This session offers a dedicated opportunity to reflect on where you are in your career, assess the skills and experiences you’ve acquired, and consider how to strategically shape your next steps for the future.
- Date(s)
- October 30, 2025
- Location
- Seminar Room, First Floor, 63 University Road
- Time
- 11:00 - 15:00
- Price
- Free
Content
As the academic year unfolds, it’s essential to carve out time for thoughtful reflection, not only on your current research projects but also on your broader career trajectory and personal development. For research staff and postdoctoral fellows, who often navigate complex academic and professional landscapes, this moment of pause can provide critical clarity and direction.
In the fast-paced world of research, it’s easy to get absorbed in experiments, publications, and grant applications, overlooking the importance of stepping back to evaluate your progress and future goals. This session offers a dedicated opportunity to reflect deeply on where you are in your career, assess the skills and experiences you’ve acquired, and consider how to strategically shape your next steps, whether that means pursuing an academic career, transitioning to industry, or exploring alternative career paths.
Course Overview
This workshop is tailored to support research staff and postdoctoral fellows in navigating their unique career challenges and opportunities, focusing on:
- Introspection:
Reflect on your personal and professional journey - who you are as a researcher, how your experiences have shaped you, and what strengths and insights you want to carry forward. Explore your academic achievements alongside your broader career ambitions. - Lifestyle, Values, and Work-Life Integration:
Examine how your personal values and lifestyle goals intersect with your career choices. Consider factors like work-life balance, geographic flexibility, and the importance of meaningful work in your decision-making process. - Skills Audit and Contribution Mapping:
Take stock of your current skill set, including technical expertise, project management, leadership, collaboration, and communication skills. Identify how your contributions have advanced your research group, institution, or broader scientific community, and pinpoint areas where you want to grow. - Career Pathways and Market Awareness:
Understand the evolving demands of both academic and non-academic job markets. Explore transferable skills such as entrepreneurial thinking, commercial awareness, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Gain insight into emerging career opportunities beyond the traditional postdoc-to-faculty pipeline, including roles in industry, government, policy, and science communication.
By the end of this workshop, you will have a clearer sense of your career identity, a better understanding of the skills needed to thrive in various pathways, and a strategic mindset for planning your future with confidence and intention.
This course has been organised as part of the Research Culture NI project, generously funded by Wellcome.
Places on this course are limited. In the event of oversubscription we will maintain a waiting list and contact the next person on the list if a place becomes available.
If you want to be notified of future events, please email pdc@qub.ac.uk.
Facilitator
Jill Wright | Research Careers and Employability Officer, QUB
Jill is Research Careers and Employability Officer within the Research Culture team at Queen's University Belfast, as part of the Wellcome-funded Research Culture NI project. Her role involves preparing postdocs across both Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University for future career transitions through delivering a suite of training and development opportunities to enhance skills and helping postdocs explore alternate career paths outside of academia, supporting them with job applications and interview preparation. Her role also involves engaging with employers across NI who are employers of postdocs and those that are new to the conversation to promote the talent pool of postdocs that we have in Northern Ireland across our two universities.
Before joining the Research Culture team in June 2024, Jill worked in the private sector and brings with her extensive experience in early career development as well as running employability programmes in partnership with government bodies and local higher education institutions. Jill has established relationships with Queens and Ulster as a previous key graduate employer.
- Department
- Postdoctoral Development Centre
- Audience
- Academics / Researchers
- Venue Information
- Yes
- Add to calendar
| Name | Postdoctoral Development Centre |
| pdc@qub.ac.uk | |
| Website | https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/pdc/ |