The first edition of the PhD Career Day by the University of Luxembourg took place on 24 January 2023. This event provided PhD candidates or postdoctoral researchers with opportunities to learn more about their career prospects by meeting company representatives face-to-face, get an understanding of what the companies stand for, and look for. Being at the forefront of careers beyond academia, EURAXESS Luxembourg organised two sessions dedicated to building a career outside academia in Luxembourg and to developing your career thanks to mentoring.
During the session dedicated to "Pathways beyond academia", EURAXESS Luxembourg presented three former researchers of the University of Luxembourg who shared their own experience to pursue a career beyond academia:
- Sheila Becker is the Head of Network and Information Systems' Security (NISS). As one of the first students to receive a PhD from the University of Luxembourg's Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT), starting her doctoral work just as the research centre was created, Sheila made her leap to non academia quickly.
- Sebastian Reddeker is the CEO of Luxembourg for Tourism. After completing his PhD at the University of Luxembourg on advertising communication in a multicultural space in 2011, he quickly transitioned to non academia joining Luxembourg Trade Confederation (clc), first as project manager for the Luxembourg programme, the trade centre for the Greater Region, then as a division manager for Villes & Commerce as part of the PRO Commerce Pact, supported by the government before taking on his current role.
Christopher Morse is director of Zortify Labs. He recently gained his PhD from the Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH) where he investigated the application of user experience (UX) design methodologies in the development of next-generation interfaces for museums. According to him, it's important for PhD candidates to think about different ways to present their research and specifically what it means and how it is relevant for people outside academia.
EURAXESS Luxembourg along with Ines Crisostomo, a mentoring programme coordinator at the University of Luxembourg, also organised a session dedicated to mentoring as a way to support the career development of young researchers.
Read more about this event.