Putting PhDs to Work: Career Planning for Today's Scientist

Hobin, Jennifer A.; Clifford, Philip S.; Dunn, Ben M.; Rich, Susan D.; Justement, Louis B.

doi:10.1187/cbe-13-04-0085

Cited by 32 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Advisor Buy-In Some of our experiences and feedback point to the importance of advisor buy-in and engagement, consistent with other studies that find advisees are more likely to value the IDP process if their advisor also does (e.g., Hobin et al, 2014). In other words, this process is not a fix for a disengaged advisor or one who is dismissive of non-academic careers.…”

Section: Expanded Mentoring Networksupporting

confidence: 87%

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Individual Development Plans (IDPs): An Underutilized Advising Tool in the Geosciences

Eason¹,

Bruno²,

Böttjer-Wilson³

2020

GSAT

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Section: Expanded Mentoring Networksupporting

confidence: 87%

“…While data on IDP effectiveness are sparse and generally based on small sample sets, initial studies are promising (e.g., Tsai et al, 2018). A 2014 survey of postdocs (Hobin at al., 2014) found relatively low usage rates but high perceived value among those who had used IDPs (71% of postdocs, 90% of mentors).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Individual Development Plans (IDPs): An Underutilized Advising Tool in the Geosciences

Eason¹,

Bruno²,

Böttjer-Wilson³

2020

GSAT

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“…Compared to the 2014 study in which 19% of postdoctoral researchers used the IDP and 71% of users found it valuable 4 , the current data suggests that there has been a general increase in IDP usage among postdoctoral researchers with 54.1% of respondents in this study indicating that they are required to complete an IDP while its perceived value has decreased to less than 40%.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 80%

“…The Individual Development Plan was first introduced by the U.S. Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology in 2002, and in 2014 the National Institutes of Health implemented a policy requiring the reporting of the tool's use by graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in grant progress reports [1][2][3] . Also in 2014, 19% of postdoctoral researchers were shown to use the IDP with 71% of those users finding it valuable 4 . We recently conducted a multi-institutional study on the use and effectiveness of the IDP in 663 PhD students and found that 57% completed an IDP and 51% of users reported it being useful to their career development 5 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use and effectiveness of the Individual Development Plan among postdoctoral researchers: findings from a cross-sectional study

Vanderford

Evans²,

Weiss

et al. 2018

F1000Res

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The individual development plan (IDP) is a career planning tool that assists PhD trainees in self-assessing skills, exploring career paths, developing short- and long-term career goals, and creating action plans to achieve those goals. The National Institutes of Health and many academic institutions have created policies that mandate completion of the IDP by both graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Despite these policies, little information exists regarding how well the tool is used and whether it is useful to the career development of PhD trainees. Herein, we present data from a multi-institutional, online survey on the use and effectiveness of the IDP among a group of 183 postdoctoral researchers. The overall IDP completion rate was 54% and 38% of IDP users reported that the tool was helpful to their career development. Positive relationships with one’s advisor, confidence regarding completing training, one’s confidence about their post-training career, and a positive experience with institutional career development resources are associated with respondents’ perception that the IDP is useful for their career development. We suggest that there is a need to further understand the nuanced use and effectiveness of the IDP in general, to determine how to execute the use of the tool to maximize trainees’ career development, and to generally enhance the career development support for PhD trainees.

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“…With the added pressure of graduating in a timely fashion for PhD trainees and obtaining a tenure-track faculty position for postdoctoral scholars, little time is protected for trainees to focus on developing other necessary skills for successful careers [1, 12–15]. This suggests that colleges and universities should be striving to provide additional resources and support to graduate students and recent PhD graduates as they strive to obtain careers within nonacademic settings [1–3, 5, 9, 17–19]. More attention should be concentrated on educating trainees on career options and how to strengthen their transferable skills through engaging and relevant experiences.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preparing future professionals by enhancing workforce readiness

Norman-Burgdolf¹,

Vanderford²

2016

Nat Biotechnol

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Over the last decade, PhD trainees and postdoctoral scholars have become increasingly vocal regarding the misalignment in research training and career outcomes. With the unsettling shifts in the faculty job market, more and more new highly skilled PhDs are looking to transition into a variety of other professional careers despite lacking specific education and training for such careers. The Graduate School at the University of Kentucky has developed a “Preparing Future Professionals” course to help combat the absence of sufficient “work ready” education and preparedness for graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. This course allows students to self-reflect on potential careers and their own transferable skills, provides opportunities for student engagement with PhDs in a wide variety of careers and career development specialists, and allows students to practice critical elements of the job search process including resume and cover letter building and mock interviews. Within this article, we describe the format, topics, themes, strengths, and limitations of the course. By sharing this information, we hope to provide a template for other institutions to develop similar courses that will fulfill the needs of doctoral and postdoctoral trainees.

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Putting PhDs to Work: Career Planning for Today's Scientist

Abstract: The authors examined individual development plan (IDP) awareness and use, the benefits of creating an IDP, and ways to facilitate IDP use by administering surveys to postdoctoral researchers, mentors, and administrators.

Cited by 32 publications

References 14 publications

Individual Development Plans (IDPs): An Underutilized Advising Tool in the Geosciences

Individual Development Plans (IDPs): An Underutilized Advising Tool in the Geosciences

Use and effectiveness of the Individual Development Plan among postdoctoral researchers: findings from a cross-sectional study

Preparing future professionals by enhancing workforce readiness

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