Career Development

The EURAXESS network

The EURAXESS network specialises in providing personalised assistance to international researchers and their families before and during their mobility. It also aims to enhance the career development of researchers.

Career Development Centres(CDC) can now be found in more and more EURAXESS service centres, where researchers can get support, guidance and strategies on how to develop their career and improve their employability both in academia and industry. Several career-orientated events are organised during the year. Researchers can take part in Career Advice workshops during which they are shown how to identify their skills and leverage them. They can also attend CV Writing coaching sessions. Researchers are also invited to build their professional network during events where they can connect with major cultural and socio-economic stakeholders.

Overseas researchers represent a pool of international talent for the benefit of French companies. However, there are still companies that are not aware of the high potential offered by research-trained candidates. Moreover, researchers often lack knowledge about the employment opportunities outside academia. The Career Development Centres are committed to best prepare researchers in their professional development and they aim to promote their employability outside academia.

USEFUL WEBSITES FOR RESEARCHERS

The Centre de Mobilité Internationale de Brest has made every effort to ensure that the information mentioned on this page is accurate and it cannot be held responsible for any possible errors.

The EURAXESS portal hosts a vast range of free resources to support researcher career development. The Career Development page for researchers on the EURAXESS site gives access to a career orientation toolkit which provides resources to help them identify and reach their professional goals.

EURAXESS career development flyer

European Framework for research careers

a synthesis in english of this Dec 2023 report is downloadable here: PhD candidates & holders: Exploring Career Opportunities in the Private Sector

As career development also requires knowledge of the facts allowing choices to be made, being informed about retirement and being able to maintain acquired rights during mobility is important. The CMI Brest therefore opens the "pension" page and will inform you of its progress as it goes.

Here is the first step: The Resaver consortium aims to create a European retirement fund specially intended for researchers in order to promote mobility within the European Union.

The Association Bernard Gregory (ABG) specialises in the recruitment and career development for doctoral candidates and PhD holders in both the academic and business sectors.

DocPro gives PhD holders, businesses, doctoral schools and laboratories a view of the skills that PhD holders develop throughout their careers. DocPro was created by Association Bernard Gregory, la Conférence des présidents d’université (CPU) and MEDEF.

The PhDOOC association offers PhD candidates and PhD holders a MOOC designed to familiarise them with career development tools and resources available online.

Vitae is the EURAXESS Career Development Centre for the UK. It provides a virtual service centre for everything related to career development for researchers. VITAE has also developed the Researcher Development Framework, a tool to help researchers identify and develop key skills, behaviours and attributes for successful researchers.

Eurodoc is the European Council of Doctoral Candidates and Junior Researchers. It represents national organisations of PhD candidates and young researchers in the EU. In France the Confédération des Jeunes chercheurs (CJC) is member of Eurodoc.

La confédération des Jeunes Chercheurs(CJC) is an organisation whose goal is to represent doctoral candidates/ early-stage researchers and new PhD holders. Its website provides a lot of useful information and there is a section dedicated to foreign researchers.

My IDP provides online exercises to help researchers examine their skills, interests and values. There is also a list of 20 scientific career paths with a prediction of which ones best fit their skills and interests. Many articles and resources regarding career development are also available.

Doctoriales  is an annual 4-day event that provides PhD students hands-on training through experimentation. Throughout the Doctoriales conferences and round table talks are organised enabling students and representatives of various socio-economic sectors to meet.

OkayDoc is a platform of researchers dedicated to the digital transformation of organisations. It gives researchers the opportunity to put their expertise to the benefit of society as freelance consultants.

And also:

PhD Coffee Time!

Join Vera for a virtual coffee to improve your PhD research!

Currently a postdoctoral researcher in marine biology at IFREMER, Vera Chan has set up a youtube channel PhD Coffee Time to share her own experience as a researcher and to  provide support to PhD students with the common challenges they are likely to encounter during their PhD studies.

Vera’s videos have lots of tips and they are a great watch whilst having a coffee break !

here is the link to her channel

 

The following Twitter accounts deal with the career development of researchers as well as with topics related to their situation.

  • ABG : Recruitment and career development of doctoral candidates and PhD holders - @ABG_Asso.
  • MAASCC (Mission, Accueil, Accompagnement et Suivi des Carrières des Chercheurs) : Institut Pasteur’s Career Development Centre. - @MAASCC_Pasteur
  • Beyond the Professoriate : Professional development for PhD holders - @beyondProf
  • Jennifer Polk, PhD : Coaching for PhDs to explore careers - @FromPhDtoLife
  • MT180 (Ma Thèse en 180 secondes) : This account promotes the annual competition organised by CNRS and CPU in which PhD students have 3 minutes maximum to present their research subject clearly and convincingly to the general public. Taking part in this competition is very useful to PhD students as being able to convince others of the value of one’s work succinctly is an excellent preparation for recruitment interviews. @MT180FR
  • PhDTalent : Every year, in Paris, PhD Talent organises the largest fair dedicated to PhDs in Europe. The next fair is on 18th October 2019. @PhDTalent
  • Adoc Talent Management : recruitment consulting agency specialising in the career development and recruitment of PhD holders. - @AdocTM