Call for the Career Mentoring Programme 2025

In your CV, you should illustrate your professional development up to this point, your educational background including further training, and your interests and commitments outside of work.

Your letter of motivation should adress the following points:

• Why is the programme particularly helpful for you at this point in your career? Please describe your current questions and challenges as detailed as possible. In addition, explain how you would benefit from the programme.
• What career options do you consider after finishing your PhD? Why are these career paths of particular interest to you – also concerning your interests and strengths? Which questions have you identified regarding these career paths?
• How can your fellow mentees and the programme in general benefit from your skills and knowledge?

Please use the application form to outline your expectations of a potential mentor and the programme as a whole.

• Motivation for the aspired career in industry and society
• Expectations conform with the topics addressed by the mentoring programme
• The applicant shows initiative and commitment to every component of the programme
• The participation in all programme components is achievable
• The programme matches with the applicant´s career stage

For successful participation in the "Career Mentoring Programme", attendance of the following events is a prerequisite:

• Preparatory workshop // 16.01.2026 // 9:00-17:00 // in person
  During the workshop, you will learn about various tools to clarify and achieve your career goals. It will address the job market outside of academia and help you to identify your skills and abilities. You will learn how to support each other via peer interaction and how to structure the communication with your mentor. We will clarify your goals for the programme and work on a clear plan to translate them into action. The workshop will be held in English.
• Opening Ceremony // 24.02.2026 // 18:00-21:00 // in person
  During the event, we will officially welcome the cohort of 2026 into the mentoring programme. At the same time, the cohort of 2025 will have their farewell ceremony. After the official part, you will have the opportunity to socialise and get to know the previous mentees as well as (re-)connect with your peers. The informal part of the evening will be accompanied by drinks and finger food. The event will be held in English.

If you already know that you will not be able to attend the workshop, please indicate this in your application.

The groups are put together in the so-called matching process. As part of the application, mentees already submit information about their future career plans and expectations of the programme. After the successful application, there is the possibility to revise this information and their preferences during the preparatory workshop. In the matching process, the peer groups and the groups of mentees and mentors are put together. We aim to take the expectations of all participants into account as much as possible. However, there is no guarantee that suitable mentors or peer group constellations will be found.

In the first two cohorts of the career mentoring programme, there were one-to-one mentoring tandem pairs, i.e. there was an individual relationship between mentee and mentor. However, the evaluation of the first two cohorts showed that the exchange among peers has more potential for one's own career development. That is why we decided to strengthen peer exchange and focus on peer and group mentoring.

Workshops and networking events will be held in English. The mentoring activities can take place in German as well as in English. Of course, we try to take your knowledge into account when putting the groups together.