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Getting Started
Getting Started
One of the most common barriers to beginning exploring careers is “I don’t even know what careers are out there – where do I start?!” Self-assessments can help address this uncertainty by providing lists of possible career paths based on your evaluation of your own skills, interests, and values.
In addition to generating lists of career options, self-assessments can help you define what you’d like your ideal career to look like. As you’re answering the questions and looking at the assessment results, consider your priorities for your next role. What kind of work do you want to do? What skills do you want to be able to use or build in that role? What do you value highly, and how does that impact the careers you’re willing to consider? How do you want your career to fit in with the rest of your life?
Self-Assessment Tools
Self-Assessment Tools
This tool was developed to assist biomedical scientists in assessing their skills, interests, and values and identifying career options that merit further exploration. In addition to the three self-assessments, myIDP contains a planning tool that some people find useful.
This tool was developed to assist humanists and social scientists in assessing their skills, interests, and values and identifying career options that merit further exploration. Though it was developed for humanists/social scientists, we think it can also be useful for biomedical scientists.
Why Skills, Interests, and Values?
Why Skills, Interests, and Values?
An ideal career allows you to use your skills and pursue something that interests you in an role and/or environment that is aligned with your personal values. This ideal career must also fit into the rest of your ideal life; we are all whole people, not only our professions. When one's career is misaligned with any of these dimensions (skills, interests, or values), the result can be boredom, lack of motivation, poor performance, and general unhappiness.
Once you've completed the skills, interests, and values assessments, peruse the list of career path options generated in response to your answers. It’s important to keep in mind that the lists of careers generated by these tools aren’t predictive! A career that is highly ranked may not be a good fit for you, and conversely, a career that is ranked lower may be an excellent option. Approach using these tools with the goal of gaining awareness of possible career paths, and use the lists of possible career paths to identify a few that you’d like to learn more about.
You are now ready to start Step 2: Exploring Options!
About the Office of Professional Development
About the Office of Professional Development
The University of Minnesota Medical School's Office of Professional Development (OPD) for Graduate Students and Postdocs supports the professional development of trainees by providing resources in the areas of career exploration and readiness, teaching and mentoring, wellness, communication, and leadership and management. The OPD works in collaboration with the BGREAT programs' leadership, the Associate Dean for Graduate Education, the Graduate School, and other units with the University of Minnesota to support biomedical graduate and postdoctoral training.
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