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Career Planning Tools

Talent is only the beginning...

Career planning tools such as the ones mentioned below are useful to 1) set goals for your career (your research and your professional development both long and short-term), and 2) identify steps towards achieving those goals (for example when to take a certain course or when to apply for fellowships etc.). In addition, the career planning process will increase your awareness of your skills and help you feel empowered in the development of your future career.

Below is a brief description of different tools that we recommend as support for your career development planning.

Discuss your plans

We recommend that you discuss your plans with your PI/Professor/Head of Department so that you - in collaboration with him or her - can make an action plan of realistic steps that you can take to help build a desired skill, better use of existing talents, or prepare for a career goal.

Your development plans will also be discussed in your annual MUS (staff development dialogue SDD).

Vitae

We recommend looking at Vitae, which is a British organisation focusing on the professional development of researchers. On their website you can find interesting publications about career development and researcher destinations and other interesting publications regarding topics such as career development. Aarhus University has pr. September 2019 become a member of the Vitae community, which means all AU researchers now have access to Vitae online resources, which are continually being refreshed. As a AU researcher you have access to:

  • Professional Development Planning section
  • Vitae Researcher Development Framework and information
  • sheets
  • Online Professional Development Planning course
  • Career management for researchers’ section on website
  • CV planning
  • Career stories of researchers who have stayed in and left
  • academia
  • Career destinations in What do researchers do?  

 

To make full use of the Vitae resources register with your AU email address.

The Marie Curie Actions

This is a word document designed for Marie Curie career development plans and it deals with both long and short-term planning. It focuses on goals within your research project and includes suggestions to different objectives that should be accomplished during your project. In order to break the goals and objectives into concrete next steps, we suggest using the S.M.A.R.T. goal approach.

MyIDP

We recommend using the free, online, interactive myIDP from ScienceCareers/AAAS. This IDP tool was developed by a team of scientists and career advisors for trainees in biomedical/STEM sciences. In addition to setting goals for research projects, it encourages exploration of a full range of career options, and involves a four-phase process: Self-assessment (skills, interests, and values), Career Exploration, Goal Setting, and Implementation. It includes the following features:

  • Exercise to help you examine your skills, interests, and values
  • A list of 20 scientific career paths with a prediction of which ones best fit your skills and interests
  • A tool for setting strategic goals for the coming year, with optional reminders to keep you on track
  • Articles, guides, and other ressources
  • Related videos to the IDP and career planning

 

Learn more about the IDP process and using myIDP here: http://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2012/09/you-need-game-plan

ImaginePhD

ImaginePhD is a free online career exploration and planning tool for postdocs and PhD students in the humanities and social sciences. It is a resource that can help bridge the knowledge gap between doctoral education and the realm of career possibilities. ImaginePhD is designed to meet this need by allowing users to:

  • assess their career-related skills, interests, and values
  • explore career paths appropriate to their disciplines
  • create self-defined goals
  • map out next steps for career and professional development success
Revised 18.08.2022
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Lonni Klitgaard