How to Plan Your Postdoc, and How to Develop Your Academic Career

Aims

After this workshop, you will know the relevant aspects and steps allowing you to take your academic career further. In order to help you make an informed decision, you will also learn how to find relevant career options outside of academia. Regarding academic careers, you will hear about, and reflect upon, suitable positions and career paths, and we will discuss why, as a rule, you have to think about becoming a professor. Finally, you will deepen your understanding of the achievements necessary to make your career progress and of the way in which you can structure your postdoc years.

Content

Day 1

Careers in comparison
- What does a career in academia mean? Why, and to what extent, is it about the path to a professorship?
- What are the paths to a professorship? What are the relevant career steps? For whom does this fit well, for whom not so much?
- Which positions and career options are there on the non-academic job market? How can I find them?

Academic careers in detail - structuring the path to a professorship
- Which achievements in research, teaching and other areas do I need?
- What is a good postdoc position for me? How will it help me achieve my goals?
- What will I get at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty ofTheology at the University of Basel, and what will I not get?

Day 2
Career comparison revised: Results of homework:
- What are additional ideas for careers outside of academia?
- What did you learn about careers in academia?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of each career?

Academic career development
- How should I develop my research profile?
- How do I find a suitable postdoc position?
- How can networks help me find a relevant postdoc position?
- Basics of applying for a postdoc position
- What types of positions are there? How are they funded? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each of them?
- How do I develop a suitable postdoc project?
- Which individual goals do you set yourself and what are your next steps?

Methods

Short impulses by coaches, group discussions, self-reflection, online research, joint development of ideas and solutions

Target Group

All Doctoral candidates of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Theology

About the Trainer

Day 1 – Dr. Matthias Schwarzkopf is a coach and trainer for researchers and scientists. He is cofounder of Karriereberatung für Akademiker*innen www.kabeak.de. For several years, he has been responsible for accompanying the process of appointing professors (Berufungsverfahren) at the University of Jena. Since 2015 he has been working as a freelancer, supporting academics of all disciplines in their career search and development. Years ago, he studied Latin and Protestant Theology and completed his PhD in History of Education.

Day 2 – Dr. Annika Bartsch is a trainer and coach at Karriereberatung für Akademiker*innen with a focus on careers in and outside academia. She supports doctoral candidates and postdocs on behalf of their career planning and job applications. She has several years of experience in research, teaching and science management. She studied German language and literature, Philosophy and History in Freiburg im Breisgau, Jena and Halifax (Canada)..

Workload

Total of 30h (2x 8h course attendance, 14h homework)

Feature

This course is reserved for doctoral candidates of the Faculy of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Theology.

Once registration is open, applications will be collected for 24 hours and course places allocated by lot. All registrations received after the initial 24h period will be put on a waiting list and assigned on a first come, first served basis.

Course places/places on the waiting list will be confirmed by e-mail. Course registrations can only be canceled before the registration period ends (send an e-mail to grace@unibas.ch). Full course attendance is mandatory. Participants who fail to attend a course without prior notification or withdraw after the registration deadline are subject to a fee of CHF 30. In addition, participants who cancel their course registration at a later point in time, are absent without an excuse or do not attend the entire course will, for reasons of fairness, not be considered for course registration in the following semester and will be removed from other courses offered in the same semester. Please find the detailed regulations on the Transferable Skills Homepage.