Call for the Career Mentoring Programme 

In your CV, you should illustrate your professional development up to this point, your educational background including further training, and your interests and commitments outside of work.

Your letter of motivation should adress the following points:

• Why is the programme particularly helpfull for you at this point in your career? Please describe your current questions and challenges as detailed as possible. In addition address how you would benefit from the programme.
• What career options do you consider after finishing your PhD? Why are these career paths of particular interest to you – also concerning your interests and strengths? Which questions have you identified regarding these career paths?
• What do you contribute with your profile as potential participant to the programme?

In the application form, please explain your expectation of a potential mentor and mentoring in general. 

• Motivation for the aspired career in industry and society
• Expectation, engagement and self-initiative conform with the requirements of the mentoring programme
• The participation in all programme components is achievable
• The programme matches with the applicant´s career stage

Trainings and workshops will be held in English. The mentoring and networking activities can take place in German as well as in English. Of course, we try to take your knowledge into account when putting the groups together.

The groups are put together in the so-called matching process. As part of the application, mentees already submit a lot of information about their future career plans and expectations of the programme. After the successful application, there is the possibility to revise this information and their preferences during the preparatory workshop. In the matching process, the peer groups and the groups of mentees and mentors are put together. We aim to take the expectations of all participants into account as much as possible. However there is no guarantee that suitable mentors or peer group constellations will be found.

For successful participation in the "Career Mentoring Programme", attendance of the following workshop is a prerequisite:

• Preparatory workshop // 23.01.2025 // 9:00-17:00 // presence
  Within the workshop you will learn about various tools to clarify and achieve your career goals. It will address the job market outside of academia and how to identify your skills and abilities. You will learn how to support each other via peer interaction and how to structure the communication with your mentor. We will clarify your goals for the program and work on a clear plan to translate them into action.The workshop will be held in English.

If you already know at the time of application that you will not be able to attend the workshop, please indicate in your application.

In the first two cohorts of the career mentoring programme, there were one-to-one mentoring tandem pairs, i.e. there was an individual relationship between mentee and mentor. However, the evaluation of the first two cohorts showed that the exchange among peers has great potential for one's own career development. That is why we decided to strengthen peer exchange and focus on peer and group mentoring.