PhD Day 2015: Academia vs. Industry

07 / 10 / 2015 | Michaela Nesvarova

This year´s edition of the annual PhD Day is focused on preparing PhD students for the future. It will take place on the 15th of October 2015 and it aims to introduce the participants to all the different career paths they can take after acquiring their PhD.

'It´s important that people don´t search for jobs only in the last few months of their PhD research,' thinks Imke Lammers, a board member of P-NUT, the PhD network of the UT which organizes the PhD Day every year. 'Career chances for PhD´s are a very hot topic right now. Not everyone ends up in academia and people should be aware of all the options they have - they can go into industry, but also become entrepreneurs or work for NGO´s or governmental agencies.'

The Power of LinkedIn

'It´s a difficult decision,' agrees Sarah Janus, the president of P-NUT. 'You focus on your thesis and for being known in academia and you don´t think about your future after PhD until the very end.'

If you recognize these words to be true, perhaps it´s a good idea for you to join next week´s PhD Day. With many interesting speakers and workshops, it was specifically designed to help all students to prepare for life after PhD. 'Even the workshops are truly for everyone, they are not specific to any group and they teach transferable skills,' describes Lammers. 'One of the workshops is 'The Power of LinkedIn', which can be very useful nowadays. That is how recruiters find you and where many job vacancies are posted, so having a good LinkedIn profile is crucial, but many PhD´s are too occupied to work on it.'

Registration

Besides workshops, many accomplished speakers will take the stage to talk about their journey after graduation. The presentations will cover everything from entrepreneurial possibilities to jobs in industry and a successful career in the academic world.

You can register for the PhD Day 2015 until Monday, 12^th of October. The event is for P-NUT members, but students can also join the network on the spot. The entire daytime program is for free and if you are interested, you can also enjoy a dinner for only € 5.

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