Soft Skills Workshop Series

The Soft Skill Workshop Series is a training program funded by the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry to broaden professional and social competence. Several workshops are organised throughout the year. The workshops are given in English by experienced, professional trainers on a 2-3 day basis. All information regarding seminar content, application details and deadlines are announced by email around four weeks in advance. Please be always aware that each course is designed for a limited number of participants.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact the soft skill programme organisers of the graduate committee, Mathias Enderle & Nena Matscheko.

Selected list of upcoming workshops:

Application Skills- March 2012 with Gabriela Gebhardt

Gabriela Gebhardt will teach you how to write an optimal CV and make yourself stand out from other applicants. She will also give helpful tips on interviews.

Intercultural communication- April 2012 with Alexia Petersen

It's a great opportunity to learn more about the underlying values of your own as well as different cultures.You will discuss where and why problems occur, especially in a working environment and which cultural misunderstandings are at their base.

Negotiation skills- June 2012 with Rob Thompson

This workshop is a discussion forum to help facilitate ideas and develop strategies to improve the ways scientists communicate and work with each other. The overriding aim of this workshop is to stimulate thought about how scientists interact as a prelude to reducing misunderstanding and conflict and improving co-operation and productivity.

Advanced scientific writing- July 2012 with Ruth Willmott

You will learn from a very experienced and sought-after scientific editor how to write a, structure and edit your journal articles so that your data is optimally presented. This is a highly sought course and hence it helps to apply in advance!

Selected list of previous workshops:

Poster design- July 2011 with Ruth Willmott

You will learn from a very experienced trainer the do’s and don'ts of strong poster design, how to decide e.g. on the poster content, best layout, effective illustrations as well as optimized poster presentation.

Basic Statistics -November 2010 with Prof. Leisch

The course is of great help to recapitulate statistical basics such as descriptive statistics and statistical tests. The trainers will also introduce you into the world of R with several hands on R-sessions.

Presenting Professionally- June 2011 with Andrea Roos

Andrea Roos will give you first hand information on how to give a professional scientific presentation and discuss the critical steps to a successful presentation.

Information processing and memory enhancement - July 2011 with Jonas Ritter

Jonas Ritter will help you to learn to read articles more quickly and how to effectively enhance your memory for facts and details.