The motives for taking up a postdoc position after completing a doctorate vary greatly. In addition to young scientists who have clearly decided on an academic career, there are many postdocs who take up such a position because they are approached for a postdoc position, because they enjoy the work or because they don't really know what else to do.

 
As a postdoc, you then experience not only that you work a lot and thus have little time for your own self-reflection, but also that you are alone with your questions about your professional future, and that it sometimes even seems disastrous to think out loud about alternatives.

 
You look back enviously on the structured doctoral training and the opportunity for networking and wish for systematic staff development, which unfortunately is still far from being a matter of course everywhere.

It is all the more important that you become clear about your own situation and that you examine and realistically assess from time to time both your scientific and your personal development. Such a look at your own track record will protect you from making wrong or no decisions and save you from a professional dead end.

 
The central module of the KEPOS offer is therefore a workshop to determine your current position. In small groups, we work with the participants to examine their professional development to date, develop their competence profile and illustrate the steps that need to be taken in order to start clear career planning. The workshop results are deepened and consolidated in orientation consultations, so that the participants can draw up a plan of action for themselves. Developing realistic career goals and taking advantage of appropriate continuing education opportunities are part of this planning.

The outcomes can be deepened in one-on-one advice sessions and in the possibility of gaining access to company networks via KEPOS, which create initial opportunities for contact.