Career development is a central element in the implementation of SDU's strategy "Value, quality, people" and SDU's strategy for Competence and Career Development (KKV). A focus area in SDU's strategy is the development of robust academic environments for research, teaching, and administration, and as part of this, the recruitment and cultivation of the next generation of excellent researchers, teachers, and administrative staff.
SDU's concept for career conversations is an operationalisation of SDU's strategy. The concept has been developed for the Committee for Career and Competence Development. The concept is based on collected material and experiences across SDU.
The concept supports local interaction where the strategy's goals are aligned with individual career development. Career conversations are also used ad hoc and informally as an ongoing exploration of what drives you in this and your future job.
Career conversations can have different purposes and different organisational bases, thus the responsibility for conducting career conversations will vary. The concept is aimed at individuals and their conversations with a range of resource persons. Such career conversations do not stand alone, and the responsibility for career development is distributed at all levels of the organisation.
- Faculties and departments are responsible for ensuring coherence between resources and recruitment. Career development does not create more resources. At the same time, every recruitment creates an obligation to manage the continued career development of younger researchers – also beyond the project period. Some faculties offer career conversations for PhD students in their second and third years through the PhD school, while some departments hold conversations for their own PhD students
- Immediate managers are responsible for ensuring that career development is included in performance and development reviews (MUS) and in ongoing discussions with younger researchers, so that the institute's and research groups' strategies provide a framework for the individual to adjust direction. Managers can use the career conversations concept as preparation for MUS and other forms of career conversations
- Research group leaders and senior project leaders are responsible for helping younger researchers with funding and initiating other career-promoting activities; including connecting younger researchers to the group's activities and networks
- Early career researchers are responsible for their own learning, aligning the group's and organisation's needs for mobility and flexibility with their own interests, and being proactive through self-organised career conversations. We recommend early career researchers to create a career strategy that targets, for example, teaching activities, publishing, participation in courses and conferences, and choice of networks.
The concept can work together with SDU's MUS concept to elaborate on 'career development' as an aspect of employee development. The concept can also be used independently by SDU employees. The concept has both a generic element and an element targeted at early career researchers.