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Ingrid Scheijven from ‘De Groeizaak’ gave an interactive workshop on Job Application Skills. In this workshop Ingrid explained the how to tune our CVs and cover letters to the vacancy we want to apply for and how to prepare for a job interview. We also discussed which questions to ask and not to ask during a job interview. Participants gave each other feedback on their CVs and cover letters and the workshop finished with an interactive play role activity where we interviewed each other. In addition, one of the participants was selected for a free coaching session with Ingrid! It was a successful morning!
“The topic was highly relevant and the speaker was experienced on job hunting in the Netherlands.”
Anonymous participant
“The small breakout rooms worked well. It was nice to get to know others on a more personal level.”
Anonymous participant
When you’re close to finishing your PhD or postdoc you will have to make a choice about your next career step. A common question is: to be in academia, or not to be in academia. If you so much choose to transition your career to industry, it can be quite unclear at first what your opportunities are, what strategies to adapt to find vacancies and what skills and competences you’ve developed which can apply to job functions outside your line of work. Especially understanding what your transferable skills are can help you feel more confident in applying for jobs outside your ‘niche’ research and, more importantly, outside your comfort zone.
In this workshop, Lisette from People in Science taught us how to recognize new job opportunities through various vacancy platforms. Additionally, as a recruiter herself, she explained how job recruiters look at your career profile, and how you can optimize your profile to increase your exposure. Moreover, we interactively practiced how to recognize your transferable skills and competences, and employed the STARR method to cinvincingly translate those, either in an interview or motivation letter.
“Compliments on how this course was given online.”
Anonymous participant
“Useful information for job seekers”
Anonymous participant
Building up a network is crucial for a successful career in academia or industry. However, networking skills are not that easy to develop, especially for young scientists, who might feel like a small fish in a big pond. In this online workshop, Ellis Vyth from Bhertz discussed topics such as online and off-line networking and the differences between networking in academia and industry. Furthermore, through both individual and group assignments, we became familiar with the do’s and dont’s of networking and how we can build up a network ourselves.
“combi of practice and background info; enthousiastic presenter”
Anonymous participant
“The interaction with others: networking too!”
Anonymous participant
Having the feeling that we don’t belong to a group or that we don’t deserve our success is unfortunately common in academia. Talking openly about this make can make us realize that we all face the same challenges, which already tell us how weak the fundamentals of this concept are – there is then no point of “disregarding our work” or “constantly compare it with others”. In this workshop, Ellis Vyth from Bhertz explained what the imposter syndrome is, how it can affect us and what strategies can be adopted to tackle it.
During this workshop participants interactively learned to take ownership of their success, embrace compliments and identify their qualities. In a first activity participants were asked to share a story and complement each other. Understanding what our ambitions and dreams are can help us find our place in the ‘now’ and pave our way forward. So, in a second exercise participants shared their future projects. The group had deep conversations and people were actively engaged in the activities!
“I really liked the event and Zoom worked very well. I think, it was even better to connect via Zoom since we shared some personal stories that are not easy to share”
Anonymous participant
Defending your dissertation in front of the opposition can be nerve-wrecking and stressful. Luckily, there are strategies to adopt to prepare yourself optimally for your defense. In this online workshop Daniël discussed and interactively practiced strategies to confidently work towards your defense. What questions can you expect the opposition to ask, and therefore prepare for it? How do you respond to difficult questions? How to deal with different styles of questioning?
The participants were invited to make a short two minute pitch of their defense to present to a colleague in 3 rounds – questions and feedback was given by the other colleague and roles were changed. Each round focused on one of the three key aspects, mentioned above. To successfully complete the assignment, participants had to focus on key points of their thesis, but the content was not everything – clarity, intonation and confidence were tested as well. The best practice is practice, practice, practice – so that’s what they did!
“Very dynamic, well structured, active participation”
Anonymous participant
“I usually need to know about the ‘framework’ of what I am doing in order to be able to know what to expect. This workshop has helped me in that”
Anonymous participant
“Practice with people from different fields is insightful, because it forces you to rethink terminology that you use every day and is completely obscure to others.”
Anonymous participant
PhD-candidates and Postdocs often find themselves in situations where good communication skills are called for. Whether it is on deciding upon the right direction for the research, or negotiating on how many experiments to include, young scientists can find it difficult to pursue their own ideas while keeping a good relationship with their peers and supervisor. Researchers in the academic world are already negotiating without being aware of it! In this workshop participants learned how to prepare negotiations thoroughly and how both parties can book success. Daniel brought interactive activities in how to prepare negotiations thoroughly and how to identify our individual conflict style!
