Building an Actionable Career Plan
Transitioning to a Postdoc Position
Using the content below, you will begin to plan for a fulfilling career – whatever that might be for you. You’ll look ahead to your next career step and incorporate your short-term goals into a longer-term career plan. Since there’s many different stages to career planning, we’ll provide you with two options for exploring the career planning process. You can choose your own adventure, if you will.
Course Module Introduction
Reframing Introduction
Learning Objectives
- Recognize strategies to use different types of career planning tools effectively.
- Describe and prioritize your goals for your postdoc and connect them to longer-term career goals or ideas.
- Write a career plan, mapping identified goals onto a timeline and the milestones you need to achieve in order to be successful.
- Integrate career planning processes and reflections into day-to-day practice.
Activities
- The Postdoc Academy has begun!Read more about the creation of the Postdoc Academy here.
- A New Podcast Featuring the Postdoc AcademyListen to an episode of the podcast, “When Science Speaks”, and hear Multi-PI Sarah Hokanson talk about the Postdoc Academy and her advice for postdocs.
- Follow the Postdoc Academy on Social Media
- Join the Postdoc Academy Feedback Sessions!Are you a postdoc looking for an opportunity to be involved with the Postdoc Academy before it launches? We want to hear from you and would like to postdocs of all stages and disciplines to join our online feedback group. We have three sessions scheduled over the next month! Each feedback session will be held on Zoom, and postdocs will review content of the first course. You will provide feedback in response to a few short prompts. You’ll receive swag and a gift card for participating! Sign Up: www.tinyurl.com/PostdocAcademyApril
- NIH BEST Blog featuring the Postdoc AcademyAdriana Bankston highlighted our project, why it’s needed, and the ways for postdocs to get involved. Check it out: http://www.nihbest.org/news/the-postdoc-academy-a-national-project-for-postdocs/
Wrap-Up
Course Module References
- Gibbs, Kenneth D Jr, and Kimberly A Griffin. “What do I want to be with my PhD? The roles of personal values and structural dynamics in shaping the career interests of recent biomedical science PhD graduates.” CBE life sciences education, vol. 12, no. 4, 2013.
- Gibbs, Kenneth D, John McGready, and Kimberly Griffith. “Career Development among American Biomedical Postdocs.” CBE life sciences education, vol. 12, no. 4, 2015.
- “Informational Interview Guide.” InterSECT Job Simulations.
- Layton, Rebekah L et al. “Diversity Exiting the Academy: Influential Factors for the Career Choice of Well-Represented and Underrepresented Minority Scientists.” CBE life sciences education, vol. 15, no. 3 2016.
- Sinche, Melanie et al. “An evidence-based evaluation of transferable skills and job satisfaction for science PhDs.” PLOS ONE, vol. 12, no. 9, 2017.
Additional Resources
Assessment Tools
- Myers-Briggs Personality Type
- SkillScan: Identify your transferrable skills
- DiSC Profile: Determine your behavioral tendencies and preferences
Career Exploration
- Science Careers: STEM-focused blogs
- Beyond Academia: Graduate student-run, highlights non-academic careers
- Beyond the Professoriate: Focuses on non-faculty careers
- InterSECT Job Simulations: Simulate daily tasks from different career paths (STEM and humanities)
- The Versatile PhD: View job application materials, new Options4Success course
Career Planning
- Beyond the Tenure Track: Weekly organizer for job searching
- Jobs on Toast: Blogs and podcast interviews to learn how to market yourself
- The Professor Is In: Job application and interview guidance
- myIDP: STEM-focused Individual Development Plan
- Imagine PhD: Humanities and social science-focused