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All Responses (2017−2019) Advisor Buy-In
Some of our experiences and feedback
Conversations with my PD mentor point to the importance of advisor buy-in and
exposed me to new ideas, 5% 32% 63%
opportunities, or perspectives engagement, consistent with other studies that
find advisees are more likely to value the IDP
My PD mentor provided valuable
11% 37% 53% process if their advisor also does (e.g., Hobin
guidance & feedback regarding my IDP
et al., 2014). In other words, this process is not
My research advisor provided valuable a fix for a disengaged advisor or one who is
21% 26% 53%
guidance & feedback regarding my IDP dismissive of non-academic careers. However,
we note the potential power of the IDP process
Creating my IDP helped me think about
& define my long-term career goal(s) 21% 26% 53% to open a dialogue on future career plans and
perhaps dispel incorrect assumptions advisors
By creating my IDP, I was able to may have about an advisee’s goals and aspira-
convert my goals into an action plan 16% 37% 47% tions. Everyone benefits from starting this
conversation early and helping trainees build
I would recommend creating an IDP
to other graduate students or postdocs 16% 42% 42% the skills they will need for their future, what-
ever their chosen path.
100 50 0 50 100
Percentage
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Funding was provided by National Science Foun-
Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree
dation grant OIA-1557349. This is SOEST contribu-
Figure 1. Aggregated results from our annual, anonymous survey of graduate students (2017–2019) tion #10949.
(n = 21). Percentages shown correspond to the total responses for disagree or strongly disagree (left),
neutral (center), and agree or strongly agree (right). IDP—individual development plans; PD—professional
development mentor.
REFERENCES CITED
Federation of American Societies for Experimental
IMPLEMENTATION defined outputs and a realistic timeline. Biology (FASEB), 2002, Individual Develop-
ment Plan for Postdoctoral Fellows: Bethesda,
Based on our experiences with this ongo- While many students stick to the provided Maryland.
ing pilot program, we outline a few key con- template, some have opted to use an online Gollwitzer, P.M., 1999, Implementation intentions:
siderations for those interested in imple- calendar or custom color-coded timelines. Strong effects of simple plans: The American
menting their own IDP program. We also provide links to online IDP plat- Psychologist, v. 54, p. 493–503, https://doi.org/
forms with extensive career exploration 10.1037/0003-066X.54.7.493.
A Flexible Template tools as additional resources (e.g., myIDP). Hobin, J.A., Clifford, P.S., Dunn, B.M., Rich, S.,
and Justement, L.B., 2014, Putting PhDs to
We created a simple custom form suited work: Career planning for today’s scientist: CBE
to the ‘Ike Wai project that includes six core Expanded Mentoring Network Life Sciences Education, v. 13, no. 1, p. 49–53,
competencies: Research, Teaching and According to our survey results, our train- https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe-13-04-0085.
Mentoring, Leadership, Communication, ees highly value PD mentors. The additional NASEM, 2019, The Science of Effective Mentor-
Career Development, and Place and Culture time burden on the mentor is minimal (most ship in STEMM: Washington, D.C., National
(Supplemental Data Fig. S3). The last cate- report spending ~1 hr or less per term; Academies Press, https://doi.org/10.17226/25568.
gory was added to formalize the impor- Supplemental Data Fig. S2), and while stu- NSF, 2019, Women, Minorities, and Persons with
Disabilities in STEM: Arlington, Virginia, Na-
tance and relevance of cultural knowledge dents could cultivate such relationships them- tional Science Foundation Special Report NSF
and skills. The project has an unusually selves, providing a formal match removes 19-304, https://www.nsf.gov/statistics/women.
diverse student cohort, including a high some of the psychological barriers to asking Tsai, J.W., Vanderford, N.L., and Muindi, F., 2018,
proportion of Native Hawaiians, women, for help. This second mentor may play a par- Optimizing the utility of the individual develop-
and others from historically underrepre- ticularly important role if the advisor-advisee ment plan for trainees in the biosciences: Nature
sented groups. Moreover, a significant proj- relationship is strained, or their PD goals are Biotechnology, v. 36, no. 6, p. 552–553, https://
doi.org/10.1038/nbt.4155.
ect component entails engaging with a poorly aligned with their research project. We Vincent, B.J., Scholes, C., Staller, M.V., Wun-
diverse community of landowners and other also note this role has been particularly useful derlich, Z., Estrada, J., Park, J., Bragdon, M.D.J.,
stakeholders, which requires an additional for underrepresented students seeking the Rivera, F.L., Bietta, K.M., and DePace, A.H.,
set of knowledge and skills that were not guidance of someone from a similar back- 2015, Yearly planning meetings: Individualized
well captured by most standard IDP tem- ground and shared cultural values. Particularly development plans aren’t just more paperwork:
plates. Although we provide forms, we also in the geosciences, one of the least diverse Molecular Cell, v. 58, https://doi.org/10.1016/
give trainees the option of using alternative STEM fields (NSF, 2019), connecting stu- j.molcel.2015.04.025.
formats as long as they capture the critical dents with faculty members outside their im- Manuscript received 12 Jan. 2020
elements of an effective action plan: having mediate discipline is one option for expanding Revised manuscript received 27 Mar. 2020
specific, actionable milestones with clearly and diversifying their support network. Manuscript accepted 8 Apr. 2020

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