Hello and welcome!

Over August and September 2018 I published 6 blog posts on the subject of soft skills (transferable skills) in academia. I didn’t focus on one specific soft skills, I talked about the interest of soft skills in general. These 6 articles make together a series that does not pretend to be complete and only reflect my opinion. And actually there is indeed much more to be said on the subject, so I will definitely come back to it in the near future :)

I’ve put together these full 6 articles in one PDF with a short intro for you to easily read the complete series, just subscribe to receive the download link!

In this series you will find a definition, links to online resources and how to use them, ideas of where to find training opportunities, how to know what is best for your career, a call for better communication, and an interesting survey from the EMBO that directly asked senior scientists to rate the importance of different soft skills.

You can also read all these articles directly on the blog with the links below, and to know more about me just have a look at the About page :)

Subscribe below to get the PDF!

What are soft skills for academics ?

Called “soft skills” they also come by “transferable skills”. Some people even define them as “real skills”. The terminology “soft skills” try to separate them from “hard skills” but things are never perfectly black&white. Let’s say that “hard skills” refers to… Read More

You already have more soft skills than you think and you can prove it

How to identify your soft skills and how to keep track of them? Joint Skills Statement. Create your portfolio for when it will be time to apply for your next position, and to remember all the cool and less cool shitty stuff that happened to you in academia… Read More

How to know which soft skills training is best for my career?

How to know “what is best for your career” when you don’t even know when you are going to finish?? When you can’t even think of what you want to do or what you’ll be able to do after your PhD? It’s OK, we’re all in the same  mess  situation… Read More

Where can I find soft skills training in academia?

When I started my PhD study, I lacked the academic jargon to look for programs or events which could have been out there for me. So here is a list of things to check out for you. Within your field, or your university, or your country, or your funding body, could you benefit from… Read More

Lack of communication about soft skills training programs

It is only toward the end of my PhD that I finally had an overview of all training programs and events which was available for me and from which I could have benefited earlier. It was only when someone directly told me about a program that I understood its interest… Read More

Do senior scientists acknowledge the importance of early soft skills training for their PhD students?

An EMBO survey that directly asked senior scientists to rate which soft skills they think are more important for their PhD students, and which ones they rate as more important for themselves. More than 400 scientists participated… Read More