STRATEGY OVER GUESSWORK
Career Coaching for Postdocs & Senior Researchers
You’ve built real expertise. Now comes the harder question: what do you actually do with it?
One focused session helps you move from uncertainty to strategy: whether you want to stay in academia, lead your own research, or make a clean exit.
Full Professor · Certified Coach · Confidential · Online · 45 min
POSTDOC CAREER STATISTICS
Postdoc Career Strategy: Why Most Researchers Stay Stuck
Less than 3% of postdocs land a tenure-track position. That’s not a reason to give up. It’s a reason to get serious.
The researchers who make it to a professorship aren’t necessarily the most brilliant ones in the room. They’re the ones who understood the game early enough to play it deliberately — who built a research profile with intention, positioned themselves strategically, and made decisions based on clarity rather than hope.
But a professorship is not the only definition of success. There are research scientist roles, senior lecturer positions, industry-facing research roles, grant-funded independent positions — and paths that don’t have a name yet. Paths that work. Paths I’ve seen, and in some cases lived myself.
What you need isn’t a standard career checklist. You need someone who understands the real landscape and helps you build options where you currently see none.
The Struggle After Your Promotion is Real
High competence, low clarity. That’s the tension I hear most.
On the tenure-track question
I want a professorship, but I’m not sure I’m building towards it in the right way.”
I’m doing a second or third postdoc and I need to be honest with myself about where this is going.”
On leaving academia
I’m thinking about leaving for industry, but I don’t want to make a rushed decision I’ll regret.”
I’ve decided to leave. Now what? Where do I even start?
On stability & life
My contract ends in less than a year. I don’t know what comes next and I’m starting to panic.
My partner and I are both in academia. How do we make this work geographically?”
Coached by a Professor Who’s Been There
Most career coaches can help you polish a CV or prepare a pitch. That’s not what postdocs and senior researchers need.
You need someone who actually knows what it takes to build an academic career — what a strong publication strategy looks like in practice, how funding decisions get made, what search committees really want, and what the system will never tell you directly.
I’m a full professor. I’ve led international research projects across seven countries, secured over five million euros in research funding, and sat on the kinds of committees that make the decisions you’re trying to influence.
I’m also a certified coach — which means I don’t just tell you what to do. I help you figure out what you actually want. And whether what you think you want is truly what you want, or just what you’ve been trained to want.
I work especially well with researchers in non-standard situations: interdisciplinary careers, late-stage pivots, atypical backgrounds, dual-career couples navigating relocation. I don’t do cookie-cutter. I work with your actual situation.
15+
Years in Research & Teaching
200+
Academic Publications
5.000.000€
Awarded Research Funding
80+
Academic Coachings
Frequently Asked Questions
No, but earlier is better. Even a single coaching session can bring structure to the time you have left. If you’d like ongoing support beyond that, the Academic Freedom Lab for Postdocs combines coaching, protected working time, and a small community.
Yes. We start from your values, your situation, and a realistic view of your options, not from fear or other people’s expectations. If you’d like to think it through with peers as well, try the Academic Development Circle and its Career Development format.
Your PI has their own agenda, and a career service may not understand academia from the inside. I’m a professor and a certified coach, so I know how these decisions are made and I have no stake in what you choose.
If you’d like to exchange with other postdocs as well, you’ll find that in the Academic Development Circle.
Yes, completely. I hold professional confidentiality as a certified coach. What you share with me goes no further — no institutional involvement, no exceptions.
That’s actually where I work best. Non-standard situations often have more options than they appear to — the work is figuring out how to position them strategically.
The discovery call is a free 20-minute conversation to see if working together makes sense — no commitment, no pressure. A coaching session is a full 45-minute session where we work directly on your situation.
No preparation required. Just bring your situation — a challenge, a question, or simply a feeling that something isn’t working. We take it from there.
Yes. For longer-term support, the Academic Freedom Lab for Postdocs is a membership with coaching, protected working time, and a small community. You can also use individual formats separately: the Academic Development Circle, Co-Writing for regular writing time, the Writing Retreat in Vienna, and the Coaching Hike.