Career Day
First Career Day of the Manchot Graduate School
On March, 4th 2016 the Manchot Graduate School ‘Molecules of infection II’ hosted a Career Day for its members and colleagues.
Invited guests from different areas of the professional world open to biology graduates, i.e. industry, the government, law firms, and consulting, participated in the event, and provided a broad overview of how diverse and exciting the job market for biologists has become.
Professor Hegemann, the Coordinator of the Graduate School, welcomed everyone to University House in downtown Düsseldorf and expressed his hope for an inspiring and informative day.
The invited guests gave short presentations on their professional experiences and the trajectories that have led them to their current positions, and described the challenges that motivate them. After every short session there was time to have more personal conversations with the speakers. Open round-table discussions gave everyone the opportunity to ask more detailed questions. These round tables were especially successful, because students and speakers could interact in a very informal setting that stimulated very lively and inspiring interactions. There were 4 sessions in total, covering a variety of interesting job opportunities for biologists. We heard for example from a DNA expert at the LKA (State Bureau of Criminal Investigation), a patent lawyer in training, a trainer and coach for large companies, a departmental head in local government and other professionals filling a variety of positions of larger and smaller companies.
Funding for the event was kindly provided by the Manchot Foundation.
After the last session Prof. Hegemann underlined the importance of such events in providing well founded information and orientation on career development for young researchers. He congratulated those who had helped to make this Career Day such a great success and looked forward to an equally successful repeat of the event in the next round of MOI.
Special thanks again from the organizers to the Manchot Foundation for supporting this special event which helped to shift our perspectives, and of course to all the inspiring guests who agreed to take part in it. Last but not least, we acknowledge the members of the organizational team, who put a lot of work into the planning and arrangement of this event, and helped to make it so successful.