We are happy to announce our next GAUSS Career Service workshop “From a Successful Job Application to the Job Interview” by Barbara Hoffbauer. This workshop is intended for those postdocs and late stage-PhD students who are already informed about various professional perspectives outside academia and have reflected their own suitability for different career paths.
Date: Friday, 16 June 2023
Duration: 1 full day (9:00-17:00h)
Location: Seminar rooms E+F, Max Planck Institute for Solar Systems Research, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3 (map)
Trainer: Barbara Hoffbauer
Workshop Description: The first part of this workshop focuses on the application documents. In exercises the participants will reflect their individual achievements so far and learn how to convincingly present them in the CV as center-piece of every application. Analysing real job ads the participants will practise how to write cover letters that create the desire to meet the author. They will get advice on how their determination for a specific career path can be reflected in CV and cover letter and what other application documents to include considering differences between jobs in science and industry.
The focus of the second part lies on job interviews and covers questions such as how to react upon the invitation, how to prepare for the interview, the interview itself and how to deal with it afterwards. After preparatory exercises the participants will practise giving examples of skills and abilities. They will be primed for specific situations when confronted with awkward questions or unexpected challenges and practise these in training sequences.
Workshop objectives:
- Understand the requirements as to form and content of CVs
- Put yourself into the recipients’ shoes: Differences between academic science and companies
- Developing messages about yourself and transfer into the CV
- Know what application documents to include
- Type and sources of helpful information
- How to address potential employers in your letter of motivation
- Preparing for the job interview
- Practising difficult situations in job interviews
Workshop methods:
Presentations, discussions and group exercises in the plenum and in small groups, small group and individual exercises