Individual Development Plan

“A goal without a plan is just a wish.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

What is an IDP?

An Individual Development Plan (IDP) is a living document that states your career goals, timelines, and action plans. IDP is one of the most important tools in your career development toolbox. The purpose of the IDP is to "provide a planning process that identifies both professional development needs and career objectives. Furthermore, IDPs serve as a communication tool between individuals and their mentors."

Core Competencies for an IDP

Texas Tech University adopted set of core competencies that we would like for the postdoctoral scholars to advance during their stay.

Discipline-Specific Conceptual Knowledge
Professional/Research Skill Development
Communication Skills
Professionalism
Leadership & Management Skills
Responsible Conduct of Research

Visit our core competencies page for more detailed description of core competencies and the National Postdoc Association website for a complete Postdoctoral Core Competency Toolkit

Developing the IDP

While developing an IDP may initially sounds like a unnecessary burden, the research shows that structured postdoctoral training program correlates with a successful postdoc experience (Davis, 2005). The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) provides free of charge an interactive, online version of IDP career planning tool called MyIDP. This tool guides users through the process of self-assessment, career exploration, and setting short- and long-term career goals. Below are couple of recommendations for use of the myIDP reproduced verbatum from Fuhrmann, Lindstaedt, Hobin, and Clifford (2012).

Begin using myIDP early in your doctoral or postdoctoral training.
Complete all of the myIDP exercises—but don't expect to complete them in a day, a week, or even a month. Career planning takes time, and should be an iterative process during which you periodically reassess your skills, values, interests, and career goals.
Take advantage of myIDP's career planning resources and those available at your institution and through your
disciplinary societies.
Print your myIDP goals and opt to receive deadline reminders to keep you on track.
Don't be afraid to discuss your career plans with your mentors.
Consider sharing all or part of your IDP during discussions with mentors. Make this a separate conversation, not tacked on to the end of a standard research-focused meeting.

Other IDP options include:

University of Southern California field-specific IDP templates for the humanities, sciences, and social sciences
University of Pennsylvania IDP for Postdocs
University of Minnesota Medical School IDP
Stanford University's Office of Postdoctoral Affairs IDP
Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology's Individual Development Plan

Understanding the IDP

In order to better understand the IDP process or in order to build your IDP without use of the myIDP tool please consider content presented below. The content presented below was authored by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology but has been adopted across a wide range of disciplines extending beyond science.

Individual Development Plans (IDPs) provide a planning process that identifies both professional development needs and career objectives. Furthermore, IDPs serve as a communication tool between individuals and their mentors. While IDPs have been incorporated into performance review processes in many organizations, they have been used much less frequently in the mentoring of postdoctoral fellows. An IDP can be considered one component of a broader mentoring program that needs to be instituted by all types of research institutions.

Goals

Help individuals identify:

Long-term career options they wish to pursue and the necessary tools to meet these; and
Short-term needs for improving current performance.

Benefits

Postdoctoral fellows will have a process that assists in developing long-term goals. Identifying short-term goals will give them a clearer sense of expectations and help identify milestones along the way to achieving specific objectives. The IDP also provides a tool for communication between the postdoc and a faculty mentor.

Outline of IDP Process

The development, implementation and revision of the IDP requires a series of steps to be conducted by the postdoctoral fellow and their mentor. These steps are an interactive effort, and so both the postdoctoral fellow and the mentor must participate fully in the process.

Basic Steps:

Conduct a self assessment
Survey opportunities with mentor
Write an IDP, share IDP with
mentor and revise
Implement the plan
Revise the IDP as needed

Execution of the IDP Process

Steps:

Conduct a Self Assessment
- Assess your skills, strengths and areas which need development. Formal assessment tools can be helpful. Example is available on FASEB's webiste.
- Take a realistic look at your current abilities. This is a critical part of career planning. Ask your peers, mentors, family and friends what they see as your strengths and your development needs.
- Outline your long-term career objectives. (For useful information see Resources: Career Opportunities at the end of this document). Ask yourself:
  - What type of work would I like to be doing?
  - Where would I like to be in an organization?
  - What is important to me in a career?
Survey Opportunities with Mentor
- Identify career opportunities and select from those that interest you.
- Identify developmental needs by comparing current skills and strengths with those needed for your career choice.
- Prioritize your developmental areas and discuss with your mentor how these should be addressed.
Write an IDP. The IDP maps out the general path you want to take and helps match skills and strengths to your career choices. It is a changing document, since needs and goals will almost certainly evolve over time as a postdoctoral fellow. The aim is to build upon current strengths and skills by identifying areas for development and providing a way to address these. The specific objectives of a typical IDP are to:
- Establish effective dates for the duration of your postdoctoral appointment.
- Identify specific skills and strengths that you need to develop (based on discussions with your mentor).
- Define the approaches to obtain the specific skills and strengths (e.g., courses, technical skills, teaching, supervision) together with anticipated time frames.
- Discuss your draft IDP with your mentor.
- Revise the IDP as appropriate.
Implement Your Plan. The plan is just the beginning of the career development process and serves as the road map. Now it's time to take action!
- Put your plan into action.
- Revise and modify the plan as necessary. The plan is not cast in concrete; it will need to be modified as circumstances and goals change. The challenge of implementation is to remain flexible and open to change.
- Review the plan with your mentor regularly. Revise the plan on the basis of these discussions.

Content of the "Understanding the IDP" section was developed by the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. Original document is available at http://www.faseb.org/portals/2/pdfs/opa/idp.pdf Pending permission from the author.