CPS Workshops

Have you thought about what you want to do with your career after your PhD? Or are you wondering what careers are out there for you beyond academia? This workshop is designed to inform PhD candidates about the different "outside academia" career options for those with a PhD degree.

During this workshop, you will hear more about the Career Perspectives Series and the courses and workshops that are there to help you develop your own career portfolio. You will be shown information on the career landscape for PhDs after graduation and hear about what are the most common questions that PhD graduates have when considering a career outside of academia. Additionally, PhD graduates will share their experiences about their different career paths.

The main aim is to inform PhD candidates about different career paths, how to build up their career portfolio and what they can expect when moving beyond academia.

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On location in Groningen, details will be sent to participants

Maximum 35 participants. Open to all PhD candidates. If the workshop is oversubscribed, priority will be given to participants in the PhD Scholarship program. If you have registered and you do not hear from us about the course being oversubscribed, then please consider your registration as confirmed.

During this workshop you will:

• Learn about the Career Perspectives Series for PhDs
• Familiarise yourself with the variety of different career possibilities for PhD graduates.
• Have the opportunity to speak with PhD graduates who have careers beyond academia.

Keywords: Outside Academia, CPS workshop, career information.

Groningen Graduate Schools, PhD Alumni Network

Being pro-active means there will be times you will have to take action by causing change rather than only reacting to change when it happens. Assertiveness is one of the most valued characteristics in an employee, trainee, entrepreneur or postdoc. If assertiveness is not a quality that comes naturally to you, you might need some help embracing it and displaying it. In this workshop you will be given advice, tips and tricks, and practice being assertive in various scenarios in order to help you develop your own assertiveness skills and come across as an assertive person.

13 May 2025 09:00-12:00 and 13:00-16:00

Due tot the popularity of this workshop it is offered twice a year.

On location in Groningen; details will be sent to participants

During this workshop you will:

• Learn about assertiveness and how to be assertive in the workplace.
• Learn tips and tricks to develop your skills in being assertive.
• Practice your assertiveness skills with qualified trainers.

In the workshop Interview Skills, you will learn how to best tackle a job interview. Not all job interviews are the same so different interview styles will be discussed and tools on how to approach and handle these different styles will be explained. In the end you have the opportunity to test your interview skills.

Tuesday 15 October 2024 13:00-16:00

Unfortunately there are not enough participants to split into two groups.

On location in Groningen, details will be sent to participants

During this workshop you will:

• Learn about what you can do to prepare for a job interview.
• Learn about different interview styles for different careers.
• Practice interviews with experienced trainers.

Have you ever considered entrepreneurship as your career option? Why not? Probably because you think you need an entrepreneurial DNA or because you need to have great ideas to start with. That’s, at least, what we hear most often. In this workshop we will talk about popular myths and truths about entrepreneurship. For example, do you know that only one third of people start their own companies because they saw a great opportunity, while for others entrepreneurship was a conscious choice to start acting?

Maybe you already have a great idea to start your own business, or you are wondering if your idea is really as great as you think. During this workshop, you will have the opportunity to pitch your idea to each other - if you want to - and receive useful feedback. Maybe you don't have an idea yet, or you are hesitant to present it. Rest assured, you don't have to do a pitch. Hearing from others and giving feedback can be educational in itself!

At the end of the workshop, you will have a clearer understanding how you could develop ideas with which you can start a viable business as soon as tomorrow, and discuss how different organizations and initiatives in the ecosystem of the Northern Netherlands could support you in this.

On location in Groningen; details will be sent to participants.

During this workshop you will:

• Learn about myths and truths about entrepreneurship
• Understand how you could start a viable business
• Learn about organizations that can support you in your efforts

The further you get in your career the more likely it will be that you will work in teams. You may have to manage other coworkers or even lead your own project team or research group. When the time first arrives when you have to work in a large team, you may question how to work effectively, or how you can use your own personal strengths to anchor your team.

This workshop will give you the opportunity to talk about your situation as a PhD. We will be dealing with characteristics of a succesfull team, and zooming in on different team roles and your personal profile. We will be unraveling both the beauty, power and sometimes the irritation of personal differences. The workshop is interdisciplinary with minimum theory, maximum interaction, and small group practices.

On location in Groningen; details will be sent to participants.

