From October 10th to October 13th, 7 Eurotalents fellows took part in the 6th training session entitled "Post-doc: How to manage your career, evaluation, project, action?" at INSTN (National Institute for Nuclear Science and Technology), the CEA's training institute.

During this 4-day training, participants learnt how to identify their professional skills, how to improve their CV, and how to write a cover letter. They also simulated job interviews, which were recorded enabling them to see how they act in these stressful situations.

In addition, this training in very small group gives to the participants the opportunity to get to know one another and to share about their experience as Eurotalents fellows.

Some participants shared their feedback about the training:

I think the training was excellent. For sure, I would recommend it!
I had never done anything similar before, so it was really unique for me. Our coach, Danielle, really showed us how the scientific part of industry is organised. I wasn't aware of the scope of possibilities in the field. Thanks to Danielle's experience in conducting interviews and coaching, which she shared with us, now I know how to prepare myself to professional interview within recruitment process. The training also made me aware of my strengths and weaknesses. Through practice, you get to see which elements you need to improve. The examples were very relevant in order to understand the industrial and scientific world. If I had to make one criticism, I would say it was a bit too intense and tiring. But that's simply because I didn't want to miss any part of it and wanted to stay focused.

(Ewa Morawiec - Enhanced Eurotalents Fellow)

I really liked this training. I had no expectations and I was pleasantly surprised – it was a very good and exhaustive course. I feel like I can picture my development and I now feel more comfortable. I have learnt a lot of things in a few days. I hope that when my postdoctoral position will come to an end in two years and when I will start job-hunting, what I learnt will be as fresh as today. 
                                                                                    (Allegra Conti - Enhanced Eurotalents Fellow)

​I found this training very good. I would like to highlight the excellent pedagogy of our coach, Danièle. I really liked the examples and the practical exercises, more particularly the job interviews. I also enjoyed the way the training was organized: first, we focused on our skills and wishes, then on our CVs and cover letters, finally we simulated job interviews. I now feel ready to face job interviews.
                                                                                    (Laura Segui - Enhanced Eurotalents Fellow)

I had a similar course a few years ago but it was more focused on academic positions. This week, the training was more focused on private sector – an unknown ground for most of us. I learnt about different practices of recruitment in industry. It was good to train on less familiar topics and on uncommon situations for academic recruitment. For example, employers in industry will be less impressed by your publication record compared to academia. Recording the interviews and watching it afterwards was really interesting, it helps you be better prepared because you get to see all your flaws, your body language, and the way you react when there is a tricky question. During these simulated interviews, I found it also very helpful to act both as an interviewer and as a candidate.
                                                                              (Andrey Shornikov- Enhanced Eurotalents Fellow)