Euraxess Career Stories
For young people, pursuing a straight academic career often seems the only way forward. The collected career stories disprove stereotypes and paint a different picture.
Scientific careers with unconventional choices such as moving in and out of academia, doing a PhD in the public sector or starting your academic career later are all equally rewarding paths forward.
Further, the stories touch important topics such as female in more male dominated areas, finding personal and career enrichment by moving abroad, making your passion your job and combining family and career.
The common and inspiring message is clear: find your individual career path that suits you best!
Lana Ceraj, Croatia Astrophysics is an abstract, complex, and male-dominated field. This did not scare Lana: on the contrary! During her studies in physics, Lana enrolled in all possible additional courses in astronomy. Thanks to the great encouragement and trust of her female mentors and supervisors during her MSc and PhD, Lana is now an extremely passionate advocate herself for women in her field. She translates the complex topics of astrophysics and astronomy to the broader public by breaking them down in short videos on Facebook, Instragram and TikTok. “Doing it your way” means for Lana to combine research with spreading her passion, be it by visiting schools or creating astronomy-themed escape rooms. (Find Lana on social media under “ulovunakozmickezvijeri” (“catching the cosmic beast”)) |
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Patrik Winiger, Switzerland Patrik’s career story is particularly interesting as he took several unconventional turns: starting with an apprenticeship as lab assistant, he then decided to pursue a university degree in chemistry, leading to his PhD and Postdoc in Applied Environmental Science, first in Sweden, then in the Netherlands. Returning to his home country Switzerland, he worked as Research Manager at ETH and University of Zurich, before returning to his field again, working at the Air Quality Department of the city of Zurich. In June 2022, Patrik’s career has taken another interesting turn, he returned to academia in the position junior group leader. Patrik was abroad with a Marie Skłodowska Curie Action. |
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Paraskevi Dimitriadou, Greece Paraskevi inspires in many ways: When she talks about the energy sector - at first glance a technical and dry subject – Paraskevi’s passion is captivating, especially when she talks about her work's impact on the future. Paraskevi calls herself “a late bloomer” and is an excellent example that it is possible to set foot and establish yourself in a field even at a later stage of your career – and all that while being a mother of three wonderful children |
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Yiwen Jiang, Sweden Being a medical doctor offers opportunities way beyond “just treating patients”. After finishing her degree in Medicine in China, Yiwen moved to Sweden where she worked as a full-time PhD. Embracing the new culture, Yiwen experienced that a good work-life balance increases well-being and productivity at work. Another benefit of the new culture was the strong encouragement of independent thinking. It is this mind-shift that led to Yiwen’s next step: As a doctor you have a lot of open questions and by moving into research and doing a PhD, Yiwen took the opportunity to work on solving these questions. |
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Tore Bervendsen, Norway After his BSC and MSc in Economics and Business Administration Tore turned down an offer to pursue an academic career and took a gap year and did lots of skiing instead. The subsequent trainee programme gave him the opportunity to work six months in three different places, the local hospital, the municipality of Kristiansand and in a hospital in Tanzania, a very enriching opportunity on a personal level. Tips from the second part of this trainee programme, led to a permanent position as economic advisor in the municipality of Kristiansand health and social welfare sector. Though Tore never envisaged doing a PhD, when approached to enrol in a PhD programme in the public sector, he took the opportunity. The extensive research and knowledge in econometrics gained during his PhD, qualified him for a new position within the municipality and at the University of Agder, strengthening the cooperation between the two institutions. |
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Dr. Johanna Pirker, Austria Dr. Johanna Pirker is a computer scientist focusing on game development, research, and education and an active and strong voice of the local indie dev community. She has lengthy experience in designing, developing, and evaluating games and VR experiences and believes in them as tools to support learning, collaboration, and solving real problems. Johanna has started in the industry as QA tester at EA and still consults studios in the field of games user research. In 2011/12 she started researching and developing VR experiences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At the moment, she is Ass.Prof. for game development at TU Graz and researches games with a focus on AI, HCI, data analysis, and VR technologies. Johanna was listed on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list of science professionals. |
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