Find your career path
Are you a PhD candidate, postdoc, researcher or (assistant/associate) professor?
And not sure about your next career step?
Start exploring your research career options in the Netherlands! Our Career Navigator will make it easier for you to choose which sector and research position suits you. Gather all the information you need to make a profound decision about your next career move.
Why doing research in the Netherlands?
- Excellent research: all Dutch universities are among the top 2% of universities worldwide
- The Netherlands ranks 2nd worldwide in publications per researcher and citation impact score
- A broad variety of research subjects: agriculture, behaviour and society, economics, engineering, food, health, language and culture, law, natural sciences
- Best non-native English speaking country
- Almost never tuition fees to do a four-year PhD trajectory
- Dutch innovative top sectors are among the best in the world: agri & food, water, logistics, high tech, energy, horticulture, IT, chemistry, life sciences and creative industries
- Great place to live and centrally located in Europe
Explore research career paths in the Netherlands
Figuring out what you would like to do in your career isn't always easy. Especially when you are a researcher specialized in a very specific field. As an academic you often have to deal with short-term contracts. This means you also have to think about your next career step more often. There is a lot of competition, and sometimes you might even doubt if you should stay in academia. But what are your career options as a researcher?
To help you broaden your horizon and explore career paths for researchers in the Netherlands, we have created the Career Navigator.
How to navigate your career
With the Career Navigator you can discover what it is like to do research in six sectors in the Netherlands: academia, universities of applied sciences, industry, not-for-profit, government and start-up.
By navigating our career journey map and clicking on the positions, you will find the following information:
- Facts & figures: job descriptions, tasks, required skills and a salary indication
- How to get to your next position: advice from an expert in that sector
- Personal stories: experiences from researchers who just took that career step
- Timeline: updates and posts about interesting career events
"I believe the most important lesson from my career path is to start thinking about your options early."
Interesting for you
On AcademicsConnected, you will also find the following services that might help you finding your research job in the Netherlands:
- Career Reflector: take a free self-assessment to get a better understanding of your talents and skills
- CV Match: find jobs that match your profile
- Research Match: find jobs that match your research
- Job alert: get new research jobs automatically in your mailbox