Career fair in Bahrenfeld
Career after your Doctorate? – Career fair in Bahrenfeld
The next career fair will take place on November 4th-5th, 2021. Detailed information will be published here and in Geventis.
Academia, industry or science management? For the first time, a two-day career fair for all doctoral researchers of the Faculty of Mathematics, Informatics and Natural Sciences (MIN) of the Universität Hamburg was dedicated to different professional options after finishing the doctoral thesis. The 60 participants had the chance to meet 16 representatives of universities and extramural institutions. Besides lectures and a panel debate with the topic “From industry to academia and vice versa” they discussed their questions in small groups and individual conversations. The event took place in the premises of the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron in Bahrenfeld and was organized by a cooperation of the graduate schools Center for Ultrafast Imaging (CUI), the International Max Planck Research School on Earth System Modelling (IMPRS-ESM), the International Max Planck Research School for Ultrafast Imaging & Structural Dynamics (IMPRS-UFAST), the MIN graduate school, the PIER Helmholtz Graduate School and the School of Integrated Climate System Sciences (SICSS).
Dr. Antje Wegner from the German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies stated that non-academic careers are the norm rather than the exception. In science subjects, less than half of early-career researchers work in an academic position after two years. Nevertheless, Mrs. Wegner advised the participants to look closely when deciding for the first employment since disadvantages of an underqualified employment remain for a long time even when changing the position.
Dr. Oliver Dilly gave insights from his work at the German Aerospace Center where he enjoys the diversified work of consulting and mediating between research and politics in terms of the support of future scientific projects. As a scientist, he has accompanied worldwide delegation trips and negotiations and can now further satisfy his academic curiosity outside the university. However, he was only offered a permanent position after three years, which came as a surprise for some listeners.
Prof. Daniela Domeisen, who specially came from Switzerland to share insights about her international career including changes between six countries and three research areas. She started as a postdoc in a listed company in London where she successfully applied her experience in weather forecasts. After several open-ended employment contracts as a postdoc, Mrs. Domeisen succeeded in winning an assistant professorship in Zurich and uses her expertise from complementary research fields like predictions, modeling and shaping.
In talks in small groups, further speakers demonstrated various ways into the industry, science management or administration as well as careers in research. The participants profited from unique insights in the work routine of professors as well as specific tips on how to best contact companies and what differentiates a family business from a public or listed company.
In the final panel discussion, JunProf. Dr. Thorsten Uphues from the University of Hamburg, Dr. Michael Wegmann from the Forschungszentrum Borstel, Prof. Dr. Julia Gebert from the Delft University of Technology, Dr. Stephan Brandt from the German Federal Ministry for Health and the independent trainer and coach Dr. Steffi Beckhaus talked about their passion for research which motivates them over and over again. The career days concluded with workshops on diverse topics about careers in- or outside academia on the second day.