PhACE - Workshops

Persuasion is an art! In order to position yourself well for your future job, it’s important to consider how you present yourself and your ideas in a persuasive way. Yet, although sharp arguments and a compelling vision go a long way, being more empathic and understanding turns out to be a key ingredient for more effective influence. Respectful persuasion is about setting people in motion without using nasty tricks. During this workshop you will gain insight into what moves people and how to motivate them for your proposals. It’s about sensitivity and understanding group dynamics. We will work on practical techniques that will make your communication authentic and respectful as well as more effective.  We will work on the basis of four themes: 

• Inspiration – speaking from what truly matters and motivates others
• Emotional intelligence – understanding others and dealing with resistance
• Intention – awareness of how intentions shape effectiveness in communication
• Empathic communication - creating support and building relations 

Learning by doing is the motto, so you can expect practical exercises in which you will put the effectiveness of your communication style firmly to the test! 

This workshop is provided by Imre Végh - Project Wisdom.

Everyone is born with a few core qualities, do you know yours? Don’t hesitate, name them! Are you aware of your challenges? Knowing them gives you the opportunity to develop and grow, both as a person and in your career. In this interactive workshop you will (re)discover your qualities and challenges. You’re going to work on a couple of core quadrants. Core quadrants are useful to build your resume (or LinkedIn profile) and they lead to more self-confidence at job interviews. Besides that, it is just fun to know where you are good at! 

Marieke Noordam, an experienced coach and trainer, will encourage you to look at yourself in a different way by challenging you to step out of your comfort zone.

In this workshop there will be given a way to explore your core-qualities and to see these strengths in yourself work mostly in your favour and sometimes against you. Self-awareness is fundamental to be a future leader and/ or project manager. We will give 3 important moments in the exploration of your next career step where it is very useful to have a good impression of your personal qualities. Except this the question: What do you bring for our company? Is a standard question in a job interview. Awareness of your 4 or 5 personal qualities is the basis for preparing a job interview.

We will explore your strengths and weaknesses by:

• Exploring your values, cultural background and upbringing.
• Discovering your personal view on your strengths and weaknesses.
• Analysing 4 or 5 personal successes.
• At the end of the workshop a fairly clear image of your personal qualities will emerge. The workshop gives you guidelines to continue to explore your core qualities and how to use this knowledge in a job interview.
• Furthermore, it will give direction for personal coaching topics.

Harry Linders - Bureau Loopbaanplanning - is a career counselor since 1993 and he was involved in several projects on different levels regarding employability. His working experience is divers but PhD candidates are a regular part of his work since 1996. In 2000 he became a registered career advisor in the CMI program. In 2007 he started his own bureau and now he has several assignments in training and advising people entering the working process or continuing their career. During this period he collected a fair knowledge about the actual labour market.

After completing your PhD you will not just be bringing your specialist knowledge to the labour market, but also the transferable skills you have accrued in your work and beyond. This workshop revolves around identifying these skills, so that you can recognize them in job advertisements, present evidence of your capabilities to possible employers and pinpoint skills that might need further development. In addition to interactive exercises that help you reflect on your skill set, we discuss the value of transferable skills in the workplace, not just from the employers’ perspective, but also on how they can contribute to your motivation, well-being and collaboration with others.

Emma Oxenaar, academic trainer at DOWNSIDEUP, an agency specialized in training researchers, will provide this workshop. DownsideUp is part of the mission to create a more productive, healthy, creative and inclusive work culture in the academic world. With positive energy, openness and by asking challenging and supportive questions, they help you further in your personal development.

Do you find it stressful to negotiate about salary? Do you tend to give in, because you don’t dare to say ‘no’? Do you want to win in negotiations, even if it means that the relationship with your interlocutor is at stake? Even though you negotiate every day, stress at the bargaining table can’t be avoided. Whether you are negotiating with your future manager, your partner or a car dealer, conflicting interests lead to stress and emotions. Negotiation is not about winning or losing; it is about resolving an issue in a way that both parties find acceptable. Therefore you need to make a connection with your interlocutor. Under stress, this can be challenging! Hostage negotiators are masters in creating connections, even with people they dislike, who are potentially dangerous, and who at first do not even want to talk to them. It is all about creating a dialogue, building trust and form a bond to do what has to be done. In this workshop you will experience what you can learn from a police negotiator in your negotiations. You will explore your own reaction in a stressful conversation. Through self-reflection, advice and tactics you learn how to create connection to get the best out of your negotiations. You will leave with: 

• Increased awareness of your own emotions and reactions under stress; don’t be a hostage to your emotions
• Increased ability to build connection: no impact without connection
• Increased ability to get results and keep the relationship in negotiations

Heidi Nieboer - MA Police Negotiations - is a former Chief Inspector of Police and highly experienced police leader and hostage negotiator.

As a PhD candidate, you regularly collaborate with supervisors, colleagues, students, and partners. But what happens when something isn’t working well?

Maybe someone’s way of working frustrates you, and you know you should say something — but you’re unsure how or when. Or perhaps you need to deliver disappointing news as part of your role, and you worry about how the other person will react. What if they get upset, defensive, or emotional? How do you stay calm and professional?

In this interactive and practical workshop, you will learn how to handle these challenging conversations with clarity and confidence. Through realistic scenarios and exercises, you will:

• Learn how to give constructive feedback in a respectful and effective way
• Discover how to deliver difficult messages without escalating the situation
• Practice responding to emotional reactions
• Build confidence to stand your ground professionally

You will leave with concrete tools you can immediately apply in academia and beyond.