“Practical application; roleplay; interactiveness; trying out negotiations”
Anonymous participant
“I was really curious to the setup of this workshop of 3 hours. I think the lecturer has done a great job of teaching us on conflict management in an interactive way. The structure was well-thought and I liked the assignments and theory.”
Anonymous participant
Many PhD-students and postdocs experience difficulties in maintaining a balance between all the different projects and tasks they have. This is not to mention the difficult balance between work and private life. It is all about making the right decisions, but these are often not very clear and are always very personal. In this workshop Ellis worked with us on deciding on the tasks to definitely pursue and those that could be discarded. We practiced different ways of convincing our colleagues and supervisors and learned to say no in an effective and friendly way.
https://www.bhertz.nl/home-en/
“I liked that the speaker had a background in academia!”
Anonymous participant 1
“I liked that the there was room for everyone to speak”
Anonymous participant 2
“Very nice workshop and very useful”
Anonymous participant 3
Supervising and one-to-one support is an important part of professional learning. As a supervisor, how do we assure good guidance, structure and provide guidelines for communication during student projects? In this workshop Jeanine provided different styles to effectively guide students. How to deal with intercultural differences in communication, how to deal with project expectations and how to give constructive feedback were just some of the topics covered in this workshop!
“It is very specific for your work and responsibilities as a PhD student, and that helped a lot. I always find practicing with colleagues a bit uncomfortable, but the group was great and the feedback helped a lot.”
Anonymous participant
Discussing strengths and qualities with your supervisor and colleagues is one of the best ways to build successful organisations. Acknowledging you own personal skills is the first step to be able put these into practice. Moreover it raises your self-esteem and enhances team spirit. In this workshop we identified our personal strengths in terms of (transferable) skills and qualities. We talked about strategies on how to communicate effectively about our strengths in order to put these into practice. We also identified and addressed our weaknesses in order to make better and effective decisions during our career.
“I actually learned a lot about myself – it is good to sometimes take the time to reflect on yourself”
Anonymous participant
“The atmosphere was really nice. It was a very interactive workshop”
Anonymous participant
“We played several fun games to learn about our personal qualities. The drinks afterwards were fun too!”
Anonymous participant
Your head can be full of exciting and innovative research ideas, but without funding it might be difficult to start scaling your thoughts up to practice. Or maybe you’re just trying to find a payed extension for your PhD? What grants can you apply for, and how should you approach the writing of such an application?
Maartje de Snoo, from the VU grants desk, hosted this workshop to explain the ins and outs of applying for grants, for both PhD-candidates and postdocs. In this workshop, she explained which grants you can apply for, how an application procedure looks like and tips to structure your application manuscript to convince the comittee.
“Very useful to get such an overview!”
Anonymous participant
“Good to know the do’s and dont’s and where to get help”
Anonymous participant
“Nice to see there is more out there besides the standard big grants such as VENI”
Anonymous participant
The stronger a team’s communication skills are, the better the outcome: studies have found that highly effective communicators are 32% more likely to meet the goals of a major project. This makes it crucial that we learn how to convey tricky but important messages in good time, with clarity, respect and patience. In this 2-hour session, we discussed
- Bariers for good coomunication in you work environment
- How to ‘tune in’ to (non)verbal signals we are giving to others, and how these may perceived
- Ways to handle difficult conversations and give feedback
http://www.theschooloflife.com
Reading ten papers a day, planning your academic career and looking for meaning and happiness in your research and not to forget the endless writing… On top, you’re not making the most out of it when you don’t have a relationship, found a grown up apartment without filthy flatmates and party as much as you can while you’re at it. As millennial, life is often just thrown upon you with numerous, paralyzing choices. And before you know it, you get burnt out. But when do you know when you have it? In this workshop we learned how to prevent a burn-out and how to stay energized throughout our careers.
“They made a bit too much of a show, but good to discuss these topics with peers”
Anonymous participant
“Such an important topic! They helped us understanding problematic patterns. However, would have liked more information on turning those patterns around”
Anonymous participant
Job application skills are essential for professionals in today’s society. The job market is becoming more flexible than ever and due to technology and globalization jobs are changing rapidly.
In this workshop Ingrid Scheijven from De Groeizaak discussed with us how professionals can stay attractive in this dynamic job market in order to create a fulfilling and meaningful career.
We gained insight in the essential steps of the complete application process via interactive activities. We discussed ‘building’ our profiles, how to find jobs and practiced job interview skills and salary negotiations.
