On 20 April 2017 the Young Scholars Network organized a PhD Career Day in collaboration with the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (ASCoR), the Amsterdam Institute of Social Science Research (AISSR), and the Graduate School of Social Sciences (GSSS) Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Aim of this day was to give Young Scholars more information on career opportunities inside and outside academia and to stimulate them to think about their future career. More than 30 PhD students participated in the event. The day started with some facts and figures on PhD career paths presented by Jesper van Thor from the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics (CBS). After that, the young scholars participated in a workshop by Eeke Wizman from Sense of Direction, during which they could reflect on and define their dream job. Hereafter, Pim de Boer from the Grants Desk VU-VUmc held a presentation on obtaining funding for research.

After a short break, Mervyn Nankoe from ProActief gave a talk about translating and presenting skills to the labour market. The day ended with a keynote by Karen Oudehoven-van der Zee, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences VU and Chief Diversity Officer, in which she reflected on: Is there life after a PhD? Pathways to inspiring and successful post-graduatecareers. During the whole event, a professional photographer was present who took professional CV photos of the participants. All in all, the career event was very informative and inspiring. We received a lot of positive feedback from participants.