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What happens during career counseling?
‘What are you going to do with me now?’ or ‘I didn’t really know what to expect’ are sentences I often hear at the beginning of a counseling session. Not knowing what will happen can make us quite nervous, and for some this nervousness is even a reason to say ‘my questions are not that important, I don’t need counseling’. I congratulate each and every one of you who had the courage to come to a counseling session. It does take courage to expose yourself, not knowing what will come. For those who were secretly wondering what happens behind closed doors in my counseling room, let’s have a look at what career counseling is about.
You must be crazy! Why would someone with your track record leave science?
You are good at your job, you are successful, you have achieved what most of us are aiming for, you are inspiring the new generation. How can you think about doing something else? What would the community do without you? Who will take care of the lab?
People having opinions about our career choices is inevitable. How do you deal with it? And what happens when you decide to follow a path that others think is crazy?
Self-analysis - fascinating instrument or tool by the devil?
While we ask ourselves every now and then whether we are still happy in our private lives, we often hesitate to do the same in our professional lives. Why this should be necessary?
Taking the time to assess your own professional situation is very valuable. Especially because nowadays a career is almost never straightforward, it is often helpful to be aware of certain points.
How I tackled post-PhD imposter syndrome
Kelsey Inouye's job search has given her panic attacks and dented her self-esteem. But she has learned to deal with rejection. This blog post originally appeared as such on Nature's website and was adapted almost 1:1 from there. What Kelsey learned from her time after her PhD confirms what is taught in career counselling sessions at PSI: Focusing only on finding a job ends up being counterproductive.
A recipe for career planning - one ingredient should never be forgotten
Plan a career, visualise your future job and set yourself precise goals. This is often the sort of good and well-intentioned advice given by friends, relatives and career counsellors when it comes to planning one's professional future. There is no recipe with a guarantee of success and, above all, one particular ingredient should never be forgotten: Happenstance.