CONNECT participant (anonymous)
“It provides a space to contemplate other options outside of academia in a non-judgmental environment.”
In 2018 seven academic institutions from ETH domain (ETHZ, EPFL, Eawag, Empa, PSI, WSL) and University of Zurich (UZH) decided to offer an interactive program to young women scientists to provide real insights into career opportunities outside academia. At the same time, companies benefit from CONNECT by receiving the opportunity to interact with motivated and highly qualified women wanting to continue their career in industry or the public sector.
While partners and sponsors for Round 6 (Sept 2024 - Mar 2025) are set, companies can already get in touch to discuss partnerships and sponsoring in Round 7. The application window for participants closend on June 14th, 2024, for Round 6, and will open in spring 2025 for Round 7.
“It provides a space to contemplate other options outside of academia in a non-judgmental environment.”
Analyse and plan your career
Analyze your personal career situation, define your goals and expectations, and increase awareness of potential challenges. Get to know and discuss with your peers, get insight into the recruiting process, work on your CV and interview preparation, and receive input from a professional coach to get ready for taking the next step in your career.
Meet role models
As CONNECT participant, you get the unique opportunity to interact with our partners' role models, talk about career prospects, personal decisions and challenges, differences between academia, industry and public sector, and how they use their science skills in their current position. In addition, HR may provide insights in recruiting processes.
Other career options
Are you thinking about continuing your career at the interface between academia and industry? Get interesting insights into working at Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) or for startups by talking to role models in such positions. Even if you are not interested in this career path (yet), you will get insights that help define what to look for.
Take-away and next steps
On the final day, you will reflect on your learnings and take-aways from the program, exchange again with your peers, and discuss your next career steps. You will also present some success stories to the participating institutions and companies. There will be additional talks to keep up the positive energy, and you may decide to stay connected as a group.