A PhD is more than a research project - it’s the foundation of your future career. But building a sustainable academic pathway can be difficult and it’s also not what every PhD student neccessarily wants. This face-to-face workshops is about giving PhD students the tools, structure, and confidence to design a personalised career development plan that supports doctoral progress and long‑term career aspirations both inside and outside of academia. Crafting a successful career requires clarity, strategy, and a deep understanding of who you are becoming as a researcher.
What You Will Learn
How self‑awareness, opportunity awareness, networks & relationships, decision‑making skills, and transversal skills shape career success during and after your PhD.
About modern academic working identity and how our personal working identities are influenced by our motivations, choices and impact our career direction.
How to identify gaps in your current skillset and map them to future career goals.
The importance of building strong networks and social capital to support your career progression.
How to set meaningful goals that align with your values, strengths, and research vision.
The diverse career paths open to PhD graduates and current research about PhD graduate employability.
What You Will Do
Map your strengths, values, motivations, and working preferences using guided reflective exercises.
Craft a personal mission statement that captures who you are and the impact you want to make.
Complete a skills self‑assessment focused on both academic and transferrable skills.
Conduct a rapid critical review of your current network - identify mentors, sponsors, collaborators, and community connections.
Plan to sense‑check your goals with mentors and peers.
You’ll leave with a draft of your personalised career development plan, including research goals, skill‑building goals, networking goals, and a plan to keep yourself accountable to achieve your goals.
Who This Workshop Is For
PhD students seeking clarity, direction, or momentum who want to become more intentional with their career development. Students who feel unsure about their next steps and want a structured, supportive space to plan.
Please note:
The venue is TBC but will be located centrally in the Melbourne CBD near to public transport.
To keep ticket costs down, this event is not catered.
This face‑to‑face workshop gives early‑career academics the structure, tools, and confidence to write a personalised career development plan that supports their research and teaching ambitions while covering their broader personal growth. It is about being intentional with your career skill development, building resilience and adaptability to ensure employability in a complex, competitive and changing higher education landscape.
What You Will Learn
How self‑awareness, opportunity awareness, networks & relationships, decision‑making skills, and transversal skills shape career success.
About modern academic working identity and how our personal working identities are influenced by our motivations, choices and impact our career direction.
How to identify gaps in your current skillset and map them to future career goals.
The importance of building strong networks and social capital to support your career progression.
How to set meaningful goals that align with your values, strengths, and research vision.
What You Will Do
Map your strengths, values, motivations, and working preferences using guided reflective exercises.
Craft a personal mission statement that captures who you are and the impact you want to make.
Complete a skills self‑assessment focused on both academic and transferrable skills.
Conduct a rapid critical review of your current network - identify mentors, sponsors, collaborators, and community connections.
Plan to sense‑check your goals with mentors and peers.
You’ll leave with a draft of your personalised career development plan, including research goals, skill‑building goals, networking goals, and a plan to keep yourself accountable to achieve your goals.
Who This Workshop Is For
Early career academics seeking clarity, direction, or momentum who want to become more intentional with their career development. Anyone feeling unsure about their next steps and wanting a structured, supportive environment to reflect and plan on their career goals.
Please note:
The venue is the Adele Goldberg Boardroom on Level 2 of Donkey Wheel House (673 Bourke Street)
To keep ticket prices lower, this event is not catered.
Nearly 80% of early career academics have thought about a career change in the past 5-years.
The Postdoc Pivot workshop is designed for academics who want to explore new career possibilities, understand their strengths, and learn the tools needed to build confidence and clarity around what their new direction will be.
Drawing on contemporary research, real-world case studies, and a practical, experiment‑driven approach to career development, this workshop helps academics rethink what a “successful career” can look like - in academia or beyond it.
Across four interconnected themes, you’ll build the foundations for a confident and informed career transition.
This is an interactive, hands‑on workshop. You’ll engage in:
Career mapping & storytelling
Skills and values exploration
Identifying and designing career experiments
Exploring networking strategies
You’ll leave with a clearer sense of direction, a shortlist of “possible selves,” and a practical plan for your next steps.
Major career transitions take time often between 2–5 years. They require both emotional and strategic work. This workshop gives you the tools, frameworks, and support to navigate that process with intention. You’ll learn how to leverage your strengths, and the steps needed to build a career that aligns with who you are becoming.
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