Mentoring and Coaching for Postdocs

Postdocs usually find impulses for qualification and career development opportunities from colleagues and supervisors in their working group or within their overall professional network.

A mentor is usually a scientist who already has a head start in professional experience, and who will support you in various roles (e.g. role model, advisor, critic, promoter) on your further career path and who can offer another (possibly external) view of your current professional situation.

A mentoring relationship will be especially helpful when you have some specific questions in mind (typically regarding your career) that you want to solve for yourself, for example

• As a new postdoc on my first project, how do I organise myself arround finishing my doctoral project, working on my new postdoc project and already planning the second postdoc project?
• I would like to have my own research group eventually. What do I need to do? Which skills do I need, which contacts may help? How many first-authored publications will I need?
• Being an advisor to Master/doctoral researchers myself, how can I learn to be a good mentor for them? Who could serve as a role model for me?
• I would like to become a professor and have children at the same time. Is this even possible?

Of course there are many different questions you might have.

A (professional) coach is someone who has been trained to support people in discovering their own potential and in developing strategies to achieve their goals. A coach always stays in the position of non-judgement. They will help you to identify potential problems and find solutions with respect to your personality.

Coaching is a usually a process with a limited time-frame which you will discuss with the coach. A typical set-up is 5 sessions, with 90 minutes each. Sometimes one session can be sufficient, especially when you need some SOS help. This all depends on your needs.

Meeting with a coach can be helpful when you are in a situation (or are facing one) that you feel uncertain or insecure about, for example

• You would really like to continue working in science but so many obstacles seem to be between you and an academic career. You are just not sure what you really want anymore. The aim of a coaching could be to gain clarity about career and life goals.
• You are co-supervising a PhD student who has a different working morale than you. You have no clue how to motivate the student to become more engaged. The aim of a coaching could be to develop a strategy and an attitude for your own mentoring style.
• You feel you have problems communicating with your supervisor. She/he constantly seems to have different expectations than you. You asked them for a meeting and now you are afraid of this meeting. The aim of a coaching could be to find out what you expect from your supervisor and what you want for yourself and to develop a strategy to communicate this to them.
• You have been successful with a funding proposal and are invited for an interview. You want to make a very confident impression on your potential new employer. The aim of a coaching could be to develop an atttitude that makes you feel confident and to practice the interview in a role game.

Of course these are just examples. There are many other situations where a coach may be helpful.

If you are look­ing for a dif­fer­ent type of coach­ing, you are wel­come to con­tact the ECR support. We will be happy to find an in­di­vidual solu­tion for you.