Designing Your Future /Ingenium Senior School, MTU, May 2026
The two Design Your Future sessions at Ingenium Senior school in MTU are designed to support you in career planning and development decisions and to guide you on how to build your profile as a researcher.
The sessions will be facilitated by Mary-Rose O’Sullivan, MA Applied Psychology, B.Ed, Careers Advisor and Career Coach in MTU, Cork, who supports researchers’ career development in MTU and has delivered the Design Your Future elective module in MTU since 2019/ 2020.
Session 1 (Monday at 4pm) covers:
- How careers have evolved in 21st Century
- The career planning process
- The role of self-awareness in career decisions.
Session 2 (Thursday at 9am) covers:
- Building your professional identity as a researcher
- Working your LinkedIn profile
- How to approach network building
The two sessions are extracts from the Design Your Future programme offered by MTU and open next year to Ingenium researchers,
The module provides a supportive space for researchers to step back from their academic work and actively reflect on their long-term career goals.
Throughout the module, participants build self-awareness through a range of assessments and explore their personal strengths, values, and motivations. The programme introduces key career theories and encourages students to apply them in today’s rapidly evolving global landscape, shaped by technological change and the growing influence of AI.
Students are guided through a structured career planning process, while also developing essential skills and competencies needed for success in research and beyond. Practical elements of the module include networking strategies, effective use of LinkedIn, personal branding, and goal setting.
Overall, Design Your Future equips researchers with the insight, confidence, and tools to make informed career decisions, helping them navigate their professional paths with clarity and purpose.
