GAUSS Career Blog

Career Information and Announcements

2013/07/11
by Katrin Wodzicki
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Career fairs: Your chance to network with potential future employers – outside and inside academia!

If you are interested in leaving academia, one worthwhile networking activity is visiting career fairs. On career fairs, you have the chance to get in contact with potential future employers and to explore career opportunities. Mostly, job vacancies of exhibiting employers are published beforehand so that you can apply to specific jobs. However, even if you find no appropriate job postings, it is worth visiting interesting employers to get in personal contact and raise some questions.

In any case, visiting career fairs needs some time of preparation: You should search provided information about exhibiting employers and their respective web pages. Thereby you can identify employers that are potentially interesting considering your professional profile and can gather accessible information about them. You should update your CV and prepare some copies to distribute in case of interest. In the best case, you find some interesting job postings and prepare respective application portfolios.

Networking with potential employers outside academia at the T5 JobMesse in Hamburg, 22 October 2013.

The organizers of the T5 JobMessen provide a job market and employer profiles on their webpage. They recommend to carefully prepare for their career fairs by reading respective employer profiles and search for job ads of exhibiting firms.

Networking with potential employers inside and outside academia at the Naturejobs Career Expo, 19 September 2013, in London

This career fair “promotes global career opportunities in science, be it in industrial research, research organisations or academia. It presents the best opportunities from the best organisations: public, private, national and international. […] The program includes tracks for graduates and postdocs, skills workshops and talks on careers in a range of industries.”

You might consider visiting the “Horizons in Molecular Biology”, taking place from 9-13 September in Göttingen. As scientific event which integrates a career fair, it is also a great chance to network inside and outside academia.

If you want to look for further career fairs, the following links might be helpful:

 

2013/07/09
by Katrin Wodzicki
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Social Networking in Online Networks

As always, there is no clear YES or NO to the question whether you should engage yourself in social networking online. First of all, you have to be sure about your current career needs and your long-term career goals. Then, you can ask yourself in which way social networking online might help you satisfying your needs and achieving your goals.

I stress the difference between current needs and long-term goals, because both are important for this decision: Networking is a two-way street and most successful if you build and maintain your network in the long run. Consequently, you should not build an online network for rather short-term needs, but in line with your long-term goals. Continue Reading →

2013/07/04
by Katrin Wodzicki
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Build valuable skills by taking action!

One way to acquire or consolidate skills is taking part in workshops. Another – in some way even more effective way – is taking action in which a skill is needed. Project management, for example, is part of organizing a conference, a workshop or another event. Networking can be trained by taking responsibility for speakers and guests during events. When organizing a bigger event together, even team and leadership skills are challenged.

All these skills are valuable for your work as researcher. Moreover, they are considered as transferable skills. That means that also potential employers outside academia will value them. Recruiters want to see that you proved your skills in specific tasks; they will ask you about examples; they will ask you about specific situations and how you handled them.

If you are interested in building your transferable skills and do not find a chance in your current working environment, you can make use of the support and resources of the GGNB Career Service Unit. Contact me to find out about chances! You may even have some first ideas!

Furthermore, the organization of the next Women’s Careers and Networks Symposium – which will take place in autumn 2014 – is starting in September 2013. The organizing team is even support by a course on project management and fundraising. More information is available here.

2013/07/02
by Katrin Wodzicki
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Wanted: Organizers for the WoCaNet 2014!

The next Women’s Careers and Networks Symposium will take place in autumn 2014.

The Women’s Careers and Networks 2013 organizing team is currently looking for motivated PhD students and postdocs who are willing to help with the organization as many organizers from this year will have graduated by then.

To help the new organizing team, the GGNB offers a course (S52 – “The ‘do it yourself’ doctoral symposium: Women’s Careers and Networks 2014”, 30-31 Oct 2013) where you will learn the basic elements of project management and fundraising with regard to the symposium. In addition, symposium objectives and framework structure are decided in the workshop, working groups will be established and planning steps will be taken.

If you are interested in taking part in the organization of WoCaNet 2014, please come to the first organization meeting on Wednesday 25 September 2013, 6 p.m. at the GZMB, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 11, large seminar room (R 0.232) and sign up for the GGNB course S52.

In case of interest, mail to WoCaNet@gwdg.de. Further contact details and information about the previous Women’s Careers and Networks symposia are available here.

2013/06/25
by Katrin Wodzicki
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Two Career Days on 5 July 2013

There will be two very interesting Career Days on 5 July 2013.

The Career Day in Heidelberg focuses on science communication and journalism. You would have the chance to raise questions to experts in diverse job positions in this field. Hosts are the HBIGS and the DKFZ.

The second Career Day in Mainz is broader and aims at showing you a wide range of career options. There will be talks from field experts, workshops on job hunting and interview techniques, speed coaching, and a company fair.