Postdoc Jamborees

The Postdoc Jamborees are events for all the Nikhef postdocs. They are organised by the Postdoc committee, created in November 2021: Andrea García Alonso (ATLAS, aalonso@nikhef.nl) and Suzanne Klaver (LHCb, s.klaver@nikhef.nl).

The present page contains a summary of the editions that have taken place so far.

1st Postdoc Jamboree - 20th April 2022

First time the Nikhef postdocs got together and met each other. Dinner and drinks in the city of Utrecht.

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2nd Postdoc Jamboree - 7th October 2022

Outdoors laser tag and dinner in Amsterdam, together with a discussion about teaching and supervision during the postdoc time.

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3rd Postdoc Jamboree - 24th February 2023

Q&A session in Amsterdam Science Park with a panel of staff members from Nikhef and UvA.

Answers were given to doubts related to our careers: teaching and supervising possibilities, advice and information; future career requirements and must-do choices; preparation for next positions, etc.

You can watch the Recording of the discussion, using the passcode: 6!!w4wH5.

Timeline:

14:30 - 14:35 Presentation of the session by Suzanne and Andrea

14:35 - 14:50 Presentation of the panelists

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  Slides presented by Marcel Merk

14:50 - 15:05 CV building

15:05 - 15:30 Student supervising and teaching

15:30 - 15:50 Grant application

15:50 - 16:10 Job opportunities

16:10 - 16:30 Personal experiences

Afterwards there was a glow mini golf social activity.

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4th Postdoc Jamboree - 16th May 2023

During the 2023 Nikhef Jamboree, the postdocs gathered for dinner and commented on a new idea of creating contact lists of senior researchers. These lists would be a tool for Nikhef postdocs to seek advice in various situations.

These advanced researchers would agree to be listed on the Nikhef webpage, and postdocs could reach out to them for help with a grant draft or invite them to a rehearsal before a job interview.

The lists would include their names, contacts, and job descriptions to provide insight into their areas of expertise. Even if they are UvA teachers we don't personally know, we could still contact them and benefit from their experience and knowledge.

Before moving forward, we would like to gauge the interest of the rest of the postdocs and to then reach out to Stan and begin an official process.

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5th Postdoc Jamboree - 14th February 2024

In February 2024, the Postdoc Jamboree took the format of a workshop on how to be a good supervisor, given by an external coach: Louise Mennen, at the electron room, at Nikhef.

This session lasted 4 hours dedicated to teach us how to improve our supervising skills, mainly oriented towards the supervision of bachelor and master students and PhDs, but also to any other kind of workmates we need to supervise or coordinate. The goal was not to learn how to organise and set a project and its responsibilities, but to learn social and psychological skills to lead in an efficient and effective way.

The outline of the session was the following:

•⁠  ⁠⁠Setting responsibilities and boundaries

•⁠  ⁠Giving feedback

•⁠  ⁠Coaching

•⁠  ⁠Setting expectations

•⁠  ⁠Discussing problems and dealing with complicated situations

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Afterwards there was a bowling social activity.