Building a career beyond academia. Postdoctoral positions are not guaranteed, which is why Career Swifters aims to empower doctoral candidates to secure employment opportunities beyond the confines of academia. Throughout the program, PhDs not only master essential skills for a successful career transition but also gain the resources needed to thrive in a variety of career opportunities outside the academic sphere.
Career Swifters is a dynamic, step-by-step career program designed for PhD candidates actively pursuing their next professional opportunity. Through intensive workshops and one-on-one coaching, a group of up to twelve PhDs gain real-world insights, aligning their goals and ambitions with the world beyond academia.
What makes Career Swifters stand out? Our action-focused approach – we don’t just talk, we apply lessons in real-time. Designed in strong collaboration with industry-experienced PhDs and alumni, Career Swifters trainers have over eight years of experience in tackling the unique challenges and opportunities faced by doctoral candidates willing to transition to the industry.
Due to the increased number of PhD candidates that is nonequivalent to the number of academic positions, doctoral scholars more often have to seek positions outside academia. Additionally, doctoral careers often lack focus on career development support outside academia, leaving candidates to navigate the job market independently. PhD candidates struggle to identify their added value and understand how to position themselves effectively. Excelling in the professional field requires a keen awareness of aligning unique strengths with opportunities present in the labor market. Finding positions beyond the typical ‘consultant’ or ‘researcher’ roles demands understanding their unique skills and knowing how to translate them into business-oriented value and language. This acknowledged gap in PhD tracks correlates to the lack of translation to skills valued by employers. THRIVE seeks to bridge the gap between academia and the professional world by offering PhD training programs.
This is where Career Swifters steps in. Our program is designed to help PhDs manage these challenges, helping them to recognize their strengths, explore diverse career paths, and determine what ignites their passion and purpose. The Career Swifters program offers a solution for the need for universities to aid PhDs in further developing their professional and personal profiles and skills to excel in career opportunities outside their PhD trajectory.
THRIVE offers the Career Swifters Program tailored to PhD candidates in graduate schools across universities in the Netherlands. The program serves as a valuable addition to existing PhD support departments, aiming to empower and guide PhD candidates as they contemplate and navigate potential career opportunities outside academia. By collaborating with universities, we aim to create a supportive environment that not only values academic achievement but also promotes the diverse talents and aspirations of PhD candidates.
Workshop 1: How do you find your purpose?
During the first workshop, we delve into discovering and defining one’s purpose. We explore various career paths beyond academia, and will discover what makes their heart beat faster, what motivates them and what propels them forward.
Workshop 2: What is your dream job?
In the second session, we tackle the question: What is your dream job? We provide insights into different types of companies and organizations, ranging from corporations and startups to non-profits and government entities. Spanning from large to small organizations.
Workshop 3: How do you leverage your transferable skills?
During the third workshop, participants gain insight into their personal and academic qualities through the creation of a skills passport. After pinpointing their skills, we assist in translating them into a business language suitable for CVs, motivation letters, and future job interviews.
Workshop 4: Ready to take action?
The final workshops build on the content of the previous workshop. Recognizing that PhD candidates often hesitate to initiate contact with organizations, this session focuses on providing the tools necessary to pursue their dream job. We work on finalizing essential documents, such as emails, CVs, and motivation letters, while formulating a personalized roadmap to success. This comprehensive approach equips participants with the confidence and resources needed to embark on their professional journey.
Coaching session
Each PhD has access to one hour of online coaching. The personalized coaching session is tailored to their unique needs. Based on their ambitions and requirements, we will match each PhD with a suitable trainer. Whether they prefer a comprehensive review of their final CV or motivation letter or wish to practice a job interview or extend their network, the choice is up to them!
In addition to the core program, we offer universities the flexibility to include up to four additional sessions to further customize the program to their specific requirements. The add-on modules can, for instance, be utilized to delve deeper into positioning as a PhD in governmental organizations, other non-academic contexts or site visits.
Isabelle Hommes
Isabelle is one of our program managers within the THRIVE PhD Academy. She is passionate about unveiling personal drivers and connecting these drivers to career opportunities. Her experience with the PhD programs within the PhD Academy allows her to continuously optimize and refine the program structure and implementation.
Daphne Truijens
Daphne is the founder of the THRIVE PhD Academy. Her passion and expertise in evidence-based policy drive her to translate insights from research to practical insights, ideas, and tools. As a former PhD, she is highly equipped to identify key opportunities for PhDs ready to take the next step in their career outside academia.
Juliëtte Boughouf
As one of the founders of THRIVE Institute, Juliëtte is passionate about translating academic knowledge into practical insights that propel societal transition. In the Career Swifters program, Juliëtte utilizes her knowledge and entrepreneurial do-er mindset and attitude to help PhDs translate their unique, highly sought-after profiles to non-academic contexts.
THRIVE collaborates with universities across the Netherlands, including the University of Amsterdam and Erasmus University Rotterdam, successfully guiding PhDs into careers in research, government, and beyond.
THRIVE Institute is the knowledge institute for the purpose economy: an economy in which not only economic growth but the well-being of people, animals, and the environment is the aim. Driven by the belief that knowledge is the key ingredient for innovation with impact, we offer learning and innovation programs for researchers that revolve around learning in practice together with relevant stakeholders.
The THRIVE PhD Academy was founded for and by PhD researchers. Within the THRIVE PhD Academy, more than 250 PhD researchers and postdocs have been trained to apply their knowledge and skills to excel in non-academic contexts and help solve societal issues. Our PhD programs are continuously optimized with feedback from alumni within industry, government, and academia. The academy is dedicated to equipping young researchers for impactful careers, regardless of whether they choose to remain in academia. Our comprehensive programs are designed to not only enhance the strengths of PhD candidates but also address areas of improvement. Emphasizing the development of skills and mindsets often overlooked during PhD trajectories, our programs focus on developing entrepreneurial skills, real-world project management with tight deadlines, effective teamwork, and adept stakeholder management. We seamlessly integrate these essential skills with the inherent strengths of PhDs. Our goal is to empower researchers with a well-rounded skill set, ensuring they excel in diverse professional environments.
An overview of both conventional and unconventional career paths, while identifying roles that align with personal purpose.
Defining one’s purpose opens the doors to sustainable opportunities outside academia where you thrive.
A proactive hands-on approach, highlighting transferable skill development, enabling opportunities for non-academic career paths.
A tailor-made action plan for career success, aligning unique skills and aspirations with deliberate, strategic steps for professional success.
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