Career and Research Support

What do I do with my PhD degree in neuroscience? … Good question … We hope to provide you here with
a) some ideas how to survive on the way to your degree
b) some ideas what you could actually do with your degree
c) some ideas where to find jobs etc.

Career counselling services @ UNIGE and UNIL

UNIGE	UNIL
Career counseling service	Service d’orientation et conseil (e.g. for CV checks)
Graduate Campus	Graduate campus (coaching and counseling)
Service Egalité	Service d’egalité (coaching and career support, e.g. PROWD – Professional Women with Doctorate

Non-academic pathways after your PhD in Neuroscience

The Job Talk website provides an overview of professional pathways of neuroscience alumni in the format of Informational interviews; very intersting and prefect to get an idea what is possible after your PhD apart from an academic career.

Career advice from LNDS alumni

• Kim Doell (LNDS graduate in 2016) on “Having an academic career“
• Aline Pichon (LNDS graduate in 2016) on “And what else than research?“
• Lorenzo Poglia (LNDS graduate in 2009) in the CUSO series “Doing a PhD – And then what?“
  

---

Infos and hints for early career researchers

• Blog: https://academiac.net/
  • Pauline got a PhD in Neuroscience and shares information and tips for early career researchers, incl. soft skills (complementary skills), career and mental health, as well as project management applied to academia. Check out her Highlights of a review about the PhD experience, too.
  • Very hands-on and useful are her “Guidelines to draw a timeline of your PhD” with downloadable examples
  • Online Resources for PhD Students’ Career Development during Covid-Lockdown
• Effective Self-Management for Early Career Researchers in the Natural and Life Sciences : “Early career researchers (ECRs) are faced with a range of competing pressures in academia, making selfmanagement
  key to building a successful career. The Organization for Human Brain Mapping undertook a group effort to gather helpful advice for ECRs in self-management.”
  • explaining “Principles of effective goal setting and time management” like the S.M.A.R.T. approach for setting goals
  • Actions that help you succeeding in your academic career, but also helping work-life balance
  • Source: Bielczyk NZ et al. OHBM Student and Postdoc Special Interest Group.Paper published in Neuron 2020, 106(2):212-217. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2020.03.015.
     
• StartingDoc
  StartingDoc is a “group-mentoring” program addressed to women starting their PhD at the universities of Lausanne, Geneva, Neuchâtel, Fribourg and the EPFL. The program offers useful tools to succeed through your academic path and facilitates the constitution of networks and the transmission of information between more advanced and novice women.
  
• SfN Career Development Webinars
  SfN webinars are free online training and informational events for the neuroscience community. The webinars cover a wide range of professional development and neuroscience-related topics to help you stay abreast of the latest information and best practices in the field year round.

• The website “Beyond the doctorate” hosted by the University of Neuchatel is designed to help those who are reaching the end of their doctorate, or have already completed it, and are seeking information concerning possibilities of pursuing their research career, wondering about the conditions regarding this choice and/or would like tips regarding possible alternative paths. If you are envisioning an academic career in particular, you might want to have a look at the brochure “Guide pratique de la relève académique“ published by the Faculty of Biology and Medicine of UNIL (in French only for the moment).

• Check out some videos from Standford’s initiative “Designing Your Life” and other resources
  
• Check out the “Pocket Guide about Science Communication“ published by the University of Luxembourg … providing theoretical and practical knowledge on science communication for interested researchers and science communicators