This portal is a one-stop career development resource for both postdocs and faculty mentors to manage and maximize the growth and development of postdoctoral trainees.
The Postdoctoral Career Development and Progress Assessment Process in the health sciences distinguishes our training environment as one in which all emerging investigators are afforded the level of guidance and mentoring necessary to achieve successful and satisfying careers, regardless of their career paths.
This process, which is now completely online, involves three components that will increase the probability of a postdoc achieving their career goals:
- New postdocs automatically receive an email invitation to attend a Postdoctoral Career Development Orientation within the first 45 days of their appointment. This session introduces postdocs to the Postdoctoral Career Development and Progress Assessment Process and postdocs are provided instructions on maximizing the use of the Health Sciences Postdoctoral Career Development Portal.
- Postdocs use the Portal to propose a Career Development Plan for their faculty mentor’s review and approval. This plan identifies the postdoc’s long-term and short-term objectives, which they and their faculty mentor mutually agree to be important milestones in their scientific and professional development.
- At the end of the postdoc’s annual appointment, the faculty mentor will complete a Postdoctoral Progress Assessment to provide the postdoc constructive feedback on their core postdoctoral research competencies and performance factors as well as critique their progress towards their customized career goals as articulated in their Career Development Plan.
All Postdoctoral Associates and Postdoctoral Scholars in the schools of the health sciences must complete a Career Development Plan annually and receive a Postdoctoral Progress Assessment prior to being reappointed.
Emails to postdocs and faculty mentors will prompt actions to be completed within the postdoc portal.
For questions or assistance, email postdoc@hs.pitt.edu
Before accessing the on-line Postdoctoral Career Development Portal, please see guidance below for each section.
- Appointment Information
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Appointment Information has been prepopulated from university personnel records. Postdocs should notify their faculty mentors of any discrepancies so that their records can be updated.
Required within the first 90 days:
- Mentoring Team
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A mentoring team will further enhance the postdoctoral experience by providing holistic support and expanded networks. The primary mentor will automatically appear online whereas, after consulting with their primary faculty mentor, postdocs are required to identify a minimum of two additional individuals who will comprise their mentoring team. Co-mentors contribute to a postdoc’s scientific, professional, and/or career development and can be outside the university or outside of academia.
- Identifying and Working With a Mentoring Team
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Every postdoc is expected to build relationships with faculty members and professionals other than his or her primary faculty mentor. To help you build initial relationships, consult with your primary faculty mentor to identify two faculty members or professionals in addition to your primary faculty mentor to serve as members of your mentoring team. In some cases, a school may assign faculty representatives to serve this role for the school’s postdoc community. If this is the practice in your school, your primary faculty mentor will introduce you to these individuals. If not, we recommend that you discuss with your primary faculty mentor who might be well suited to serve on your mentoring team.
These individuals should be accessible to you, knowledgeable in your area of research, and complement your career goals. Take the initiative and help your primary faculty mentor to identify who might be able to contribute to your scientific and professional development, especially if you are interested in a career outside of academia.
It will be your primary faculty mentor’s responsibility to help you initiate contact with the members of your mentoring team. However, after that, you will be responsible for developing and managing your relationships with these two individuals. Establish a pattern of communicating that fits your needs and accommodates your mentoring team members’ schedules and preferences. Your primary faculty mentor will be seeking feedback from your mentoring team members, at least quarterly, with regard to your scientific and professional maturation.
You are to identify the members of your mentoring team on your Career Development Plan and these members may change during the course of your training as needed or as necessary. Do not limit your interactions to only those who are officially designated as part of your mentoring team. Use these individuals to help you meet other colleagues and develop additional mentoring relationships so that you cultivate a rich network of support during your postdoctoral training.
- Career Goals
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To help postdocs identify appropriate goals and steps for their career development in the short-term, it is often helpful for postdocs to identify longer term professional objectives even if they are uncertain of their career goals. Postdocs can choose from a drop-down list of employment sectors (academia, government, for-profit, non-profit, and other) and roles within those sectors. This section does not limit a postdoc from choosing multiple employment sectors or roles. Faculty mentors should encourage postdocs to explore a wide range of careers paths as a standard component of their career development.
- Career Development Plan
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A Postdoctoral Career Development Plan identifies a postdoc’s long-term and short-term objectives that the faculty mentor and postdoctoral trainee have identified as important steps in the postdoc’s scientific and professional development. This annual plan, mutually agreed upon by both the faculty mentor and postdoc, serves as the benchmark from which the postdoc’s progress is assessed.
This automated process is initiated upon the postdoc’s completion of their Postdoctoral Career Development Orientation scheduled within the first 45 days of their initial appointment.
- This plan is required to be completed no later than 90 days after the postdoc completes their Postdoctoral Career Development Orientation.
- An updated plan is required as a condition of reappointment.
Emails to postdocs and faculty mentor will prompt actions to be completed.
As we transition from a paper to an on-line process, postdocs with contracts in progress will be prompted to submit their initial online Career Development Plans at the time of their reappointments.
