I am proud to be the co-organizer of the CarSem event, the MPA/MPE/LMU/ESO joint Career Seminar. I revived the old MPA/MPE CarSem event to include the neighboring astronomy institutes in Munich, LMU and ESO. With the generous help of the other co-organizers, we are on a mission to create a platform where astronomers in Munich can learn more about possible career paths and opportunities. 

We invite people who used to be astronomers, and transitioned to jobs outside of academia to come back and give informal seminars on their career paths. We also include academic career talks, for example, the yearly seminar "how to apply for your first postdoc job" (given by myself and my colleague Maria Jose Maureira) aimed at senior graduate students, as well as workshops on how to apply for funding and research jobs within Europe. 

As researchers, we often work in an environment where few talk about the big elephant in the room: the lack of permanent positions in academia. Surveys and studies showed again and again that graduate students and postdocs in many research fields including astronomy suffer from a much higher rate of mental health issues such as anxiety and depression than the general population, and this is linked to the lack of job security. I have had many struggles myself (see my blog for example). This my project to help myself, and also hopefully help others in a similar situation, to learn and embrace all the opportunities and joy that life can offer, no matter whether we stay in academia or not.