How can the Researcher Development Framework enhance my career development?

The Vitae Researcher Development Framework enables you to identify the strengths you already have and prioritise for personal and career development in the context of future career opportunities as a professional researcher.

Being a successful researcher involves many skills including communicating your work to others, being aware of its impact and being innovative and enterprising. The Researcher Development Framework can help you decide on priorities for your professional development and inform discussions with your principal investigator, research manager or careers advisor.

The Researcher Development Framework enables you to consider what skills and experiences will enhance your career prospects and how to articulate your capabilities to future employers.

You can use the Researcher Development Framework and Professional Development Planner to:

• aid self-reflection and set yourself aspirational goals
• choose the most appropriate formal and informal development
• prepare for one-to-one progress reviews, appraisals and career development conversations with your principal investigator, research manager or mentor
• assess opportunities provided by your institution and look for development opportunities outside of your research
• consider how your skills and experiences will enhance your career prospects
• highlight, articulate and evidence the transferability of your skills in your CV, in job applications and at interviews.

You may find it inspirational to read some profiles of researchers who have used the RDF  or review the top ten tips they have provided on using the framework.

‘I've always thought of myself as being quite ambitious, driven and focused on what I want, but the framework made me realise I can have much larger visions’

Hultgren, K. postdoctoral researcher in Sociolinguistics