Central questions to be answered during this workshop:

• How to create a good working team?
• How to select the right people and collaborators?
• How to combine personal and professional qualities the best way?
• How to lead a team in the best way?

Knowing how to tell your story well is of great importance in any career. The strongest alliances are built while pitching and discussing stories. These efforts can be made as effective as possible by training yourself in the art of storytelling. How do you connect with your audience and keep them hanging on your every word? How do you make sure that the most important message gets across to your audience and remains lingering in their thoughts? During this workshop you will learn tips and tricks about the art of storytelling and practice these techniques while telling your own story.

Friday 13 December 2024

This workshop will be split into 2 groups (if the number of participants allows it):

Group 1: Friday 13 December 2024, 9:00-12:00 am
Group 2: Friday 13 December 2024 1:00-4:00 pm (final seats)

You can indicate on the registrationform which session you prefer. We will let you know in which form(s) the workshop will take place and when you are expected.

Due tot the popularity of this workshop it is offered twice a year. The second round will take place spring 2025.

On location in Groningen; details will be sent to participants.

During this workshop you will:

• Learn how to pitch your story to captivate an audience.
• Practice your story-telling skills with trained professionals.

You found a great vacancy and want to apply. How can you make your CV stand out? In the application and selection process, your CV is one of the main documents. During this workshop, we will take a deep dive into the right layout, structure and what to include (and exclude!) on your CV. We will also look at how you can use your CV to stand out from the crowd, and match its contents to the vacancy. We will practice all this with multiple assignments. After this workshop, you are able to provide a professional CV for any interesting vacancy. To get the most out of this workshop, we advise you to bring your own vacancy.

This workshop is complemented by the workshop Motivation letter writing Outside Adacemia.

During this workshop you will:

• Learn about what experiences would be valuable for building up content for your CV.
• Learn how to translate your experiences into an impressive written CV.
• Learn about what employers look for when selecting candidates based on their CVs.

Groningen Graduate Schools, Career Services

A new date will be set once the new setup is complete.

Online using Google Hangouts

Maximum 35 participants. Open to all PhD candidates. If the workshop is oversubscribed, priority will be given to participants in the PhD Scholarship program. If you have registered and you do not hear from us about the course being oversubscribed, then please consider your registration as confirmed.

Groningen Graduate Schools, Young Academy Groningen

When you enter a new employment position after your PhD, you will enter into a training period where you will encounter a new work environment, new colleagues, and new responsibilities and tasks. Our perfectionist selves will want to do everything flawlessly, but as you enter a new learning phase, chances are that you will make several mistakes at your new workplace, or you might find that you just weren't cut out for this line of work. How do you deal with such experiences?

This workshop teaches you how to deal with making mistakes and failure, how to stay happy about it so that when you happen to fall flat on your face, you fall as gracefully as possible. Happy about failing? That sounds like quite the contradiction. It is not the easiest thing in the world to train yourself in, but it is possible. Look at mishaps as a positive step in personal development. The trainers from Improsa will teach you how to deal with failures and how to change your state of mind when you do dwindle into negative thoughts. They will do this by doing all sorts of playful exercises where you discover the barriers you put up yourself against staying happy. So, in essence, they will show you and practice with you!

Important note:

This 3-hour workshop is meant to address a few things in a playful manner and to get you thinking, not to solve any deeper issues. If you are struggling with a fear of failing that is causing you problems, you may want to consider the free course “Overcoming your fear of failure” or one of the other courses for PhD students which is offered by the Student Service Centre of our University. It is a more serious, longer running course where deeper issues can be addressed. Individual support is also an option.

Tuesday 21 January 2025

This workshop will be split into 2 groups of max. 12 people (if the number of participants allows it):

Group 1: 9:00-12:00 am
Group 2: 1:00-4:00 pm

On location in Groningen; details will be sent to participants.

During this workshop you will:

• Learn to manage setbacks and to deal with mistakes
• Learn how we react to failure and how we can change these perceptions
• Practice situations with professional trainers

After your job interview, you get a call with great news; you are the best candidate for the position! There's just one more hurdle to overcome; you have to negotiate the terms of employment. How do you prepare for such a conversation? In order to negotiate effectively, you need to learn how to convince. During this workshop, we will practice with a real-life case study to show you that negotiating is really a game. A game in which you can shape the rules yourself! Do you want to learn how to position yourself powerfully during a negotiation? Than this workshop is for you!

