CONTACT2026 Workshop

Petra Kuhn und Ellen Winbauer

Wir checken das für Sie! Kommen Sie zur individuellen.

Besprechung Ihrer Bewerbungsunterlagen zum Hochschulteam der Agentur für Arbeit.

Das Hochschulteam der Agentur für Arbeit Heidelberg bietet Ihnen ein individuelles Feedback zu Ihren Bewerbungsunterlagen an.

• Überzeugt Ihr Anschreiben?
• Ihr Lebenslauf?
• Sind die Anlagen passend?
• Werden formale Kriterien erfüllt?

Wir erarbeiten mit Ihnen konkrete Vorschläge zu Ihrer überzeugenden Bewerbung.

Christelle Pillot is an experienced career change coach and consultant who specializes in helping international professionals navigate career transitions effectively. She is passionate about empowering individuals to identify their strengths, explore new career paths, and develop strategies for successful transitions.

With a background in Chemical Engineering and 15 years of experience in International Sales Management, Christelle brings a unique perspective to her coaching. Her own journey of transitioning from engineering to life coaching has equipped her with firsthand insight into the challenges and opportunities of career shifts. This makes her ideally suited to guide doctoral students and early-career postdocs transitioning from academia to industry, offering practical strategies and actionable advice.

As a multilingual coach fluent in English, German, and French, Christelle is skilled at working with diverse professionals across cultures. Her approach celebrates individuality, optimizes career potential, and strengthens professional connections. Through her coaching, she helps individuals uncover new sources of energy, clarity, and fulfillment in their careers and personal lives.

This workshop will provide you with actionable insights and practical strategies to successfully transition from academia to industry, focusing on identifying transferable skills, building a professional network, and crafting a compelling personal brand.

Marion Gürth and Barbara Janssens

The importance and positive effects of networking are obvious: It enables collaborations, can open doors, facilitates career orientation and career transition. Regardless of this, it is too often perceived as a chore - we tend to let it slide, procrastinate and nothing happens. In this interactive workshop, we want to encourage you to get started. There is nothing to lose but a lot to win! We will share and discuss hands-on tips and tricks on how to prepare for networking conversations, how to approach people best and how to follow-up to create long lasting relationships. A good prerequisite for effective networking is curiosity (which comes naturally to all scientists) and a mindset that everyone can learn to adopt. You will systematically analyze your already existing network (there is more than you might think!) and work on a strategy for using your network more effectively and expanding it in a targeted manner. Most importantly, you will have the chance to practice network conversations with your peers in a safe environment to eventually discover the fun aspects of it.

During this year’s CONTACT2026 you can take advantage of our CV check. Your CV is your application’s centerpiece. It should answer all questions concerning your qualifications, experiences and skills and at the same time it must be individual and brief:

• What are the most important parts of my CV?
• How can I express what I really want to say?
• What can I do in order to avoid misinterpretation?
• What if my CV is longer than two pages?
• How can I adapt and individualize my CV to different job offers?

During the 30 minutes CV check answers to those questions will be given by the experts of Horbach Wirtschaftsberatung. Your documents will be analyzed and valuable tips regarding their content, your position relative to competitors and your career options will be given to you.

Your thesis should definitely be mentioned within your CV – but your CV should not be your thesis!

Send your CV with the subject “CV Checkup Contact2026” to dominik.sauler@horbach.de until the 15.05.2026.

With this workshop, the participants learn to optimal shape the professional (as well as the personal) decision-making process by using various standardized methods. At the end of the course, the attendees know how to select the best alternative which fits best to the individual objectives out of a pool of possible options and how to consequently adopt it: 

• Goal setting – which target state do I want to reach? 
• Information searching – which information do I need in order to create a selection of alternatives? 
• Determination of alternatives – which alternatives are there to reach the desired target state? 
• Development of decision-making criteria – what is most important for me? 

 Decision-making – how do I utilize my developed decision-making criteria in the best way possible?

For individuals interested in having their application documents reviewed, we are offering personalized consultation sessions. Advanced registration via the BioContact website is required. Instead of bringing your documents to the Techniker Krankenkasse booth, please arrive at the BioContact workshop desk ahead of time. For the sake of ensuring a quiet environment conducive to detailed consultations, the document checks will be conducted in a separate room away from the booths. Organizational staff will guide participants from the BioContact workshop desk to the consultation room.

Confidential career interviews.

You will have the chance to book one of the highly demanded CV checks only at the CONTACT2026.

Registered delegates of CONTACT2026 will have the opportunity to book a confidential careers interview with a professional PhD career consultant* about any aspect of their career. This might be to receive guidance and advice on career plans, check your CV, discuss ways to develop your career, investigate ways to improve your job seeking strategy, help you to formulate a personal action plan, and any other aspects related to your career. The schedule allows for 10 career interviews, with each one lasting for up to 30 minutes. These will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis.

*Sarah Blackford is a certified academic career coach with a background in scientific research, publishing and higher education careers advisory work. She specializes in helping bioscience doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers to transition successfully to their next role, whether it’s within or outside of academia. She has over 20 years’ experience of delivering career workshops and one-to-one coaching in research institutions and universities and much of her advice and resources are published on her blog, www.biosciencecareers.org. A Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and registered member of the Career Development Institute, Sarah adheres to a recognized ethical code of practice.

Überblick

Der erfolgreiche Einstieg in den Beruf erfordert nicht nur fachliche Kompetenz, sondern auch die Fähigkeit, sich selbst überzeugend zu präsentieren. Das Rhetorik- und Bewerbungstraining auf der Contact 2026 bereitet Sie optimal auf Vorstellungsgespräche, Networking und berufliche Kommunikation vor.

Trainingseinheiten und Inhalte

1.     Bewerbungstraining

• Erstellung von professionellen Lebensläufen und Bewerbungsanschreiben
• Erfolgreiche Präsentation von Fähigkeiten und Erfahrungen

2.     Rhetorik-Training

• Stärkung der verbalen und non-verbalen Kommunikationsfähigkeiten
• Umgang mit Lampenfieber und Nervosität

3.     Interview-Coaching

• Simulation von Bewerbungsgesprächen
• Feedback und Verbesserungsvorschläge

4.     Präsentationstechniken

• Visualisierungstechniken und Einsatz von Medien
• Stimme, Körpersprache und Präsenz als Schlüssel zum Erfolg

Vorteile des Trainings

• Selbstbewusstes Auftreten – Optimierung der persönlichen Kommunikationsstrategie
• Gezielte Vorbereitung – Praxisorientierte Tipps für Bewerbungsgespräche
• Karrierebooster – Steigerung der Chancen auf die Wunschstelle 

There’s no second chance for a first impression, and a compelling job application portrait is part of the game. BioContact e.V. wants to support you with your application and will sponsor your professional photo. Seize the opportunity to have your picture taken here today by Konrad Gös, a professional portrait photographer who will be at the CONTACT26 on behalf of BioContact e.V. Not only will Konrad Gös shoot the perfect portrait of you, but also edit it in a way suitable for job application purposes.

Please make sure to book your time slot with the photographer in advance.

BioContact e.V. wishes you success in your future applications.

Sponsored by BioContact e.V. (Only 10 € personal contribution).