(gentle music)
- Some of you might be thinking about creating a plan
and feel very excited about it.
I would love to pull out my calendar, type out all my goals,
have it all set and have my plan laid out ahead of me.
Others of your might be thinking, you know, a plan,
that seems way too restrictive.
And you might even be feeling like you're recoiling
in disgust.
But I want to share with you that planning
doesn't have to be so restrictive.
- So instead of just developing that research project
in the first year and going through general exams
and then thinking, oh I'll have it all figured out,
it might be worthwhile to check in regularly with yourself
to see are you still on track of what
you actually want to do.
And that can sometimes be a little bit hard
if you just have to do it by yourself,
and it can also be hard to ask the right questions.
But one tool that can be very useful for that
is a so-called individual development plan.
- So what is an individual development plan, or IDP?
And IDP is, in reality, just a plan.
A plan for how to think about the way that you need
to develop as you move forward in your training
and towards your future career.
An individual development plan is about your development,
that is your development in the skills that you have,
your development as a researcher, and your development
as a future professional.
It's an individual development plan because you make
the plan yourself.
It's about your own goals,
and you're the one who drives those goals.
And it's a plan in that it will be ideal if the plan
has structured actions to achieve those goals.
- And so there are different versions of those available.
We actually have one in the lab that I ask every lab member,
independent of whether they're a graduate student
or postdoc, to do at least once a year.
And so this individual development plan actually prompts you
with certain questions to assess where you are
and where you want to go.
So it will ask you what do you think your strengths are,
what do you think your weaknesses are, what are your goals
for the next year, but also what are you goals
for the next five years.
And so I think it's a very good tool to basically
check in on your status quo, and also maybe
if your goals have shifted.
- So the value of having an individual development plan
is that you can be strategic in how you spend your time.
You can focus on the goals that are the highest priority
to you, and you can advocate for yourself.
By advocating for yourself,
I mean that you can approach mentors or research advisors
and ask for the resources that you need,
ask for the help that you need, and make sure that you have
the similar expectations that they have for your progress.
And overall, those are some of the benefits
of having individual development plan.