Career support for postdocs and researchers

KI Career Service provides support in career related topics such as grant writing, networking, CV and interview training, career planning and much more.

Our number one career advice is to work hard and passionately on your research projects, however, the expression “publish or perish” is well known to most researchers and the competition is high.

This page is meant to provide you with resources and links relevant to postdocs and researchers, so you can find the info you need to work on your own career.

Planning your postdoc

We know that the career leap/transition after a postdoc period can be challenging and thus we strongly recommend you start thinking about what you want to do in your next career step.

What are the skills needed to take you there? Do you know what is required to apply for an assistant researcher position or researcher position? Find out how the postdoc in the lab next to yours ended up being headhunted by a company! Talk to peers and mentors about skill sets needed to take you further towards your career goal.

Keep in mind that the form of contract or scholarship you have will influence not only its duration and salary, but also things like insurance, extension for illness or parental leave and possibilities for future employment, so make sure to read up on the info regarding scholarships and types of positions at KI. There is currently extra info out on the position of "biträdande lektor".

You can find more info on what it entails to be a postdoc at KI on KI's landing page for postdocs, and if you are an international postdoc or researcher, you can find info relevant to you on KI's landing page for international staff.

Career seminars and workshops

All through the year, we organize career related events, seminars and workshops. You can see which events we have planned for the current semester in our own calendar, and find upcoming events by us and others in the general career calendar below it. If you have suggestions of topics you would want us to cover that are not currently offered, feel free to contact us and ask, maybe we can organize something.

The KI library, KIB, regularly organizes seminars and workshops related to performing literature research or calculating your publication metrics, which are announced in the KIB calendar.

Internships

Career Service runs an internship program for postdocs and early career researchers with employment at KI. Companies and organizations propose a project for a three month period, which you can then apply to.

Usually we invite all companies involved to a mingle session at KI, where you will have the opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the internship projects.

The fact that not all postdocs have the interest or get the possibility to stay in an academic career, and the great lack of knowledge about other career options has been the motivation for creating this internship program. The evaluations from postdocs, researchers, companies and organizations participating in the internship program have been very positive, and some of the outcomes listed by the participants have been: increased knowledge about how industry/companies are run, initiation of collaborative research projects, increased network with experts outside academia or in some case job offers.

Stockholm Dual Career Network

Did you move to Sweden for your research or different position at KI, and have a partner who moved with you? Have a look at the Stockholm Dual Career Network, where the partners following along to Sweden can get career support in addition to a social and professional network.

Funding

To be able to perform the research you desire - you need to be able to sell your research project idea to the funding agencies. Many postdocs start their journey to become an independent researcher when they get their first grant application approved. This journey is a developing path and you will start by receiving perhaps smaller travel grants to attend conferences, onto funding of small parts of your research project/idea to the larger ones covering for example your salary/stipend/fellowship.

Your success in attracting funding will play an important role of your promotion towards your next position. Being able to pitch and convince others to invest in your research project could also be a valuable skill required by many companies and organizations.

KI Grants Office provides a valuable newsletter about open calls and what support is offered.

You can access the Pivot-RP database for global funding opportunities, where you can find information about funding to attend scientific events, fellowships or postdoctoral Awards, prizes and awards, scholarships, training, travel grants, collaboration opportunities, and more.
 

Inspiration and guidance

A big hurdle in career development is getting an idea of all of the things you could possibly do, and figuring out what would suit you. Looking out to what others have done can be a place to start. For inspiration both inside and outside academia, you could take a look at the magazine "A PhD can take you anywhere" and the career portraits on our blog. Try to conduct your own informal interviews with people who have jobs you find interesting, and find out what drives them or what it took to get there.

You can also start by looking at the skills you have and the tasks you enjoy doing, and find out which jobs would fit with that. A good start for this is the myIDP (my individual development plan) tool by ScienceCareers. It will not only help you think about your skills, but also give you ideas of which kinds of jobs would fit your skills, or what you need to work on to fit a type of job you would like to pursue.

For more personal career development you can take a look at these Online Career Modules, which help you in many topics ranging from understanding what you want and need, to career decisions and negotiation techniques.

Finally, don't forget the value of one or more mentors when it comes to inspiration and guidance. This could be a senior person in your lab, a professor you look up to, an alumni who just started a company, a mentor provided by a mentorship program, etc. The important thing is that you take initiative and build up a good relationship with your mentor(s).

Need help finding a mentor, or want to become one for a more junior person at KI? Join the KI mentoring platform!
 

