The Career Center for Postdocs and Doctoral Students is the Helmholtz Munich's central point of contact for all young researchers seeking coaching and/or guidance for their (future) career paths. With the help of extensive talent promotion and a solid career development strategy, we are able to cover all areas ranging from doctoral education to junior team leaders on a tenure track.

Our main goal is to enable you, as young scientists, to develop a sense of your own strengths, values and interests, and thereby being able to determine your best career path - regardless of whether this path keeps you in academia or takes you elsewhere.

The Career Center is a safe and confidential space for you to explore your options.

The Career Center team offers a variety of services, including, but not limited to,

• individual one-on-one coaching sessions,
• workshops enabling you to build your own personal brand or write an interview-winning CV,
• inspiring career talks by former peers or other successful researchers, giving personal insights into different career options.

We also have a wide-range of resources at hand, to help guide and support you on your career path.

The Career Center supports you in many aspects. Together, we will

• explore your talents, interests, values and skills,
• review your career chances and options,
• develop a career plan, and
• optimize your application documents.

The list of what we can do for you is not endless, but it is very extensive! Contact us with any questions you may have and we will do our very best to support you.

One-on-One Coaching Session

The individual One-on-One coaching sessions are a format most commonly used to cover certain topics in detail. In general, you as coachee, can book, on average, up to three sessions (60 minutes each) with one of our Career Coaches. During your sessions, you can discuss 

• strengths, values, interests, skills,
• potential career paths,
• specific job applications, the related process and documents,
• any other queries you may have in regard to your career development.

As the One-on-One coaching sessions are available by appointment only, please schedule one here.

Online Walk-In Session

Online Walk-In sessions are - as the name already states - coaching sessions which do not require an appointment and have a maximum duration of 30 minutes. These short slots are ideal for young researchers, who 

• would like a quick check of their CVs and cover letters,
• have a question regarding their professional status, or
• have career-related questions, that do not - at this point in time - require indepth support.

Times and links to our virtual coaching rooms can be found here.

Please note that our one-one-one coaching sessions, as well as our workshops are in demand. In order to maximize availability for all members of our target groups (doctoral researchers and postdocs), please adhere to our cancellation policies:

One-on-One Coaching Cancellation Policy

If you fail to keep an appointment unexcused (i.e. do not show up, arrive more than 15 minutes late), you cannot book another appointment for four weeks. Please call us or write an email (careercenter@helmholtz-muenchen.de) at least one business day in advance.

Workshop Participation Cancellation Policy

Many of our workshops, especially those related to CV and Cover Letter Writing, are in extremely high demand, with workshops being fully booked and waiting lists filling up within an hour of opening registration. Therefore, it is only fair to your peers, that you cancel your participation in the workshop via email (careercenter@helmholtz-muenchen.de), at least one business day prior to the workshop taking place. This way, people on the waiting list will have a chance to take part instead and the spot is not wasted. Should you fail to do so, you will not be able to partake in workshops offered by the Career Center for eight weeks.

This is also valid for workshops consisting of more than one part (i.e. our 2-part CV Workshop), where participation in both (all) parts is mandatory upon registration. Should you not show up unexcused for the second (remaining) part(s), you will also not be allowed to participate in upcoming Career Center workshops for the following eight weeks.

We coach all doctoral researchers and postdocs with an Helmholtz Munich contract.

In general, we find that doctoral researchers and postdocs require approximately three coaching sessions, in order to receive all the help they require. Of course this number can vary, ranging from anywhere from one to six coaching sessions, depending on what your individual requirements actually are.

Yes, all coaching sessions are completely confidential. Information given here will not be shared with anyone else.

No, we do not. However, we do offer company visits on a regular basis (once the pandemic situation is over, we will return to this format), where you will receive opportunities for networking and professional exchange.

Our one-on-one coaching sessions are in demand. If you fail to keep an appointment unexcused (i.e. do not show up, arrive more than 15 minutes late), you cannot book another appointment for four weeks. Please call us or write an email (careercenternoSp@m@helmholtz-muenchen.de) at least one business day in advance.

Our review services for your CVs and cover letters focus primarily on content and layout, not on grammar or spellchecks. We will, of course, also give guidance on what to focus on in these important application documents, as well as supporting you in fine-tuning these to specific job advertisements. However, we do encourage you to reach out to peers, friends and family, when the time for reviewing and editing your CV and cover letter has come.

Further, we will also offer workshops on these topics and we are positive that you will benefit immensely when participating in them.

Receiving an invitation to an interview is a wonderful thing - congratulations on mastering this first hurdle! As we all know, as exciting as this is, it can also be scary.

In order to best prepare you for this next step on your career path, you can always book a One-on-One Coaching Session and ask us to carry out a mock interview with you. Please note that this does take some time, so reach out as soon as you are need of this, so that we can support you as much as possible.

Of course you can also visit our Online Walk-In Sessions, if you only have short questions.

If you are confident that you have convincing application documents and just require someone to briefly review these, you are very welcome to drop in on one of our Online Walk-In Sessions. Please have the documents ready that you would like reviewed, as well as the job advertisement that you are applying to.

All information on our upcoming events (career talks, webinars, workshops, etc.) can be found here. Please scroll through the calender using the >> button in the top right corner and click on dates with grey backgrounds, to find out what is happening in the coming months. Information on past events can be found similarly, by clicking on the << button in the top left corner of the calender.

As we offer a variety of different event formats, we have also compiled a list of respective definitions, that can be found here.

The simple answer to this question is "yes". As all events are currently only available online, we require you to register for all events, using the provided link in the event description. Once the event is about to take place, you will receive the respective link, in order to participate.

As some events also have a maximum number of participants, you will need to register in order to make sure that you can take part.

Lastly, for internal quality assurance measures, we also require you to register using your email, so that we are able to carry out evaluations after the event has taken place.

Many of our workshops, especially those related to CV and Cover Letter Writing, are in extremely high demand, with workshops being fully booked and waiting lists filling up within an hour of opening registration. Therefore, it is only fair to your peers, that you cancel your participation in the workshop via email (careercenternoSp@m@helmholtz-muenchen.de), at least one business day prior to the workshop taking place. This way, people on the waiting list will have a chance to take part instead and the spot is not wasted. Should you fail to do so, you will not be able to partake in workshops offered by the Career Center for eight weeks.

This is also valid for workshops consisting of more than one part (i.e. our 2-part CV Workshop), where participation in both (all) parts is mandatory upon registration. Should you not show up unexcused for the second (remaining) part(s), you will also not be allowed to participate in upcoming Career Center workshops for the following eight weeks.