As a PhD candidate preparing for the job market, you are going to make choices concerning your future career. The question of this workshop is: how do you make the right choices? How do you live a worthwhile life that aligns with your values? You will actively work on personal and practical strategies to help you make choices in life. The workshop is designed for PhD candidates who are willing to reflect deeply, who are not afraid to challenge themselves and who dare ask themselves: "what do I really base my choices on?" In our workshop you will discover how to make important decisions in life, from your career to personal choices. We will delve into personal values, navigate complex decisions, and develop your own wisdom. You will create a personal compass that you can use to align future choices to. Get ready to reflect deeply, challenge yourself, and uncover the foundations of your decision-making process.

This workshop is provided by Imre Végh - Project Wisdom. 

Networking is more than just meeting new people, it’s about understanding how professional relationships develop and how to use them effectively for your career. Many PhD candidates underestimate the network they already have and struggle to see how to broaden and deepen their connections in a way that aligns with their ambitions. In this interactive workshop, we will explore the fundamental principles of networking, challenge common misconceptions, and help you gain a clear picture of your own network. Through practical exercises and discussions, you will learn how to strategically expand your network while keeping it meaningful and sustainable. This workshop is hands-on and interactive, allowing you to put new insights into practice immediately. By the end, you will have a structured approach to networking, a clearer view of your professional connections, and concrete strategies to expand your network in a way that works for you.

Emma Oxenaar, academic trainer at DOWNSIDEUP, an agency specialized in training researchers, will provide this workshop. DownsideUp is part of the mission to create a more productive, healthy, creative and inclusive work culture in the academic world. With positive energy, openness and by asking challenging and supportive questions, they help you further in your personal development.

Many people encounter stress when they are working on their PhD project. When this feeling of stress continues over a longer period, this may lead to negative side effects among which a feeling of incompetence and a decrease in self-confidence. During this workshop you will learn how to deal with feelings of stress. You will also discover what drives you into stress, and how to prevent having negative thoughts that may lead to stress. A couple of lively exercises will give you practical tools to boost your self-confidence, even at stressful moments. You will get insights in your personal qualities and how you can use them to feel more confident and to deal with stress during your PhD, but also in the future. By practising and sharing experiences, ideas and stories you will learn from each other as well as the trainer. At the end of this workshop you will know:

• how to stimulate a feeling of self confidence
• what makes you feel stressed
• how to diminish the feeling of stress
• how to use your qualities during your PhD and afterwards

This workshop is provided by Giustina Ferone - Mennen Training.

Is your PhD coming to and end and are you in doubt about what to do next? In this workshop, we will explore these questions to find out what is in your wheelhouse. By consciously and interactively engaging with these themes, you will find out what it is you really want.

Experienced career coach Rutger-Jan Scholtens - UU Career Services - will encourage you to look at different aspects of yourself and your life to extract information for your future. By mapping your interests, capabilities, motives and career values, you will determine what is (most) important to you. After the workshop, you will be better able to consider the jobs, organizations and tasks that fit your preferences. And you will continue your job search with more self-knowledge and more self-confidence. 

As a PhD candidate, the question of “What’s next?” can feel overwhelming. You may not know where to start, or you might feel that you are not yet ready to take the next step. However, it is often the act of starting and getting into motion that leads to clarity and progress. 

In this workshop, you will use the Business Model You framework to explore your strengths, values, skills, and the unique experiences you have already gained. By recognizing the value of what you bring to the table, you will develop a clearer vision for both your personal and professional future, creating a solid foundation for shaping your career path. With this clarity, you will be able to define concrete actions, experiment with possibilities, and map out an initial strategy to achieve your goals. The workshop not only provides tools to explore potential career directions but also helps you communicate your career story with greater clarity and confidence. You will leave with practical tools to refine and update your career strategy as you continue to grow and evolve.

By the end of the session, you will have developed a personalized approach to your career development. This workshop is designed for PhD candidates who would like to gain more confidence in their next steps and learn tools that help them continuously adapt their career trajectory.

This workshop is given by Verena Ly. Verena holds a PhD in psychology and is an experienced coach, trainer, and adviser. She specializes in guiding young professionals, both within academia and beyond, helping them navigate their career development. 
 

• A hands-on, accessible approach to personal branding.
• A friendly, open atmosphere that encourages exchange and reflection.
• Practical guidance and follow-up materials to support your ongoing growth.

This workshop is provided by THRIVE Institute.

Do you already have a LinkedIn account but an incomplete profile? Are you unsure what LinkedIn can be used for at all? Do you want to know how to make LinkedIn really work for you? Nowadays, a strong online presence is essential. With LinkedIn, you can profile yourself even better than with a CV. In this workshop, you will learn what a strong profile looks like, how to add different elements and how to describe them best. You will also get tips on how to write a good summary, how to use groups and company pages and how to find jobs. To participate, you need to already have a LinkedIn profile. Don’t have one yet? Sign up and get yourself started prior to the workshop. After the workshop you will know how to finetune your profile and how to make use of the various functionalities. 

This workshop is provided by Melissa Wolleswinkel - UU Career Services. 

Gaining more insight in how your ideal job would look like, will make you more happy in life. Therefore, this workshop will help you to discover how your ideal job would look like and which actions you can take to find that job. By doing a couple of lively exercises, you will discover which activities give you energy in your (work) life, which activities drain your energy and which values are important for you in your (work) life. With this information you will select the important elements of your ideal job. You will share the elements of your dream job with the other participants, identify possible barriers and ways how to overcome these barriers. For this workshop, it is expected that you already have some rough idea of the direction you would like to take in your career. It is important to realize that finding what you want to do is a journey, not just using a set of tools. During this workshop you will reflect on what you really want in life after your PhD. After this workshop, you will go home with a personal action plan how to take the first steps towards the direction of your dream job.

Experienced trainer Giustina Ferone - Mennen training - will guide you through this process.