University of Graz holds the Arqus PhD Week for Careers Outside Academia from 13th to 15th October

The Arqus PhD Week for Careers Outside Academia will take place on the premises of the Unicorn (Center for Knowledge and Innovation Transfer, ZWI) on the campus of the University of Graz from 13th to 15th October 2021.

Around 60 participants (doctoral researchers, PhD graduates and career development experts) from the seven universities of the Arqus Alliance will meet with local entrepreneurs to work together.

In addition to cooperate in an international and multicultural environment, the main aims of the PhD Career Week are to train doctoral researchers and PhD graduates to develop skills for careers outside academia. Participants will:

• Become aware of their competencies.

• Be empowered to make them explicit to others.

• Learn to develop entrepreneurial (and intrapreneurial) projects.

• Be trained in opening up professional opportunities and increasing their employability.

Programme of the event

The main topics and contents addressed during the Career Week are:

• Mapping the skills acquired during doctoral training.

• Entrepreneurship creativity workshop.

• Preparing international job applications.

• Meet and greet at Center for Knowledge and Innovation Transfer, University of Graz.

• Pitching competition.

• Career dinner.

The full programme for PhD/postdocs workshops can be downloaded here.

In addition to the sessions and activities aimed at helping the participants in securing a career outside academia, the workshops related to entrepreneurship and creativity will allow doctoral researchers and early postdocs to become aware of what entrepreneurial spirit and behaviour mean. For example, participants will improve their competence in working with others, problem-solving, communicating, becoming self-aware and recognizing personal competencies. Participants will also learn to recognize and explore entrepreneurial opportunities by being creative, identifying an opportunity and developing it, identifying its value proposition and pitching it.

Relevant Materials

Gayannée Kedia, A Brilliant Mind: writing and productivity boost for scientists.

Information about the ZWI.

Notes and slides from the sessions will be found here after the event.

Have a look at the video interviews with PhD entrepreneurs here!

About Graz

City Maps by Graz Tourismus.

See a list of university-affiliated hotels here.

Original news.

This initiative is organised within the Arqus Action Line 6 Research Support and Early-Stage Researcher Development in collaboration with the Action Line 5 Entrepreneurial University and Regional Engagement in order to support doctoral candidates and doctorate holders in making their skills and knowledge available to employers outside the university context.