CAREER DEVELOPMENT PLAN MODULES
The core criteria of a successful postdoctoral experience are listed below. Each module is optional based upon a postdoc’s individual situation and their stage of training. These modules are accessed on-line through a menu on the left of the screen. Short-term goals, such as learning objectives and skill acquisition, may be established annually, whereas long-term goals might be established initially and revisited as needed.
1. Research Activities Such as specific experiments, data collection, analysis, patents to file, or any other research-related activity, etc. 2. Training Examples include responsible conduct of research or discipline-specific training, courses, etc. 3. Presentation Opportunities As part of journal clubs or lab meetings, at local, regional, or national conferences, etc. 4. Publication Plans Developing abstracts, review papers, or manuscripts, etc. you plan to develop in the next year 5. Research Funding Exploring internal, federal, foundational sources of support and preparing applications, etc. 6. Essential Professional Skills Examples include professional skills applicable to any career path such as networking, mentoring, written and verbal communication skills, management, leadership, etc. 7. Career Specific Skills Those applicable to specific employment sectors such as academia, government, profit or non-profit settings. May include instructional, clinical, or applied skills; finance or statistics; as well as general career exploration, etc. 8. Career Transition Preparation may include job search skills particular to a specific career path, developing a resume/CV, interview skills, teaching portfolios, etc. 9. Review Plan Action required by postdoc to submit their Career Development Plan to their faculty mentor for their review and response. Co-mentors may also be included in the review process, however only the primary faculty mentor can approve a plan. Faculty mentors will be prompted to 1) Review the submitted Career Development Plan and 2) Respond by changing the status to “Accepted” with or without comments, or “Not Accepted” where comments are required and the postdoc is provided the opportunity to respond.
Emails to postdocs and faculty mentors will prompt actions to be completed.
Advance through these sections throughout the year:
- Appointment Information
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Appointment Information has been prepopulated from university personnel records. Postdocs should notify their faculty mentors of any discrepancies so that their records can be updated.
- Current CV
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Postdocs should update their CVs annually and upload the most recent copy so it is readily available to their faculty mentor or others upon request.
- Research IDs
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Postdocs record their eRA Commons name and ORCID.
- Presentations
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Postdocs record the presentations that they complete under the supervision of their current primary faculty mentor. This becomes a transcript of productivity within their current training program, whereas a postdoc’s CV documents all academic experiences.
- Publications
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Postdocs record all published work that they complete under the supervision of their current primary faculty mentor. This becomes a transcript of productivity within their current training program, whereas a postdoc’s CV documents all academic experiences.
- Grants
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Postdocs record the grant funding that they have been awarded under the supervision of their current primary faculty mentor. This becomes a transcript of productivity within their current training program, whereas a postdoc’s CV documents all academic experiences.
- Progress Assessment
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Faculty mentors complete an annual Postdoctoral Progress Assessment to provide their trainees constructive feedback on their core postdoctoral research competencies and performance factors as well as to critique their progress towards their customized career goals as articulated in their Career Development Plans. This form is required to be completed by faculty mentors annually and reviewed with their postdocs prior to a reappointment being approved. This assessment form is recommended although not required if a postdoc is not having their appointment renewed.
In cases where a faculty mentor is not reappointing a postdoc, they must be provided 90-day written notice of the nonrenewal of their postdoctoral appointment in advance of the expiration of their contract. If not, existing contracts must be extended to comply with this 90-day nonrenewal notice policy.
A faculty mentor can use a Postdoctoral Progress Assessment form at any point during a postdoctoral appointment to document the need for a Postdoctoral Performance Improvement Plan. See instructions under OPTIONAL: Performance Improvement Plan.
Emails to faculty mentors and postdoc department administrators will prompt actions to be completed.
- OPTIONAL: Performance Improvement Plan
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Faculty mentors with any concerns about their postdoc’s performance or progress, should contact the Center for Postdoctoral Affairs in the Health Sciences at postdoc@hs.pitt.edu for a consultation with the director and to receive guidance on whether a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) is warranted, or whether another intervention or referral would be beneficial. Postdoctoral contracts are legally binding, and postdocs are protected by federal labor laws. Postdoc appointments cannot be terminated early due to a lack of progress unless an official PIP is overseen by the director of the Center for Postdoctoral Affairs in the Health Sciences.
If it is determined that initiating a PIP is the best course of action to improve the postdoc’s training experience, the director will help the faculty mentor develop a PIP. The director will monitor the execution of this plan in three 30-day increments, scheduling a PIP review meeting with both the faculty mentor and the postdoc, for an update and review every 30 days. This ensures that the postdoc is provided three consecutive months (90-days) to demonstrate their ability to meet their faculty mentor’s expectations while receiving feedback and being provided strategies for improvement. If progress has been demonstrated and the faculty mentor’s expectations have been met, the PIP would be concluded as successfully completed. The postdoc would then finish the remainder of their postdoctoral appointment.
If a postdoc fails to demonstrate progress after this 90-day timeframe, the postdoc’s appointment can be terminated early. In lieu of a pending termination, a postdoc can voluntarily resign. In this case, the director can advise both the faculty mentor and the postdoc regarding options and consequences.
Visit the Postdoctoral Career Development and Progress Assessment Process portal here>>