Career Perspectives Series

Pursuing a PhD degree is a rewarding and exciting experience. You have the opportunity to study a specific research question in depth and become a leading expert in your field of research. But have you considered what you would like to do with your PhD degree?

Would you like to stay in academia and become a professor or academic researcher? Or would you like to become an entrepreneur and start your own business? Do you prefer to work in government, industry, or in higher education teaching? Employers from all sectors value the talents and skills that PhD graduates have to offer!

The Career Perspectives Series (CPS) was developed in the framework of the PhD Scholarship Programme and is open to all PhD candidates at the University of Groningen. The programme provides training for PhDs in the area of soft-skills development and how to translate these skills to successful careers outside or inside academia:

Workshops (a series of career building workshops, see below)
Courses (one to three day courses, see below)
Career events (Meet & Greet events, bi-annual 3MT Competition))

"You cannot climb the career ladder with your hands in your pockets." (Dutch Coaching Calendar)

All courses and workshop are awarded with ECTS credits. Each PhD candidate is expected to complete 30 ECTS (for a 4 year PhD programme), of which a portion can be earned through following CPS courses and workshops. All CPS courses will list how many ECTS credits you will be awarded for each course or workshop series.

Please talk to your Graduate School or PhD Coordinator about payments or reimbursements for courses. For further informatiom you are welcome to contact the Groningen Graduate Schools. PhD scholarship students who cannot cover the costs for a particular course are asked to email phd-cps@rug.nl to discuss a further reduction in the course costs.

During your PhD studies here in Groningen, we hope that you will take the opportunity to follow the Career Perspectives Series and discover what it is that makes you passionate about research and how you can develop your talents and skills as a researcher towards a successful and fulfilling career after your PhD!

Workshops

In our CPS Workshops series we offer interactive workshops focused on various PhD careerbuilding topics. Learn how to build up your CV for a non-academic position, learn more about networking for people who hate it or learning to fail and stay happy about it. There are a wide range of workshops to follow on building your future PhD career!

Workshops are held approximately twice per month on a Friday afternoon and will repeat on an annual basis (dependent on demand). Each workshop is followed by networking drinks where you will have the opportunity to talk with speakers, instructors, and PhD alumni and build up your career information portfolio.

Behind each workshop we indicate whether it is aimed at an academic career (IA = Inside Academia), a non-academic career (OA = Outside Academia) or both (both).

Check out our course page as well for more extensive courses!

Note: if you are unable to attend a workshop or course you signed up for after all, please send us an email at phd-cps@rug.nl

To be planned - dates will be added as they become available:

Content Creation for the PhD Science Communication Platform: "MindMint" (ongoin) - both
Academic Writing: Reduce Anxiety (19 May 2023) - IA
Working in the Humanitarian Sector (26 May 2023) - OA
Toolbox for Career opportunities after your PhD (2 June 2023) - both
Lecture: The next step - a postdoc (2 June 2023) - IA
Recruitment - how does it work? (9 June 2023) - OA
Storytelling (9 June 2023) - both
Intellectual Property: Becoming a Patent Attorney (16 June 2023) - OA
Assertiveness now and at your new job (7 July 2023) - both
CV Building and writing Outside Academia - OA
Interview Skills - OA
Motivation letter writing Outside Academia - OA
Entrepreneurship - OA
Personal branding: how to build and make the most of your personal brand - OA
Negotiation Skills - both
Networking (for people who hate it) - both
Introduction to Careers Inside Academia - IA
Learn to fail (and stay happy about it!) - both
Scrumming and other project management techniques - both
Academic CV Building - IA
Media Training - both
How to be your best possible team - both
The Landscape of Post-Phd Career Tracks - OA
Introduction to Careers Outside Academia - OA
Working perspectives at a University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool) (to be planned again in 2024) - OA

Courses

General Information and Awareness Courses

Introductory Event (compulsory for all starting PhDs)
The Empowered PhD: How to get beyond being a good student (2, 16, 23 June 2023)
Diversity and Leadership in Academia (12, 19, 26 May 2023)
My Future Career (ongoing)
Time Management Series (links to Corporate Academy)

Inside Academia Perspectives

Grant Writing Series (courses can also be taken separately):

Part 1: Beginner’s guide to grant writing (13 December 2022)
Part 2: From chaos to focus: How to develop your own research plan in academia (10 October and 7 November 2023)
Part 3a: Rubicon Grant Writing Training (14 June 2023)
Part 3b: Writing your grant like a pro - Structure and style of your grant narrative

Teaching in Academia:

Start to teach: Taking steps in your professional development as a teacher - specifically for PhDs who will be actively teaching a course.
Introduction to Teaching - for PhD students who are not (officially) teaching a course but are, for example, involved in the education of Bachelor's and/or Master's students and/or would like to learn more about teaching and mentoring. Thesis supervision is not addressed during this training.

*NEW* Start to Supervise - for (new) PhD students with current or upcoming supervision tasks

University Teaching Qualification UTQ (BKO)

Outside Academia Perspectives

Entrepreneurship and starting your own business:

Extracurricular course on Entrepreneurship
Venture Lab North - Learning the process of Business Development

Teaching:

Start to teach: Taking steps in your professional development as a teacher (Specifically for PhDs who will be actively teaching a course).

* Introduction to Teaching (for PhD students who are not officially teaching a course but are guiding, for example, Bachelor's and/or Master's students or would like to learn more about teaching and mentoring) - this course is currently unavailable. Please send an email to docentprofessionalisering@rug.nl for more information about a new course for PhD's that they are preparing to replace this one.

HBO and VWO school teaching - please contact the teachter education department (lerarenopleiding) of the appropriate faculty. They will compile a tailored training programme with you.

For any questions or suggestions about the CPS Programme, please feel free to contact us at the Graduate Schools or send an email to phd-cps rug.nl