Career Development Strategies: Mastering my Job Interview (Workshop with Alex Britz)

Are you currently finalizing your PhD? Do you plan to transition to a position outside of academia, potentially in industry, but you feel unprepared for searching and finding a new position? In this highly interactive workshop, you will learn and practice career development strategies with a focus on leaving a great impression in your job interview.

We will start with a brief introduction to efficient job searching strategies to get to the interview for the job of your dreams. Then we will train general presentation skills to sell yourself in a job interview. Knowing your strengths, but also your weaknesses, will allow you to express yourself authentically. We will further discuss what to expect from job interviews in general and gather a checklist of what to do and what not to. You will learn how to prepare to answer standard and non-standard questions, and we will practice easy-to-use storytelling techniques for these situations. Furthermore, we will discuss how you can ask adequate questions yourself. We will practice all these newly acquired skills in breakout sessions and role plays. Finally, we will discuss methods to cope with anxiety but also possible failures.

The specific topics and learning objectives of the workshop are:

• Self-Assessment: You will start identifying your strengths, values, interests, skills, and personality traits.

• Job Searching Skills: You will learn effective job search strategies, including networking and self-presentation.

• Job Interview Preparation: You will familiarize yourself with a structured preparation for your job interview.

• Self-Presentation Skills: You will train storytelling to present yourself in job interviews and deal with questions.

If you would like to participate, please contact Sibylle Graf (sibylle.graf@mpq.mpg.de).