Career Paths
After successfully completing their studies, students often have a variety of career options at their disposal. But what exactly are the options? What suits the subject studied and one's own profile?
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Doctorate: Career in academia or on the non-academic job market
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Civil service: What does that mean?
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Starting your job as a teacher
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Working at university
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Career Info-Session: Career planning
The "Career Info-Sessions" series offers regular online events on the topic of career orientation and planning. These provide an overview of different career paths and assistance in planning how to start a career.
In the event, we clarify questions such as:
What are the career paths?
What are my goals and how do I get closer to my goals?
Are voluntary internships useful? And what qualifications are important in addition to my university degree?
The next info sessions on this topic will take place online on the following dates:
Companies: Getting started in the private sector
Many students decide to start their careers in the private sector after graduation. The entry opportunities in companies are diverse and can lead via internships, junior or trainee positions or, depending on the field, via a "Volontariat". In addition, applications are also possible for regular positions that are not explicitly marked as entry-level positions.
Tip! Find out about different career fields to get an overview of your options!
Your work can take you to large corporations and globally active corporate groups, to local medium-sized companies or to young start-ups. As different as the types of companies are, so different can be the job profiles and areas of responsibility.
Support with career orientation
The departments offer help with career orientation in various events and formats. If you have subject-related questions regarding career entry, please contact the contact person of your department.
Departments
For general questions about career guidance and the local job market, you can contact the university team of the Employment Agency. The team offers regular consultations (in German) on campus.
University team of the Employment Agency
Doctorate: Career in academia or on the non-academic job market
Doctoral studies offer the opportunity to work intensively on an exciting and complex research topic for several years. In addition, this path opens up or facilitates many challenging career prospects within and outside the world of academia.
In academia
A successfully completed doctorate is the prerequisite for a career in academia, for example for professorships at universities and universities of applied sciences.
Working outside the academic field
Doctoral graduates also have very good career prospects on the non-academic job market. Despite major differences between the disciplines, doctoral graduates have higher incomes on average and are overrepresented in management positions. In addition, scientific qualifications open up access to certain professional fields, for example in research and development departments, think tanks or positions of high responsibility.
Are you thinking about a doctorate? Or are you already working on your doctorate and wondering, for example, what you could do career-wise if you don't stay in academia? The Graduate Center offers information, events and individual advice on all aspects of doctoral studies.
The Graduate Center is the central service facility for young scientists at TU Dortmund University. It supports students who are interested in a doctorate, doctoral candidates, postdocs and junior faculty on their career path and complements the departmental training with interdisciplinary advice, qualification and networking.
Questions regarding a doctorate?
Start up with a smart idea: Found your own company
The Center for Entrepreneurship & Transfer - CET for short - with its infrastructure, individual consulting and a wide variety of event formats on the topic of "start-ups" is open to all interested students. This applies both to very concrete projects that are about to be implemented as well as to people without their own ideas, but who are interested in self-employment and start-ups.
A special focus is placed on start-up ideas that have been developed at TU Dortmund University, e.g. in the context of seminar, bachelor, master or doctoral theses or in the context of other activities in research and teaching. The CET supports all preliminary work and accompanies interested parties on their way to independence in various start-up programs. Above all, the team helps to apply for suitable financial support, such as EXIST funding, so that the prospective founders can concentrate fully on their project for a longer period of time and without financial bottlenecks.
Before a foundation is formally implemented and a new company is created, some preliminary work is required and many questions arise:
- What problem do I want to solve? What do I want to sell?
- Which resources (team members, skills, machines, capital, ...) do I need to start the business?
- Where do I want to start up and in which legal form?
The Center for Entrepreneurship & Transfer helps to find answers to these questions and explains the different steps during the start-up process.
Want to start your own business?
Motivation and perseverance
Prospective founders should also ask themselves the following question: "Why do I want to found a company?" In order to successfully implement a start-up project, motivation must be kept up over the long term. To keep going despite failures, is an important prerequisite for this. As soon as all the preliminary work has been done, the formal foundation, e.g. by establishing a limited liability company at a notary's office, is merely a formality that can be implemented within a few weeks. Nevertheless, it is important to obtain good advice in this regard. Only then does the "real work" start, in which the new company has to prove itself on the market and often assert itself in competition with other companies.
Civil service: What does that mean?
There are numerous fields of activity and job descriptions in the German civil service. What they all have in common is that the employees and civil servants are employed by the state or in institutions and foundations under public law and authorities. Typical fields of activity are the various authorities at federal, state or municipal level, schools and universities, police, fire departments and public hospitals, Sparkassen and state central banks, the German pension insurance (Deutsche Rentenversicherung), tax administration, judicial service and many others. Salary and general conditions are regulated in collective agreements (e.g. TVöD, TV-L etc.).
The different fields of work also illustrate that employees with all kinds of qualifications are sought in the public sector.
General information on the public sector (in German) can also be found here
Starting your job as a teacher
Working as a teacher at various types of schools is also part of the employment fields in the public sector. If you have any questions about the teacher training program, practical phases and the preparatory service as a transition to professional life, you will find general information regarding all disciplines and support at the DoKoLL (Dortmunder Kompetenzzentrum für Lehrerbildung und Lehr-/Lernforschung), Center for Teacher Training.
General support for students on teacher training programs
Consulting organized by students for students: In cooperation with the GEW, the AStA (General Students' Committee) offers advice for student on teacher training programs on questions concerning their studies, internships and teacher training, as well as helpful part-time jobs.
AStA-Consultation for students on teacher training programs
Working at university
Universities such as TU Dortmund University are also part of the public sector and offer numerous career opportunities. Find out more on the careers website of the Human Resources Department!
TU Dortmund University as employer
Portraits showing different career paths
Interview with graduate Eugenia Rabben
„At TU Dortmund University I learnt what teamwork really means.“
Alumni portraits
You can find more exciting interviews from the series "Alumni Portaits" in German and English in the alumni section of TU Dortmund University. Read about where your path can take you after graduation.
Career paths after doctorate: 13 Portraits
Learn more about possible career paths after the doctorate! Read into the following publication of the UniWiND-Special (in German): Perspectives after the doctorate. Career paths outside academia Part 1: 13 portraits
Career paths after doctorate: What employers say
You want to understand what potential employers think? Then the following article (in German) is worth reading: UniWiND-Special, Perspectives after the doctorate. Career paths outside academia Part 2: What employers say
Doubts about studying?
In the course of their studies, many students have doubts at one point or another as to whether the course of study or the degree program is the right path for them.
If you have doubts about your studies, take advantage of the counseling and support services offered by the central student advisory service to address your doubts!
Central student advisory service
If you have doubts about the chosen path during your studies and you look for an alternative, the university team of the Employment Agency is also available as a point of contact. The team offers regular consultations on campus (in German).