This Peer to Peer Groupcoaching offers you a supportive and collaborative environment where you can foster your professional and personal growth together with a fixed group of peers and under the facilitation of an experienced career coach.

Why Career Coaching?

You are a Postdoc who is wondering how to best deal with career challenges both in the present, as well as the near future?

You are dealing with issues such as:

• Networking and how to build successful relationships
• Analyzing and reflecting on possible career scenarios for the next years
• Values: what is important to you, where do you want to make an impact?
• How to find back creativity and joy
• Rejection and failures
• Making important career decisions
• Becoming aware of your core strengths
• Doing research in a challenging setting
• Time management (e.g. compatibility of family and career)
• How to relax under pressure and become more friendly with yourself

You rarely seem to find the time to deal with these questions? Let alone on a regular basis? Then this Groupcoaching is for you!

How will you benefit from the Groupcoaching?

• Diverse perspectives from researchers from different backgrounds, experiences and departments.
• Support, accountability and encouragement from group members. Share your successes and setbacks with peers, maintain motivation and accountability, increasing the likelihood of achieving your goals.
• Sense of community: you and your peers build meaningful connections and share similar aspirations.
• Skill building in group dynamics: you have the opportunity to improve self awareness, interpersonal skills, communication, and empathy. These skills are valuable in both personal and professional settings.
• Multiple perspectives on challenges: When facing individual obstacles, your peers can brainstorm and offer various solutions. This collaborative problem solving approach often leads to more comprehensive and innovative solutions.

How is it organized?

• The Peer to Peer group meets seven times; two whole day meetings on site to start and finish and five virtual meetings, each 3 hours, in between. Throughout the sessions, all Postdocs partake in a check in round where they have the opportunity to voice the difficulties and obstacles they are facing in their journey. During each session, the participants' specific problems are addressed and tackled.
• Those encountering challenges are given the chance to receive valuable input and feedback from both fellow peers and the career advisor. At the end of the session, each participant shares their focal points and improvement goals for the period leading up to the next meeting. The following session involves reviewing the progress made towards achieving these goals, as well as suggesting resolutions, next steps, and exercises.
• In addition to the group meetings, every participant is paired with an accountability partner. This partnership involves exchanging updates, providing feedback, and offering motivation.
• You will also have the chance to schedule one 1:1 call of 45 minutes with your career coach to receive support in an individual setting.

Input

Regular inputs from the trainer on topics such as career planning, application and negotiation strategies and much more complement the coaching. In addition, topic-related seminars can be offered on request.

Format

• max. 8 participants, fixed group
• 1 introductory workshop with input (8 hours)
• 5 virtual coaching sessions (3 hours)
• 1:1 coaching sessions with the coach (45 minutes)
• 1 closing workshop with input (8 hours)

Trainer

Meike Rottermann, opens an external URL in a new window

Application

Interested parties are requested to send an email application to stefanie.madsen@tuwien.ac.at (max. 1 A4 page in English) including

• letter of motivation with goals to be achieved by attending the Career Coaching Cycle
• remaining contract duration at TU Wien
• research unit at TU Wien

Participants are expected to attend at least 75% of all appointments.

The next Career Coaching Cycle will start in spring 2025. You will be informed in good time about the application date via mail.