Academic Career
As for academic positions, we distinguish between (1) temporary positions for qualification purposes which include doctoral, postdoctoral or habilitation positions and (2) positions with permanent duties in research, teaching and research infrastructure (in the position paper so-called "functional positions"). Whereas the first are time-limited until the qualification goal is reached, the second are unlimited.
Career Paths at Universities
Postdoctoral Stages of Qualification
The first period of Postdoc shall be used to develop a researcher profile of one´s own. Still, the question about a career inside or outside the university has to be resolved; the period of orientation should not exceed 3 years:
- Targeting a position at university requires full enthousiasm and determination in order to develop a competitive researcher profile. Key competences in order to get ready for leadership positions can be acquired by training offers throughout Göttingen University.
- Career goals outside University often require additional qualifications in accordance with the specific job profile. Missing competences may be gained by consultation and training offers throughout Göttingen University.
Early career researchers aiming at habilitation- or leading Postdoc positions are invited to attend workshops offered by the university in order to gain key competences beyond subject related knowledge; please see the support offers for postdocs by the Academic HR Developement team and the Mentoring Programs; as well as the offers on didactics for teaching positions. The broad scale of Support offers at University include specific promoting measures for female scientists; see the Dorothea Schlözer Mentoring Program as well as workshops from the Gender- and Diversity department providing special support for target groups. The Annual Employee Reviews provide the occasion for individual discussion between supervisors and their scientific coworkers, these reviews shall take place once per year during the qualification process of doctoral researchers.
Information on specific paths of career at your faculty, you can found here .
Funtional Positions at University
So-called functional positions are assigned to permanent tasks in the realms of research, teaching and research infrastructure. Such tasks as the maintenance of advices and equipment, the organisation of long-term studies or the coordination of interdiciplinary study programs are distinctive. Since functional positions are permanent, vacancies shall be filled by the help of external advertising and an appropriate selection committee. These positions are assigned to the appropriate faculty or institute and financed from the university´s budget. A subject subordinated assignment to a professor is limited in time.
Functional posistions shall leave 30% of the working hours to research tasks in order to provide the possibility of doing research or raising own funds to the holders of the position. A guideline describes detailes regarding the procedures of filling functional positions.