A termination agreement is not a golden handshake, not even a silver one. It’s the beginning of a complex process and a path that you do not go alone. The first point of contact is the works council, and a lawyer should manage your communication with the employer.
To reach the position they are now in, professors have overcome impressive intellectual obstacles. The inherent danger is that they are mistaken for omniscient oracles.
Focus on what gives you professional fulfilment. If you don´t miss out on developing yourself, to keep on learning new things, then you can trust in yourself that you will land on your feet in case you face a difficult situation. You can be more free in picking the positions that really fit you.
Funding from industry. You should also keep the development of your PhD students and postdocs in mind. Some may want to transition to industry careers after leaving your group.
Think about how much time and weight you want to give to the individual parts in your life. The resulting balance should reflect your own wishes- in the long run. The dream that your own, personal balance is being reached every single day is plainly unrealistic.
If we do not separate these two parts of a decision, then the difficult how overshadows the if. We do not even want to imagine how unpleasant the situation will be, therefore we procrastinate.
There are many reasons why an employment relationship can become unproductive. That’s why
you don’t have to hide bumpy spots in your resume.
Just describe what you did, why you took certain decisions and what you learned from it.
In the inner circle, I have to be careful not to blunder out all my secrets, because that’s where the competition is. The second circle has an interesting group of people to offer: our cooperation partners.
“You are not a loser, you are a starter,” I calm her down. Starters are impulsive, creative people who constantly come up with ideas, but show little interest in completing a task. “Boring, nothing new”, an inner voice seems to tell them. Starters are by no means losers, they just need to find the right environment to be productive – or they create it themselves often enough due to their personality.
Modern communication and self-marketing need to be used deliberately and with common sense.
