CASE
KU Leuven - YouReCa
From insight to conscious choice: how KU Leuven PhD students reflect on their next career steps with MyCareerCompanion
Supporting young researchers in making confident career choices goes beyond academic guidance alone. At KU Leuven University, career reflection is an integral part of doctoral training, helping PhD students and postdocs gain insight into their strengths, motivations and future possibilities.
In collaboration with the YouReCa Career Centre, myCareerCompanion plays a key role in empowering researchers to explore their options — both within and beyond academia — and to take their next career steps with clarity and confidence.
The YouReCa Career Centre
At KU Leuven, they believe that career development for young researchers is a process that needs to be started early on. This is crucial for PhD students and postdocs, who are often faced with the question of whether they see their future within or outside academia. The non-academic world is often an unfamiliar territory for them. The YouReCa Career Centre helps them make these choices consciously and with confidence.
Why did KU Leuven choose myCareerCompanion?
Researchers are passionate about their work, but sometimes they don’t think enough or soon enough about how they see their future. Many PhD students lack insight into their transferable skills and are unsure about opportunities outside of academia.
With myCareerCompanion, they have found a tool that helps them reflect, discover and take steps forward.
How YouReCa used our platform
At YouReCa, they use myCareerCompass as a starting point: participants complete six scientifically validated tests and receive a personal report/compass. That report forms the basis for workshops and individual interviews in which talents, motivations, and suitable career options are explored together.
The impact: gaining clarity on strengths, values and future career paths
PhD users at KU Leuven experience myCareerCompass as a valuable reflection tool that helps them gain deeper self-insight and make more informed career choices. The platform not only clarifies their skills and interests, but also uncovers less obvious talents, values, and career drivers. Through well-designed and intuitive questions, users are encouraged to reflect on aspects of their profile they may not have consciously considered before, yet which are highly relevant to their career development. This results in a clear and nuanced understanding of who they are and what truly matters to them.
One PhD user put it very clearly:
Getting to know which vocabulary can be used to describe one’s competences and use those in interviews. myCC helped a lot in that!
Positive evaluation thanks to practical relevance
The myCareerCompass is strongly appreciated for its practical relevance. PhD candidates indicate that clear overviews and shared competency vocabulary help them articulate their strengths more confidently, particularly in job interviews. The combination of competences, interests, career drivers and company cultures also broadens their perspective, opening up roles and career paths they had not previously considered.
This positive experience is reflected in the overall evaluation:
71% of users rate MyCareerCompass as good to very good.
71%
A long lasting partnership
KU Leuven has been working with myCareerCompanion for a couple of years now. We established a very close and steady relationship with several members of the Career Center.
Tekst beter uitwerken en quote toevoegen
Quote Veronique.
— Veronique Meert, Team Manager Career Center KU Leuven
Looking ahead
KU Leuven plans to continue working with myCareerCompanion on refinement and expansion, for PhD’s and other target groups within the University.
Tekst beter uitwerken en nieuwe services toevoegen?