Create Your Plan
To be successful both in graduate school and beyond, it is important to: define your priorities; identify resources and areas of development; develop goals and a timeline; follow through with your plan; reflect on your achievements and growth; and reevaluate your plan periodically to make adjustments as your interests, skills, and goals evolve. Cornell has a range of resources to help you with every step in this process鈥攕uch as personal assessments or a goal-setting tool called an individual development plan (IDP)鈥攚hich are listed in more detail below.
Cornell Resources to Help You Create Your Plan
Self-Assessments
All graduate students are encouraged to meet with a Cornell career advisor to take an assessment to understand their personality, interests, values, and career goals. Postdocs may discuss their interests, values, and career goals with Christine Holmes (ch18@cornell.edu), director of the Office of Postdoctoral Studies.
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- Ask yourself to identify your career goals, interests, and skills.
External Resources
Individual Development Plan (IDP)
The IDP is an excellent tool for self-assessment and developing goals for yourself during your academic years and beyond. Although you can create your IDP by yourself, graduate students and postdocs often find that co-developing their IDP with their faculty mentor is a good way to ensure there is awareness and support of their career plans.
IDPs for humanities and social science fields:
- (all fields in the humanities and social sciences)
- (all fields)
- (for postdocs in all fields but could be used for graduate students)
IDPs for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields:
- (all STEM fields)
- (all fields)
- (for postdocs in all fields but could be used for graduate students)
- (for chemical scientists)
- (for bioscience fields)
Books, References
- Do What You Are: Discover the Perfect Career For You Through the Secrets of Personality Type by Paul Tieger (available in 103 Barnes Hall and Cornell Library System)
- So What Are You Going To Do With That? A Guide to Career-Changing for M.A.s and Ph.D.s by Susan Basalla and Maggie Debelius (available in 103 Barnes Hall and Cornell Library System)
- Effective Phrases for Performance Appraisals: A Guide to Successful Evaluations by James Neal, Jr. (available in Cornell Library System)