THURSDAY GATHERING #56 Career Lab: Experiment, Position, Get Hired
TO REGISTER GO TO: venturecafeberlin.gatherus.app
Careers today are no longer linear — they are experimental, strategic, and deeply personal. This edition of Thursday Gathering focuses on how students, professionals, and career switchers can rethink how they position themselves, build agency, and navigate an increasingly competitive job market.
From reimagining employee experience to developing personal audacity and mastering modern job-hunting strategies, the evening brings together perspectives from education, psychology, and career design. Expect practical insights, reflective exercises, and actionable frameworks to help you move from uncertainty to direction.
From Campus to Corporate: A Student Team’s Take on Redesigning Employee Experience
🕔 17:15 – 18:00
A student-led perspective on how the transition from education to the workplace can be reimagined. This session explores changing expectations around work, collaboration, culture, and employee experience through the lens of the next generation entering the workforce.
Speakers:
Nicolette Setty — Student, Forward College
Rebecca Poeck — Student, Forward College
Isaac Velez — Student, Forward College
💸 Think You’re Underpaid? Pay Transparency Is Coming In June 2026
🕕 18:00 PM – 18:30
Think you’re underpaid? According to employment lawyer Esther Anna Watorowski, if you’re a woman — there’s a good chance you are.
With the EU Pay Transparency Directive set to come into effect in June 2026, major changes are coming to how salaries are communicated, negotiated, and structured across Europe.
In this session, Berlin-based lawyer Esther Anna Watorowski breaks down what the directive actually means for employees and employers — and why companies should already be preparing now.
Speaker: Esther Watorowski – Employment & IT Lawyer, Entrepreneur & Speaker
Audacity Builds Freedom
🕡 18:30 – 19:00
Speaker: Darya Kamkalova — Founder, Venturing Women
AI can write, build, analyse, and optimise. The one thing it cannot do is decide that your life needs to change — and then take responsibility for changing it.
In a world where skills, information, and even creativity are becoming increasingly accessible, agency becomes one of the most valuable human qualities. And when agency meets resistance — from systems, industries, culture, or your own habits — it must evolve into something stronger: audacity.
Through stories and hands-on exercises, this interactive session explores how to strengthen your “audacity muscle” and create a life based on your own decisions rather than inherited expectations.
Participants will leave with practical reflections and one powerful question designed to reshape how they approach future decisions.
90-Days to Hired: Smarter Job Hunting in Europe 🌍
🕢 19:15 – 19:45
Speaker: Vanessa Wachtmeister — Founder & Creator, Go Onwards
Job hunting in 2026 is exhausting. Employers search for “perfect candidates” while professionals are expected to suddenly become experts in personal branding, networking, and application strategy.
This practical workshop is designed for people who are tired of sending applications into the void and want a smarter, more strategic approach to finding opportunities in Europe.
Topics include:
Why the market feels so difficult right now
Building a job-search strategy around the right opportunities
Optimising LinkedIn to attract recruiters
Finding lower-competition roles and standing out as a candidate
The networking and offline strategies that actually open doors
Hosted by Vanessa Wachtmeister and Go Onwards — Europe’s borderless job platform helping professionals discover opportunities across 30+ countries.
Come ready to take notes. Leave with a real plan.
🎟️ Free & open to all
Full agenda will be announced at venturecafeberlin.org