Just as your scholarly work rests on a strong disciplinary foundation, your professional growth rests on a strong personal and strategic one. This page will help you build both at once: creating your Career Development Plan (CDP), the outline of your goals that guides your training throughout the year, and gaining foundational knowledge about yourself as an emerging professional. Together, these form the foundation everything else builds on.
Creating Your Personal Career Development Plan
- Career Development Plan
-
A Career Development Plan (CDP), also known as an Individual Development Plan (IDP), is a very useful tool to help you map and track your career development strategies, and is one of the most important things you can do for yourself to ensure that you have a productive year.
- Learn more about the CDP for postdocs and CDP for graduate students.
- After attending the required Orientation, postdocs will be sent a link to the online portal that will walk you step-by-step through the process of developing a personalized CDP.
- When filling out goals for the year, review resources, programming, and opportunities at the following pages to see what you want to include in your plan that will help you achieve your goals:
- Learning Communities, Career Specific page, Career Transition page; upcoming Essential Skills sessions, Career Development sessions, and Research Series sessions; and upcoming courses for HS trainees.
View samples of completed postdoctoral career development plans below:
Resources for Building a Strong Foundation
- Facilitated Learning
-
- Foundations of Successful Career Planning and Development: For both graduate students and postdocs, this course provides foundational training in career planning and professional development and spans a consecutive Fall and Spring term. Registration begins in the fall semester
- Personal Assessments to Launch (PerL) Program: participate in a cohort-based, guided program (if one is available) that will walk you through the process of identifying your skills, values and interests, exploring careers that match them, and then evaluating those careers to find the best fit for you!
- Self-Guided Self-Assessments
-
- ImaginePhD: Take their assessments and learn your top interests, skills, and values
- Life Values Inventory: A values clarification & personal development program that helps you assess your values and presents strategies for future development
- MyIDP: Assessment tools to help you examine your skills, interests, and values to better set goals for the career path that best suits you
- Personal Assessments to Launch (PerL) Program: participate in a self-guided version of the program that will walk you through the process of identifying your skills, values and interests, exploring careers that match them, and then evaluating those careers to find the best fit for you!
How You Will Benefit
Gain personal insight relative to your skills, interests, and values
Regardless of your career path, understanding your professional strengths and personal motivations and having a plan for professional development will lead to more focused career exploration strategies and more fulfilling career outcomes.
Develop a holistic approach to professional success and personal satisfaction
Having a career development plan, foundational knowledge, personal reflection, and self-awareness will best prepare you to make career choices that enhance your life and complement your lifestyle choices.
What's Next
Next ADAPT TM Stage - Learning Communities >