On location in Groningen. Details will be sent to participants.

During this workshop you will:

• Learn about negotiating skills and different techniques for negotiating.

• Practice negotiation skills with a qualified trainer.

Register for this workshop here

There is a growing disparity between the number of new PhD graduates and available faculty positions — effectively, most of the PhD graduates need to find jobs outside academia.
The good news is: you have a lot of skills unique to academics, and essential in the open job market. You also have lots of options outside academia! The workshop is interactive and contains polls, quizzes, and open discussion. We debunk lots of myths related to the job market for PhDs in this workshop. It is composed of the following modules:

1. On the right and the wrong reasons to leave academia. How to make sure that you are thinking of leaving academia for all the right reasons?

2. The landscape of post-PhD careers. Safety or freedom? On the biggest dilemma that you need to face while leaving academia, and how to approach this dilemma.

3. Which tribe should I join? On the eight tribes in the job market that welcome PhDs, and on the opportunities and compromises you need to take while working in each one of them.

4.How to sneak in? On the efficient strategies to land the job in each tribe. Where is it easy, and where is it difficult to get in as a PhD?

Friday 4 April 2025 14:00-17:00

Online. Details will be sent to participants

During this workshop you will:

• reflect on the reasons why you consider building a new career in industry
• get a broad perspective at the scope of possibilities for PhDs in today’s job market
• work on your self-confidence to take active steps towards building your new career

Are you interested to know what the content of a successful academic CV looks like and what you can do now to start building up your academic CV worthy of a grant or a future academic position? What are funding agencies like NWO or ERC and/or Universities looking for in an academic CV, and what can make you stand out amongst the rest? During this 3 hour workshop, you will learn what topics should and could be covered in an academic CV, and what sets top academic CVs apart. Instructors will provide tips and information on how to build up your CV with relevant content. You will devise your own CV building strategy and visibility plan to help you make your next steps in academia.

PLEASE NOTE: this workshop is about how to build your CV content-wise, and does not cover layout or how to format and present your CV.

On location. Details will be sent to participants.

During this workshop you will:

• Identify the important aspects of a solid academic CV that appeals to future employers and funding agencies.
• Determine what can set you apart from the average applicant.
• Formulate a CV building strategy for yourself, covering the next couple of years as a PhD student.
• Formulate a knowledge exchange and visibility plan to help connect you and your research with others (society, stakeholders, etc),

HR Experts and the Groningen Graduate Schools

In many fields of industry, Intellectual Property and especially patents are an essential part of business to obtain an advantage over competitors. Patents are exclusive rights granted by the government to an inventor for his invention.

Main role in executing business IP strategy is given to Patent Attorneys, part of which is to support the inventor in the process of identifying an invention in her/his daily work and obtaining a patent for this invention. Thus, Patent Attorneys support scientists and companies with their specific skills to advice on whether or not inventions may be patentable, to protect or not and support in the actual process of obtaining patent rights.

Patent Attorneys are also the ones to advice the business on specific strategies in creating their IP portfolio, which would enable the business in the most optimal way to bring their products on the market.

For this the patent attorneys use a unique combination of technical and legal skills to translate a technical invention into a legal patent document.

As such, in the field of Intellectual Property Patent Attorneys operate on the interface between technology and law. Ideally, a Patent Attorney is a team player with an impeccable science background and a flair for analysis. This profession also requires excellent written and verbal communication skills, as well as flexibility and the facility to handle many varied tasks simultaneously and on tight deadlines.

Alina Veligura (IP Business Partner Diagnostic Imaging at Philips)

Friday 4 July 2025 15:00-17:00

Maximum number of participants is 10. If we receive many more signups for this workshop, a second session may be organized earlier on the same day.

This workshop will provide an overview of the field of Intellectual property and associated career opportunities. During the workshop you will:

• Learn about Intellectual Property and patents in particular
• Learn about Philips patent department and how Philips monetizes its patent portfolio
• Get a flavor of claim drafting (the most important part of the patent) and associated with a claimed scope value
• Learn how to become a Patent Attorney with your PhD degree and more about IP related career paths.

