ID-what? Individual Development Plans: What it is and why you need one!

Planning for the future can seem like a big, scary game of “what if.” As a graduate student, I often find myself focusing on short-term goals that align with the semester calendar. I can’t predict what the job markets will look like when I’m ready to defend, so how am I supposed to plan for this nebulous future? But this approach overlooks skills and interests that require cultivating and testing, and certain key steps I can take NOW to narrow down a life-direction. That way, when I get to even the scariest possible future, I’ll be best prepared. How? By creating an Individual Development Plan (IDP) through Imagine PhD. This internationally-recognized tool uses assessments of your skills, interests, and values to help you plan strategically for personalized futures that you would find both exciting and fulfilling. Originally developed for STEM students, IDPs not only help you name your individualized long-term goals but also show you some of the steps to take to reach them. Even better: ImaginePhD doesn’t ask questions about your current work. For example, let’s say you’re an English graduate student who has always had a secret love for the arts but have never known how to incorporate it into your scholarship or career goals. By focusing on who you are NOW, ImaginePhD helps you better articulate your passions (so that when you’re in an interview for your dream job, you’re as clear as possible) and shows you possible career paths to take.

Sounds great, right? How do you get one?

An IDP can take many forms but in this blog post we’re going to run through the online platform Imagine PhD, designed specifically for humanists and social scientists, but also widely used in the natural sciences. Once you’ve made an account (a less than 2-minute step), there are several assessments for interests, skills, and values. These were designed specifically for doctoral students to help us think more broadly about career paths.

I have to warn you, though, that you may actually enjoy filling these out! When I first visited the site at the beginning of the year, my goal was simply to see what Dean Hoock had repeatedly referenced. However, I ended up taking all of the assessments.

Graduate student, awe-struck by the plethora of opportunities ahead!

Here’s a screenshot from the ‘Interests,’ assessment section and my results, which were immediately posted to the front of my profile. 

screen shot of an interest assessment - various interest with individual rating scale of 1-5

 

screen shot of "Top 5 Interests" assessment. 1. Helping others 2. Design and aesthetics 3. Working with underserved communities and populations 4. connecting ideas from different fields 5. Networking and entertaining

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you’re feeling sheepish about this, no big deal – nobody can see your results but you.

What’s even better is that these assessments aren’t limiting (i.e. you’re not going to close your computer and go full-speed-ahead on the path to be a college counselor or a fundraising specialist). In fact, they never actually suggest a single career path. Instead, they are created to elucidate your strongest skills, including those that grew from your time as a doctoral student as well as those you’ve gleaned from other experiences. The goal is to think about careers broadly and thematically.

The skills and interests tests follow the same format, but by looking at them together, they highlight both what excites you as an individual and the skills that you possess (or where you need to improve), If, for example, I had listed that I had a strong interest in “Raising Funds” or “Analyzing Financial Data” (two real possibilities from the interests tests), but have do not feel comfortable with “Developing and Managing Budgets (from the skills section), I would know, right away, an area that I need to strengthen to find my most fulfilling career.

ImaginePhD is also especially effective at approaching careers from a holistic standpoint. For example, after my experience as a graduate student where I can set my own hours and work from anywhere, the idea of sitting at a desk for 40 hours a week seems incredibly limiting. The skills assessment portion has this covered, and many of the prompts relate to work environment and work-life balance. 

screen shot of value assessment. each element has an rating scale of 1-5






 

Similar to the Interests section, ImaginePhD then generates your top 5 skills based on how you answered the assessment: 

example of "Top 5 Skills" 1. work effectively with limited supervision 2. contributing to an institution 3. contributing to a discipline 4. Cultural competence 5. leading and motivating others

 

 

 

 

 

 

After narrowing down your interests and skills, we reach perhaps the most important portion of a career search: values. Many graduate students feel passionate about their research because of how it engages with a pressing problem in society, whether that’s racial or gender inequality or violence. The ‘Values’ section teases out your passions, apart from your doctoral research so that you can use them as the driving force behind a variety of careers.

Once you’ve taken an assessment, similar to the ones above, Imagine PhD actually ranks your priorities and allows YOU to put them in order. Because these values can change depending on life circumstances (family, income, location), this section can accommodate these major life events. Obviously a 1-4 scale is limiting, so maybe you couldn’t accurately communicate to the assessment just how important location or flexibility are to you in a career.  

screenshot of ranking your values. The ranks are most important, important, somewhat important, and not important

 

Once you’ve settled on a ranking, ImaginePhD gives a more in-depth explanation of what these values mean and how they can guide you towards a fulfilling career path. You’ll notice the key questions – these will help you when thinking about careers both on Imagine PhD and in the wider world. They’re precise enough that they’re tailored to you, but they’re broad enough that you can ask them in a variety of career settings. 

definition of Altruism and Ethics

 

When you return to your homepage, you will notice some circular buttons labeled with generic job families. I was immediately struck by the “Training” option because of the Rubens painting in the background (#ArtHistorian) and I didn’t understand the relationship between “Training” and museums.

screen shot of "homepage" on imaginePhD after assessment.





 

Senior Curator of Popular Culture? Program Director? Academic Outreach!? These sound awesome, and personally, really exciting. Even better – they’re general enough that they aren’t 1 in a million jobs. I could find something similar whether I live in Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, or Paris. 

If you read the sampled careers and think, “wow, those could be really good for me, but where do I start?” Imagine PhD lays out the next steps, both in terms of learning more AND making a game plan. 

 Next step suggestions by Imagine PhD - Explore, Connect, Build Skills, Apply

 

Head back over to your Profile page and you’ll see the “Your Plan.” In this section, you set goals for yourself in the following categories: Degree Completion, Course Requirements, Skill Development, and Money/Funding.

As graduate students, our life and work tend to blend together. The Goals section allows you to sort your created-goals thematically or see them all at once. I am especially glad for the “Personal Development,” section, as that is often put on the back burner once the semester starts. This Plan functions as a reminder that your personal goals, the non-Academic part of you, is just as important and valuable as the researcher.

My goals are listed below, each with its own designation, timeline, and even an alarm. You can even export your personalized goals to your iCal so that everything stays in one place. 

sample goals section of Kylie Seltzer (blog writer).

 

Feeling panicked about what types of goals are realistic? Or even worth setting, period? ImaginePhD has ‘suggestion goals,’ just to get you started and help you start thinking in smaller steps. 

examples of Career Development Goals. Conduct informational interview, create linkedin profile, update resume and CV

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great, you’ve completed the assessments and now you have a clearer idea of your general skills, interests, and values! But how do you present this information to your committee? Look out for a new post in the coming weeks about how to approach your advisor and how to bring what you’ve learned into your next committee meeting. I’ll be sharing a conversation I had with Randall Halle, the Director of Film and Media Studies, about career paths and advising students from the other side of the desk.

Kylie R.J. Seltzer 
PhD Candidate | Department of the History of Art and Architecture 
Graduate Student Assistant | "Humanities Careers" Project
 
kylieseltzer@pitt.edu