Naturejobs comes to Germany

The latest Naturejobs careers expo, hosted in Düsseldorf in association with Jobvector, was a huge success, with over 1300 jobseekers in attendance to hear from the experts in both industry and academia. Set in the Classic Remise car exhibition, the expo was a great opportunity for jobseekers, employers and speakers to rub shoulders, shake hands, and network professionally whilst enjoying the machinery on show right next to them.

Delegates could choose to wander around the car exhibition, listen to talks hosted by Jobvector and Naturejobs, get a professional photo taken for their CVs (and then bring it to the CV checking workshop), get their photo taken again at the #ScientistAtWork photo booth, and meet exhibitors from 35 separate businesses and organisations based in Germany and worldwide.

Over in the Naturejobs workshops the crowd first heard Professor Kiril Sotirovski, of the University of Skopje, explain how to use online networking tools to boost your career. He talked about the huge impact that networks have on a career, and the best ways to get ahead by using them.

The next speaker was Tim Maschuw of the Germany Academic Exchange Service. He brought his considerable experience into his talk, and explained to the audience (furiously scribbling notes) on the best ways to find funding for early career scientists. Elsewhere, Dr Vincent Mignotte explained why it’s important to build a career plan that suits you, and how to find the right balance between what you think, what you feel, and what, deep down, you want.

Over at the other side of the exhibition, Tobias Shumann – a PhD student at Heinrich-Heine University – was grilled in a live interview for a postdoc position by Jana von Puttkamer of Boehringer Ingelheim as the crowd watched. He didn’t get the job, but both he and the crowd learnt a lot from deconstructing the interview afterwards.

Back to the other side of the expo (near the Lamborghinis), Dr Barbara Janssens of DKFZ explained the best way for postdocs to plan their career in academia, starting with working out exactly what you want, and finishing on how to get it. Making an individual development plan, and being honest with it and yourself, is immensely important. As is getting your supervisor on side – they need to be invested in your career as well.

Next door, Christoph Schmitt from the Nature Communications team spoke to a packed room on transforming your research into great papers that anyone would want to read, as part of the Nature Masterclasses initiative.

Finally, Dr Janssens’ colleague from DKFZ, Marion Gürth, spoke about the importance of personal branding and social networks in finding a job, as well as reeling out some cheat sheets for those hoping to take advantage of LinkedIn.

We had a great time at the Naturejobs career expo this year, and we’re sure you did too. Thanks for checking out the blog, and we’ll see you next time in San Francisco on April 27^th, Boston on May 18^th, or London on September 16^th. You can check out our gallery of the event here.

Happy job-hunting.