NTNU wants you to have good career development. The PhD position should lead to a completed doctorate while also providing you with skills that open opportunities for your further career, both within and outside academia.

Good career development for you means developing the skills and experience relevant for your goals. The doctoral work is the most important part of this competence, but other learning and experiences also contribute to your career development and reaching your career goals. The theme of this website is how you can develop these other skills and competences. It could be experience from teaching, participation in writing project applications, elected offices, or dissemination work.

Norsk versjon: Karriereutvikling for stipendiater

Looking for something else? Career development for postdoctoral fellows

Career Plan

As a PhD candidate at NTNU, you must have a career plan. The career plan is a tool to concretize which skills and competences beyond the doctoral work you should develop and how this should be done.

• The career plan should include career goals and a list of actions to be taken to achieve the goals
• Any career-enhancing work should be included in the career plan
• The PhD candidate and employer fill out the career plan together
• The career plan should be formulated in the first employee appraisal interview (start-up interview)
• The career plan should be followed up and updated/revised annually (in the employee appraisal interview)
• The career plan should be evaluated at the end of the employment period
• The career plan should be archived in the personnel file

Here is a template for the career plan for PhD candidates (docx).

Although the career plan is an agreement between you as a PhD candidate and the employer, you are welcome to discuss the career plan with your supervisor and others, such as colleagues and research group leaders, to get ideas and input.

Career-enhancing work (formerly PhD required duties)

Career-enhancing work (formerly PhD required duties) refers to work beyond the research project and doctoral education that provides relevant knowledge and experience for further careers in academia or other sectors (uh-regulations, section § 3-16). It is not intended for administrative work.

• Examples of relevant career-promoting work:
• Contribute to teaching, laboratory and exercise teaching, supervision, and examination work within the employee’s areas of competence
• Providing training in the use and operation of research infrastructure
• Norwegian language training, educational competence, HSE courses, and the like necessary for the performance of teaching and research work
• Participating in dissemination, exhibition, and collection work
• Contributing to the preparation of research project applications or the organization of academic conferences
• Clinical activites
• Contributing to ongoing research projects, professional development work, consultancy and assessment work in the academic environment
• Research-based innovation or dissemination project
• Internships or collaboration with public or private actors
• Elected positions/trust positions and committee work

The workload is calculated according to the faculty’s standards or the actual time spent. For original lectures, the workload for PhD candidates as calculated as 50% extra to the standard time for academic staff. Additional credit may be given for particularly time-consuming tasks based on individual assessment.

Whether the position includes career-enhancing work is stated in the job advertisement and the employment contract. The positions fixed-term period can be extended if there is later an opportunity to offer career-promoting work. Extensions of the fixed-term period due to leave or elected positions may be additional.

PhD candidates who do not master Norwegian/Swedish/Danish at A2 level must, according to new regulations, complete Norwegian language training during the employment period, i.e., NTNU’s step 1 course (15 ECTS). A plan should be made for you to complete the language training as part of your career-enhancing work. The Norwegian course will constitute 10 weeks of career-promoting work and is in addition to at least three years of doctoral work.

If you are unsure whether you are employed under the new or old regulations, you must check the employment conditions in your employment contract or ask local HR.

For Those Planning a Career in Academia

What is considered as relevant competence in academia is evolving and now encompasses a broader set of competencies than before. This is reflected in NTNU’s qualification requirements for academic positions (NTNU’s guidelines for academic positions, chapter 3) and in NTNU’s competence matrix with examples of competencies that may be relevant for an academic career. Therefore, it may be useful for you to refer to these documents as part of your preparations for the employee appraisal interview and the development of the career plan.

Career Planning Tools

Here are some pages where you can get inspiration and help to start planning your career development:

• REFLEX APP: REFLEX Researcher Career Development Scheme Application (REFLEX app) is a web application developed to help you identify your development areas and plan your career development.
• myIDP – Science Careers Individual Development Plan: myIDP is one of several individual and digital career planning tools, specifically developed for researchers in natural sciences, health sciences, and engineering

Further Career

• Jobs at NTNU: Overview of vacancies and information about NTNU as an employer.
• EURAXESS Jobs & Funding: International job search portal for researchers.
• Arbeidsplassen.no: website with a collection of vacancies and job search tips, owned by NAV.
• Karrieresenteret Trøndelag: Public career center offering courses and guidance.

Guidelines

• NTNU's guidelines for academic positions
• NTNU's guidelines for recruitment positions
• NTNU's competence matrix (NTNU's version of NOR-CAM)

Other Resources

• DION - NTNU's interest organization for PhDs, post-docs, and other temporary scientific employee
• New in Norway
• NTNU International Researcher Support (NIRS) – Among other services, NIRS offers counselling services for administrative staff and researchers working at or visiting NTNU
• Norwegian for Foreigners

Contact

• If you have questions about your career plan or career enhancing work, you can contact your personell manager or the administrative PhD- contact at your department or faculty.
• If you have questions about the information or the content on this website, you can contact Kristin Skjeldestad or Silje Løften in the HR and HSE division at NTNU.