Networking

Whether you call it networking or collaborating, you will not benefit from spending your research in isolation. Getting to know people, what they do and what they are looking for will help you find your own path and come up with better ideas, be it in your research or for your career moves. And don't forget to let them know who you are, what you do and what you are looking for either!

Networking IRL and through social media becomes more and more important for academics, and many positions outside academia are being recruited directly through networking and personal contacts.

After finishing any position at KI, all the way from getting a bachelor degree to retiring as a professor, you can join the KI Alumni Network. You can also keep in contact with other KI alums by joining the KI alumni profile on LinkedIn.

Think about how you can help and what you can offer people within your network. This will be the start of you getting a return of investment, for example learning a new technique from a co-worker, getting information about job openings or perhaps being offered to be part in a collaboration project. Conferences are great places for networking, however, do not forget to network within your department and at events organized at KI.
 

Using social media for your career

Many social media tools such as LinkedIn, Facebook or ResearchGate are all great resources to facilitate your network, sharing knowledge and learning about job openings. Use the tools that suit you.

Connect to us by liking our Facebook Page where we share information about events, internship projects, career blogs, open positions and much more.

If you are interested in exploring popular science writing you can apply to become a blogger on the Karolinska Institutet Career Blog run by us at KI Career Service.

Karolinska Institutet has a University and a company page on Linkedin and there is also a KI Instagram account that is open to students and employed coworkers at KI.

The Communications and Public Relations Office has published more information for staff about social media and guidelines.
 

CV and LinkedIn

When you look for jobs you will need CVs. We collected some general tips on how to write a CV, and sometime organize seminars related to CV writing. Keep your eye on our calendar and course catalogue.

Whether you like social media or not, LinkedIn is an important tool when it comes to job seeking. Most jobs are not communicated through ads, but actually through contacts, and in contrast to a CV, your LinkedIn profile is always online and you can not tailor it to a specific job ad, so put some thought into it. Read some tips for your LinkedIn profile here. 

KI offers current students the opportunity to receive personal feedback on their CV, cover letter, or LinkedIn profile by job experts via our partner-company Go Monday. Within 24 hours after submitting your CV, cover letter, or LinkedIn profile to Go Monday, they will digitally send you personal feedback on how you can improve your application to get your dream job.

Innovation and entrepreneurship

Have you made a discovery you would like to patent? Do you want to start a company? Or do you just have general questions related to intellectual property and innovation? The people at KI Innovations can help you out.

For education and research on innovation and entrepreneurship you can turn to the Unit for Bioentrepreneurship (UBE), which is part of the LIME department. You can read on an experience with a UBE workshop and the resulting thoughts on what it means to be an entrepreneur in one of our blog posts.

Another resource on entrepreneurship is the Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship (SSES), which also offer courses for doctoral students.

Job opportunities

For job openings right here, you can turn to KI's main page for jobs at KI.

For jobs outside of KI, you can look at

• The jobs/career page of the specific university / company / organization website
• Job listing sites
• Services mentioned above, like GoinGlobal and EURAXESS
• Recruiting / consulting companies
• Your personal network, like former lab-members, collaborators, friends,... (don't underestimate this!)

We also sporadically share job opportunities in our newsletter.
 

GoinGlobal

Thinking of going abroad, or maybe Sweden is "abroad" for you? Then you might need tips on the working culture of the country, adaptations to CV, etc. GoinGlobal is a platform with country profiles, job adds, internship tips, employer overviews and more, and thanks to our subscription with then you can enter it form free by logging in with your KI credentials. You can also create your own profile after that, to set personalized notifications and save searchers. Need help getting started? They have training sessions explaining the platform.

Understanding the academic positions at KI

An academic career is often a very international one. However, the exact positions and what they entail look different between countries, so it might be a good idea to make yourself familiar with the different positions that exist at KI and the Career structure for academic staff.
 

Information on how to obtain a Postdoctoral certificate

In case you need a proof of your postdoctoral time at KI (for example because you had an external stipend and have no KI employment contract to show to a next employer), fill out the example of the Postdoctoral Certificate_Example.docx (see below), and send it to Head of your Department (and Head of Administration) for it to be signed.
We advise to send the application form and the Postdoctoral Certification with some time in advance before finishing your work at KI.
More information on Head of Departments/Prefekt and Head of administration at KI.

Contact

Questions? Email career-service@ki.se or come to one of our 1:1 sessions!