater flexibility than a workshop series or residential course. It caters for the diverse work schedules and preferences of postdocs across all disciplines. Topic areas include career planning and pathways; managing time, people and projects; publishing strategies and practices; improving productivity; initiating partnerships; attracting funding; and building relationships that will complement your career development.
You can complete the exercises wherever you are, and when and how it best suits you (online, downloadable PDF or audio versions). Once an eclass is published, you have unlimited, ongoing access to it and all the other programme resources.
The Postdoc Career Success programme for the MN Faculty retains the advantages of face-to-face, interactive training by combining online educational material with a personal career advice service and individual mentoring, so that participants get the benefit of engaging directly with the course leaders at PostdocTraining. Read more about the course components below.
Course dates and time commitment
The core training material is delivered online, with one new eclass released every two weeks over seven months. The MN Faculty programme for 2023 will start on Wednesday 8 March, when the first eclass is published online. The first live webinar in the course will take place on Wednesday 29 March at 11am-12.15pm.
The pacing of the content is designed to suit early career researchers working full time. The average time commitment to explore all the programme's elements thoroughly is no more than 2 hours every two weeks.
The scheduling and on-demand format make sure you can stay engaged in spite of interruptions, and still have ample opportunity to investigate all the material.
Additional benefits of the course
The Research Council of Norway has formally recognised that researchers need a clear plan for achieving their career goals. The detailed plan you create as part of this course will be a strong foundation to support your personal development conversations.
In addition, Postdoc Career Success is a valuable companion to regular supervision arrangements and any mentoring relationships you may already have. You develop a thorough knowledge of your career options and personal development priorities as part of the programme, so discussions with mentors have clear definition and can focus on specific actions that will help you achieve the priorities you have identified.
Register your interest
The programme is being sponsored centrally by the Faculty and will be free of charge to researchers who secure a place. Please register your interest by providing your details to Susann Andersen on susann.andersen@mn.uio.no by 1 March 2023.
The Faculty will ask all participants for post-programme feedback on their experience of the course and the impact it has had, to inform decisions about providing more of this kind of training in future.
What postdocs say about the training
"I find myself more in control of my career prospects. That is I have set goals that I want to achieve - not goals that 'others' or 'the system' have promoted. I now have a firmer vision of what I want which makes it easier to structure work and take proactive decisions."
"It really helped me to focus on my own career preferences and hopes rather than on the expectations I believe others have on me! (I) will start my position in the biotech company next week [...] I especially liked the fact that the material is not pushing for an academic career only, but rather keeps an open mind about options while addressing some of the common fears, problems and struggles that we as scientists have."
"It applies to so many, regardless of postdoc level and field of expertise! Excellent to learn about yourself and how to shape a career around your own strengths and preferences... I see more options and possibilities as a result of the program. A more positive outlook on the future."
"Thank you for your great support [...] I finally fought it through and got a lecturer/senior lecturer position. ... I think you are doing a really valuable job which makes a difference in people's lives."
Further information: programme components
DESCRIPTION | MN PROGRAMME | |
|---|---|---|
 Eclasses | 15 eclasses delivered fortnightly online in English over 7 months, in text and audio versions to suit researchers' preferences | All UiO MN members will have lifelong access to programme material, as long as they keep their login details. Follow this link for further detail on the content of each eclass |
 Personal mentoring | Participants have access to one-on-one mentoring on matters of their choice with either of the two experienced course leaders at PostdocTraining via Skype or phone, providing independent, personalised career coaching and confidential professional development advice. | MN members will have access to a pool of hours of one-to-one mentoring conversation with the course leaders, to address their own choice of issues |
 Email career advice | Individual postdocs can seek advice on career-related matters and issues throughout the programme, via PostdocTraining's email support service. | PostdocTraining will provide a career Q&A service by email for all MN members for the duration of the programme |
 Career database | Ongoing access to the Career Options Masterlist, PostdocTraining's database covering dozens of career paths in academia and beyond for researchers, including case studies. | MN members will have lifelong access to this database, updated regularly, with information and case studies of career pathways for people with research backgrounds |
 News service | A monthly news service distilled from international journals, print media and the internet to give participants the most current material on research-related career issues and pathways. | MN participants will have access to this news service for as long as they choose to stay subscribed |
 Live webinar | Live online discussion facilitated by PostdocTraining on issues of shared interest to participants. | A live webinar for MN members including advice on setting up mutually supportive peer mentoring arrangements and a career-focused Q&A session |
Contact PostdocTraining direct
If you would like to ask a question of the PostdocTraining team about the program's content, its structure or the way the course material and mentoring is delivered, please use the contact form below. Just include your preferred contact method and details in the comments section so that PostdocTraining can reply to you directly.