...A year before completing your Ph.D. or fellowship, start building your plan, advises Susan Morris, a career coach with Morris Consulting Group in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Self-assessment is the crucial first step. Ask yourself some key questions. Take time to think carefully—and be honest.
1. What are your greatest successes? What do you love about what you do? What inspires you to keep working in this area? Have you had a stimulating internship, job, or project outside your current focus? It's vital to identify the work elements you care most about.
2. What kinds of settings do you like picturing yourself in? Is it an office at a company, in a government agency, or at an academic institution; indoors, outdoors, or in a lab?
3. Which options do you already think about? Do you know anyone with that sort of job? For an IDP, it's valuable to get a realistic picture of it on a day-to-day level.
4. Consider work style and personality. Would you rather be part of a team, or work mostly on your own, meeting occasionally with colleagues? Are you comfortable with grant-seeking and publication needs? Would you enjoy mentoring or management as everyday responsibilities? How much autonomy or structure do you need?
5. Look at external factors. Is family time, or an easy commute, significant? Is high salary a priority?
Career planning is interactive. Thoroughly assessing your strengths requires checking with mentors, colleagues, or friends who've seen you in various roles. We barely notice things we do effortlessly—like organizing or informally leading people—but they're touchstones in career assessment.
Use established services, such as your university's career planning office. Your specialty's professional association, or cross-discipline national groups like Association for Women in Science, may have volunteer career advisors. FASEB's online tools can ease the IDP process...
