A third-year graduate student asks—

I have an IDP meeting with my advisor coming up. My program has us do the MyIDP and then we’re supposed to have this meeting about it. I want to have a plan, but I’m not really sure what to say in this meeting. The MyIDP gave me a list of careers I’m not that interested in, so that feels kind of useless. I just have broad categories of career paths that I’m curious about. Also this feels like a pretty long-term project since I just passed quals—What am I supposed to be doing right now?

I'm hearing two different concerns in your question; what to do with a MyIDP assessment that wasn’t helpful, and what are you going to say to your advisor in this meeting?

It is pretty common for self-assessments like MyIDP to feel unsatisfying—career exploration is hard, and everyone has different preferences. But you definitely have time to figure out another way forward, and there are plenty of ways to approach exploring your career options without relying on a specific tool—like MyIDP. You can deliberately expand your professional network and learn about careers from other individual through informational interviewing, practice and experience small job tasks through job simulations (Intersect Job Simulations are free to use!), or even make a mini-research project of reading about various options (you can find literature on specific career options like this white paper from IQVIA). Fortunately, you have time to find an approach that works for you!

Your advisor should support you in setting career development goals that include finding and executing a strategy for career exploration that you can feel good about. I recommend being transparent about your experience with MyIDP, and being prepared to offer a plan of one or two other approaches you want to take. Try to bring an open mind to other ways to learn about career options and a willingness to ask your advisor for input and help. Don’t be afraid to tell them, “MyIDP gave me a list of careers that didn’t excite me, so I want to try approaching things from a different angle. Do you have any advice on how I could get in touch with some recent graduates to learn about what they are doing now?"

-David Blancha, Assistant Director, Career Development Team for Researchers