Consultancy Anda-Lisa Harmening - Graduate Center of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Career and career advice for doctoral candidates, postdocs and junior professors

Would you like to reflect on your current professional situation (together)?
Are you wondering which career path is right for you and how you can organise it?

I would be happy to advise you with regard to your individual (academic or non-academic) career planning. In order to make good career decisions, you should analyse your professional profile. This cannot happen soon enough, for example in the first third of the doctoral phase. When determining your profile, we focus on your individual competences and the values that are relevant to you. We will determine these in the course of the career counselling. The counselling also allows you to reflect on your current (professional) situation. We use the profile, consisting of your personal values and your skills, to sound out the scope for change and development prospects . Together, we also determine your current and target situationand set milestones and goals to achieve them. We take a holistic view of your situation. Successful professional development is not just about the requirements and tasks at work, but also affects our lives as a whole, including your personal and private situation. This holistic approach is the starting point of my counselling.

General conditions of my counselling: confidential, independent, solution-focused, supportive

Confidential and independent. I orientate myself towards the person seeking advice, regardless of their career goal. This includes I do not pass on any information about you, not even to employees of the university. This also means that I do not promote a particular career path, but instead focus on your needs.
I work in a solution-focussed way.
I support you in making an informed decision, accompany you, but do not make any decisions for you. Rather, I want to enable you to take your career planning into your own hands (again).

Organisational details of my consultation:

A counselling session is scheduled for one hour and we agree on the approximate number of counselling appointments at the beginning of the process (4-6 appointments are the average).
The counselling usually takes place in person, online counselling is also possible.

Possible objectives within the counselling are

Development of an individual professional and interdisciplinary skills profile
Determining preferences for different functions (e.g. management, expert status) and areas of work (science, society, etc.)
Agreement on professional goals linked to your personal values and individual life planning
Identification of possible professional fields of activity
Strategy planning for your academic or non-academic career
Dealing with crisis and decision-making situations