Participants on first day workshop
To give CHESS PhDs further guidance about their career choices within and outside academia, we organized the first CHESS Career Development Workshop on 13-14 May. A total of 15 PhDs and 3 postdocs have attended the first day workshop, which was given by Dr. Kerstin Fritsches from PostdocTraining. The focus was on developing career plans, mastering the right skills, and making well-informed career choices. The participants worked in small groups and learned how to develop their individual plans systematically. At the end of the day, each had a plan in hand and they learned how to further develop it. All participants found the sessions very useful and inspiring.
The second day was led by Anja Hegen from UiB. The participants learned how to write a compelling CV and application, and how to prepare for an interview. She also presented some EU and NFR funding programs which are suitable for early career researchers. After lunch, 11 invited guests came to give a presentation of their respective organization and career opportunities. This “career fair” session was open to all postdocs at Bjerknes centre since it was relevant and also very useful to them. All participants and guests were invited to a tapas dinner after the workshop for further networking activities.
Text and photo: Mandy Kong