During this workshop, a recruiter will provide information on what the recruitment process looks like. Specifically, you will get pointers about what recruiters look for in your LinkedIn profile, your CV and / or your application letter as well as the recruitment interview, and what lines of careers and companies they usually recruit for. This particular company offers positions to people in Engineering, IT, Finance, Legal and Marketing. You are invited to send us any questions you have in general or about specific issues you are encountering, so the trainer can prepare his answer to you beforehand. Please put your questions in the registration form or send them to phd-cps@rug.nl and we will forward them to the trainer.

Friday 9 May 2025 15:00-17:00 followed by networking drinks

During this workshop you will:

• Learn about what recruitment agencies are and how they work.
• Learn what company recruiters look for when scouting for new candidates and how to make yourself visible to recruiters.
• Be able to ask questions during the Q&A session

When applying for a job, various documents are important to have in order. Your motivation letter is one of them! During this workshop, we will take a closer look at how to write a strong motivation letter. How do you stand out from the crowd? What kind of structure can you incorporate? How do you translate your skills in a way that shows you match the position and organization? In addition to the motivation letter, we will also highlight other creative forms of motivation. Above all, we will practice a lot! After this workshop you will have the basic tools to express your motivation powerfully and clearly in your application. To get the most out of this workshop, we advise you to bring your own vacancy.

This workshop is complemented by the workshop CV Building and Writing Outside Academia.

Friday 7 March 2025, 14:00-16:00, followed by networking drinks

On location in Groningen - details will be sent to participants

During this workshop you will:

• Learn about what employers from different fields look for in a motivation letter.
• Learn how to structure your own motivation letter for outside academia careers.

When your career starts taking off, either inside or outside academia, you may on occasion be approached by journalists to talk about your research, specialty or business, or give comments or insights into particular topics. This training will teach you how to prepare yourself for speaking to the media.

Friday 21 March 2025 14:00-17:00, followed by networking drinks.

During this workshop you will:

• Learn how to present yourself when speaking to journalists.
• Learn tips and tricks when talking to the media.

While not a typical job for many, being a humanitarian and working with people in crisis is a special calling and important life-saving opportunity. Navigating the humanitarian system, the United Nations and the myriad of foundations, agencies, and programmes throughout the world can be daunting and difficult.

Learning some of the key tricks and methods to meaningfully apply for and secure positions is important to your success and your ability to work in a very demanding and transformational work.

During this workshop you will learn about:

1. The scale and size of the humanitarian sector and the different areas of work

2. What the application process entails and how best to showcase yourself in a meaningful way

3. What other tools and experience you will need to be a viable candidate

We know that networking is important during your career. Having a high-quality network is valuable, now and after you graduate. During the workshop Networking we will explain in 6 steps how you can network effectively and purposefully, both online and offline. We will teach you what networking really is, how to start a conversation and how to make valuable and lasting connections. And of course, we will practice with real life networking! Do you want to find out how much fun networking can be, even if you thought you hated it? Sign up now!

After following this workshop you will know how to:

• add value to your network
• how to stay up to date with information relevant to you

During this workshop you will:

• Learn about a career in consultancy.
• Hear from PhD Alumni how they made the step into their consultancy career.
• Leanr what skills you need to develop in order to work in consultancy.

This meeting will provide you with information about the working possibilities for Doctorate Holders at a University of Applied Sciences. After the participating Universities have presented themselves, there will be ample opportunity to speak with them personally.

This workshop is organized in collaboration with several Universities of Applied Sciences in the north of the Netherlands.

Programme:

There will be a general introduction during which you will be informed about possible career paths at the Universities of Applied Sciences. More information will be added here as it becomes available.

After the introduction, the respresentatives of the universities will go to their own information booth and you can speak with them directly.

On location in Groningen - details will be sent to participants

Whether you have a career inside or outside academia, you will undoubtedly have to manage many different projects. Project management is therefore an essential skill to have. There are a plethora of project management techniques being used that are especially designed to keep track of and complete projects in the most effective manner.

• General project management theorie (50 minutes)
• An Agile/Scrum project (sprint) in teams (60 minutes)
• Evaluation (10 min)

During this workshop you will:

• Learn about scrumming and other project management techniques.
• Learn how to apply the techniques described during the workshop in your work.