Having a vision for yourself and your career and engaging in regular planning and reviewing is the starting point to answer these questions.
Having both a long-term vision and goals for the shorter term will underpin your career development decisions and priorities. Your vision will help you to create an action plan, stay motivated, access resources, and engage others in supporting you.
Your plans might change, and you should expect them amend them as you and the world around you change and develop, so ensure you regularly review and adapt your plans, skills and the needs of your current role.
These resources will help you think about your vision, to engage actively in development reviews, and make suitable plans.
Resources
Annual Review Conversation (ARC):
Engage fully in your ARC with your PI or line manager. This will be instrumental to your career development and encourage ongoing feedback and support from your manager. Everything you need to carry out your ARC is here.
10 days development planners:
Development planning tools to reflect, review, plan and record your 10 development days.
Examples of experiences to gain and skills to develop:
If you are looking for inspiration, take a look at our lists of skills and experiences arranged across four categories, to ensure you have breadth to your development plans.
Further resources that will help you to plan and review:
Career Goals video and tip sheet from the ECRI: These will support you while reflecting and planning concrete steps to achieve your goals. Your goals can change, so revisit these resources as needed.
Research Vision video and tip sheet from the ECRI: if you want to carry on in an academic career you should have a clear vision of where your research will take you, what will be your next challenge and what is your longer-term ambition. This resource can be revisited as often as needed.
Having a vision and being strategic in your career: Two videos in our Academic’s Success Guide will help you to think about the big picture vision for your career and then turn it in to a plan:
- Part 1: envisioning the future
- Part 2: Practical ways to turn your vision in to a plan
The videos are aimed at careers in research but can be interpreted for any context.
Stock takes to review career progress: A video that takes you through a structured review of what’s working and not working now in your career. Use it periodically to review your career or your capacity to perform well in your current role. This useful set of questions will help you to articulate what you need and prioritise your next steps.