Hello dear reader, I know I haven’t been posting for a while… I got busy starting a new job, settling in a new city, dealing with personal projects… Now the covid-19 is clearing up my personal agenda with an impressive efficiency: workshop postponed, career talk postponed, my wedding postponed… well, no more excuses for procrastination and let’s get back to blogging! :) Always trying to see the bright side of things even though this situation is not fun, to say the least!

For today’s post, I told myself: so many soft skills workshops are being canceled or postponed, leaving locked-down PhD students even more alone with their career questions… but actually there are many tools available online!

⚠️ Warning: actually I’m reusing a lot the contents from my previous blog posts! Just putting everything in one place :)

 

Keeping my dear Switzerland in mind, let’s start with what is still available in Swiss universities 🇨🇭

  1. Swiss Career Development Programs for PhD students, during lockdown

  2. Online tools for Self-Assessing your Skills, Interests & Values

  3. More Online Career Resources

 

1. Swiss Career Development Programs for PhD students, during lockdown

Coordinators of career development programs for PhDs in Switzerland are currently doing an amazing job to maintain many workshops online, applause to all!! 👏👏

  • CUSO

For Western Switzerland, the CUSO transferable skills program has been transforming some workshops into online ones and they are even offering new ones, make sure to keep an eye on their program here!

They are also regularly posting on their blog, sharing tips and other relevant information for PhD students during this challenging time, posting both in French and English :)

Disclaimer: I worked for CUSO in November and December last year (2019), plus I have been a big fan of their work since many many years given how much this program helped me during my PhD (as you can read here). So let’s be honest saying I’m a bit biased when recommending this amazing program! :D Don’t just take my words, have a look yourself!

  • For Women Scientists

The Atelier REGARD are also having workshops online, check their program here.

For more programs supporting women scientists careers in Switzerland, have a look here.

  • Check what might still be available in your university

Here I would like to refer again my blog post where I previously listed many Career Services for Early Career Researchers in Swiss Universities and Higher Education institutions.

Today I only checked out the Graduate Campuses in Lausanne, Zurich and Basel, and I can tell you that they are having many workshops online, impressive!

 

2. Online tools for Self-Assessing your Skills, Interests & Values

Again in this part I am using one of my previous blog post. I am just copy-pasting it here again.

Importantly: all these online resources are always useful!! Not only during the lockdown ;)

myIDP from Science Career— for STEM

ImaginePhD — for SSH

RDF Planner from Vitae (UK)

myDocPro (France)

Personality tests—recommended by EPFL

 

3. More Online Career Resources

Again, copy-pasting, adapting and complementing contents from my previous post on Academic & non-academic career Resource for EU and more.

PhDOOC - Doctorat et Poursuite de Carrière – English available

Euraxess — by the European Commission

Research Identity, a European research project

Career Blog from the EMBL (Life Sciences)

Beyond the Professoriate

Cheeky Scientist

 

Thank you so much for having a look at my post! :) I hope you found some interesting and helpful ref. It’s never too late nor too early to explore career-related questions, take the time you need!

And most importantly, take good care of you during this challenging covid-19 time 🙏

I will try to publish more regularly again, to receive and read my posts directly in your emails, just signup here :)