Why should you create a career plan?
A career plan is a useful tool for setting and implementing goals for your career. It also helps you explore your career opportunities.
The career plan is a document that you can revisit regularly and adjust as you develop new skills, your interests change or you wish to (re)evaluate your career.
A career plan can help you to:
- identify strengths and areas for development.
- open up more career opportunities, both in academia and in the broader job market.
- seek out and take advantage of career development opportunities available at UiO.
What does a career plan include?
A career plan defines your overall goals and objectives for your future career, and for key competence when you want to develop as a researcher: research results, research skills, teaching, communication, management and administration. For each of the goals, you also evaluate specific actions to achieve them.
Career plan templates
UiO offers career plan templates that you can download here.
Please note that these are UiO templates for career plans. If you are employed in a research position, the career plan template for postdoctoral researchers will be the most relevant for you. It is also possible that your faculty has its own template that is even more tailored to your field.
Euraxess' personal career plan
Euraxess' Career Development Plan is a valuable tool for self-reflection and personal development related to your career. It is available as a downloadable handbook (.pdf) and as an e-learning tool.
How do you use your career plan?
It is important that you feel ownership of your own career plan. This is a document made for you, not for anyone else. We recommend discussing your career plan with someone from your research environment to gain insights into what might be smart to focus on during the research period.
Some types of questions may be more personal, and you may not want to share all your thoughts with your immediate supervisor or others who might have their own interests in your career plan. Therefore, it may be wise to seek a neutral sparring partner to discuss certain aspects of the plan.
Career planning at UiO: Standards and policy
The University of Oslo wants to help early career researchers utilize their skills – for their own benefit and for society. Therefore, through its standard for career support, UiO has decided that all postdoctoral fellows and other early career researchers should have an individual career plan that forms the basis for a career development conversation. The career plan should include a plan for research and other qualifying activities.
According to § 3–18 and 3–19 of the Regulations to the Universities and Colleges Act (in Norwegian), PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers must be offered the opportunity to develop a career plan and have access to career guidance throughout their research period. These regulations apply from 1 August 2025.