This 8-week career exploration and development series uses the Individual Development Plan (IDP) process to guide participants toward discovering new career pathways matching their interests, skills, and values to align with potential careers. Participants engage in a flipped session design: completing learning activities before each meeting to prepare for sharing experiences with peers during the in-class discussions. Commonly-used IDP tools are supplemented with additional job exploration resources, informational interviews, and other activities for iterative career exploration across multiple sessions. You may want to implement this model if your participants would benefit from a multi-faceted approach to career exploration, guided reflection, and peer support, but desire shorter in-class sessions due to class or research obligations.
Course structure
Flipped classroom:
Multi-week:
Facilitators: 1-2 recommended
Learners: 10-30 participants (or more as desired)
Prior to first implementation:
Future implementations:
| Content | Structure (homework, in-person session) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Session | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | |
| Competency and Featured Approaches |
 Skills Interests Values Self-reflection |
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 Online presence, LinkedIn Elevator pitches |
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 Career options research Informational interviews |
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 SWOT-C analysis Career vision |
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 SMARTER goals Time management |
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This model has been iteratively developed over 6 implementations at Texas A&M University since 2019, with multiple lengths and formats tested to optimize retention and effectiveness. Post-series quantitative surveys show positive self-perceived learning and self-efficacy. Student feedback has been gathered through both formative and summative qualitative questionnaires to hone the model.
With inspiration from myIDP co-author Phil Clifford, the course was initially developed at Texas A&M University—a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI)—by Marilyn Yeager, Morgan Schweller, Andreea Trache, and Rasheedah Richardson, with and refined over years by Marilyn Yeager and Paul Rainey in collaboration with Clint Patterson, Meytty Pattikawa, and Samantha Wilson. This ongoing effort represents a collaboration between the Career Center, Graduate and Professional School, Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, and Center for Teaching Excellence.
Paul Rainey brings eight years of professional experience in career development, spanning five different institutions (liberal arts, public land-grant, and research-intensive universities). Rainey co-leads and co-teaches this model at Texas A&M University.
Learn more about Paul Rainey
Paul Rainey
Marilyn Yeager (retired; Fellow 2022-2023) brought fifteen years of experience in career development, working with undergraduate and graduate students in the sciences at Texas A&M University. She co-developed and co-taught this model at Texas A&M University.
Learn more about Marilyn Yeager
Marilyn Yeager
The pd|hub Collections are being developed with support from an Innovative Programs to Enhance Research Training (IPERT) award from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIH 1 R25 GM139076-01). The information, opinions, data, and statements contained herein are not necessarily those of the U.S. Government or the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and should not be interpreted, acted on, or represented as such.
