Individual Development Plans

Assess Skills, Values, and Interests

Begin with reflection. Consider your interests, values, current strengths, areas for growth, career objectives, and the experiences you want to gain during graduate school.

Interests, aspirations, and career objectives

You may be in graduate school because you have a clear career goal, or you may be pursuing an interest and have not quite identified your path post-graduation. Either way is fine, and an IDP can help with both!

• Why did I choose graduate school?
• What kinds of work, roles, communities, or problems do I want to engage with?
• What values do I want my academic and professional choices to reflect?

The Career Services Center offers free assessment tools to help you explore these questions. This may be especially helpful if you have not yet identified a clear career objective.

Current responsibilities and requirements

Thinking about your current responsibilities and requirements will help you develop goals for your IDP. Consider the requirements of your academic program, your research and/or lab responsibilities, etc. Are there particular skills or areas of knowledge you need to develop? Are there milestones you need to meet or scholarly activities you would like to pursue?

Skills and areas for growth

Ask yourself: What skills are important for progress in my graduate program? What skills matter for my career objective? How confident am I now, and where do I need additional training? Mentors, advisors, peers, and friends can help you identify strengths and growth areas. Many IDP tools include skills assessments; even if they are designed for PhD students or post-docs, master’s students can still adapt them productively.

Identify and Prioritize Goals

Use your self-assessment to identify goals in areas such as academics, career exploration, skill development, funding, well-being, or personal development. You decide what to share with mentors: you might share academic, career, and skills goals while keeping other goals private.

Learning goals vs. performance goals

In developing your plan, it may be helpful to think about learning goals versus performance goals. Early in your program, you may have more learning goals, such as:

• building your disciplinary knowledge through a literature review
• learning a technique that will be needed for your data collection

As you revise your IDP later in your program, these could become performance goals such as:

• contributing to disciplinary knowledge through presenting your research at a conference
• completing data collection and analysis on a specific schedule

Use the SMART framework

Strong IDP goals are usually Specific, Measurable,Attainable, Relevant, and Timebound. Use the questions below to test each goal.

Specific: what will be accomplished, and what actions will I take?

Measurable: how will I know I've accomplished the goal?

Attainable: can I reasonably accomplish this goal within my timeline?

Relevant: does this goal align with my long-term objectives?

Timebound: what is the deadline for completion?

The Counseling and Wellness Center offers a helpful wellness worksheet on setting SMART goals available here.

Write each goal clearly

If you have chosen a specific IDP tool (see suggestions in the sidebar above), it may guide you through a set format for writing your goals. If not, you'll want to make a list of the goals your IDP will address, and for each of them identify:

• Objective
• Approaches and strategies
• Timeframe
• Outcomes

Share this list with your advisor or mentor, who may have suggestions for revising or adding to your goals.

Discuss and Develop Your Plan

Decide who to share your IDP with and what level of detail feels appropriate. Your IDP is a personal planning document, so you can share the full plan with a mentor or share only the sections where that person can offer useful guidance.

Note: If you are supported by an NSF or NIH grant, you will be required to complete an IDP and discuss it (in whole or in part) with your PI. Your PI may need a copy to certify mentoring activities annually with the funding agency.

Establish shared expectations

Make sure that your mentor is aware of the purpose of an IDP before you discuss it with them, and that the two of you are on the same page. IDPs can be useful ways to ensure you and your mentor(s)/advisor have the same expectations, goals, and desires for your graduate experience. Establishing a set of shared expectations early on can help you move through your graduate program smoothly. The suggestions below can be adapted to your unique program and goals. Also see the page called Working with Your Faculty Advisor in our Canvas course.

Students:

• Take primary responsibility for the successful completion of my degree
• Understand the requirements and policies of my graduate program and the Graduate School
• Meet regularly with my advisor(s) and provide them with updates on my research, writing, and/or other activities
• Establish a shared understanding of satisfactory progress with my advisor
• Discuss expectations for work hours and leave
• Actively seek out advice and feedback from my advisor, mentor(s), and others, as applicable
• Attend and participate in department meetings, seminars, and activities as applicable
• Maintain a collegial academic and work environment

Advisors:

• Be committed to a student's education and training as a future member of the scholarly, research, and/or professional community
• Be committed to guiding a student's project or other work while allowing them to take ownership of that work
• Encourage students to set reasonable goals and establish a timeline for completion
• Discuss and establish a shared understanding of satisfactory progress and expectations
• Provide and seek regular and honest feedback
• Be knowledgeable of and guide students through the requirements of their academic program
• Facilitate training in complementary skills as appropriate

Use the conversation to refine the plan

Your mentor can help you identify and refine goals based on your self-assessment and IDP draft. They may be able to suggest professional development and skills-building activities that you wouldn't know about or have access to on your own. They may also have input on your projected timelines, assessment of your progress, and financial support.

Plan the follow-up

With your advisor, decide how often you will meet to assess your progress. Who will initiate these meetings? Are there other people you need to meet with, such as thesis committee members, collaborators, others?

Implement and Take Action

Once your goals are drafted and discussed, choose concrete next steps and begin putting your plan into practice.

Stay organized. Find a way to keep yourself on track and monitor your own progress. Digital or paper calendars and planners, project management tools, and other options are out there. The Grad Hub can help you find a system that works for you.

Seek out support. Look for help in your department, from mentors, and from support services like the Research & Writing Studio, Subject Teams, the Grad Hub, and Career Services.

Commit to your plan, but stay flexible. Your goals and circumstances may change, and your IDP can change along with them.

Reflect and Revise

Review goals, accomplishments, and next steps

Each quarter or year, set aside time to celebrate your accomplishments and think about what obstacles you encountered that may have prevented you from completing specific tasks. An IDP is a living document. It will grow, change, and evolve throughout your graduate experience.

Once you have reflected on your IDP, consider what areas you want to improve in next. These areas can be the same or different from those set in your previous IDPs.

As you revise your IDP, remember what you have learned about setting attainable goals, your career objectives, and personal growth since you wrote your first IDP.

When you are ready, share your revised version with your mentor(s). This can allow you to have a conversation about successes, obstacles, and shared goals for your growth.