Focus on your career development
Taking a broad approach to career development can help you to
- make the most of your current position or career path
- promote yourself in the job market
- re-consider the direction of your career
- work towards specific career goals
- understand the range of options open to you.
Read more on why you should focus on professional development.
As part of a broad approach to career development you would
- consider your basic values, motivations, preferences and constraints. Start with our page on understanding yourself or work through our booklet: The career-wise researcher
- assess your knowledge, skills and attributes to identify strengths and gaps. The Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF) identifies the knowledge, behaviour and attributes of successful researchers. Start with our page on how to use the RDF
- consider potential new directions and/or review of career options. The career-wise researcher has a section on broadening your horizons. Find advice on academic and non-academic career paths in our researcher careers section. For inspiration, browse 150+ researcher career stories or publications in our What do researchers do? series
- set development goals and plan to meet them. Start with our quick tips on creating a career development action plan. The Vitae RDF Planner is an online app designed to help you identify your development needs and plan development actions
- collect evidence of your strengths and development progress. See how ten researchers have made the Vitae RDF work for them. The Vitae RDF Planner app can help you to record progress and evidence for use on your CV.
- prepare and promote yourself. Find advice in The career-wise researcher. Our site also offers CV examples tailored to researchers, advice on academic interviews, preparing proposals to get funding, raising your profile as a researcher and developing your profile in and outside academia.
Browse our site for more advice, information and resources tailored to researchers and which can help you with your career development. Researchers from Vitae member organisations can work through our: Professional development planning for researchers online course.
If you're thinking of coming to work in public-funded research in the UK, make the most of the professional development opportunities offered by your institution. These are likely to include support for self-analysis, reflection and planning, training in generic as well as specific skills, mentorship, internship or work placements schemes, business development services and individual careers advice.