Jumpstart your postdoctoral experience!
Program Objective
Plan Your Postdoc (PYP) is a special pilot program by MIT Career Advising & Professional Development for early stage postdoctoral scholars who have been at MIT for less than a year. Participants attend three 1.5 hour interactive workshops to kickstart their career development. The learning objectives for PYP are:
- Block out designated time to plan career and professional development in order to respect your research time
- Learn to set clear, achievable goals based on your postdoctoral timeline
- Review and identify internal and external resources that will support your outlined career goals
- Practice in a safe space with peers how to engage productively with your PI about balancing research and career development needs.
When does PYP happen? What will I learn?
The Plan Your Postdoc series will occur twice a year, once at the end of the fall semester and once during the summer. All of the workshops will occur in person. Postdocs who attend all three sessions will receive all workshop slides and the PYP workbook with additional resources for career and professional development support.
PYP structure
- Goal setting and building a career development timeline
- Translate what you want to achieve into clear goals then smaller tasks
- Develop a postdoctoral career and professional development timeline
- Integrate your resources
- Review what are your MIT internal resources, map out a “network” of external resources
- Integrate your resources into your career development timeline you made last week
- Proactive communication with your PI
- Your Director of Postdoc Services will discuss how MIT supports mentor-mentee relationships and facilitate a case study that will help you practice communication skills in a safe, open environment with your postdoc colleagues.
Want a glimpse of PYP resources? See the Fall 2025 PYP workbook and slides!
Have questions about PYP? See the FAQ below
Early stage postdocs who have been at MIT for around a year or less are invited to join the PYP cohort. In other words, if you started your appointment between October 2024-October 2025, you are eligible to participate in PYP.
If you are wondering if you can take part in PYP, please email your Postdoc Career Advisor and Professional Development Program Director, Alex Yen.
Participants interested in PYP should register above for each individual PYP session via Handshake (each session builds on one another). A week before the first session, PYP participants who have registered for all 4 sessions will receive a confirmation email that they are part of the cohort.
If you are wondering if you can attend just one or a few of the workshops, please email your Postdoc Career Advisor and Professional Development Program Director, Alex Yen.
The concepts in each PYP session are interrelated and build off of one another, so we strongly encourage you to attend all the workshops in the series.
If you are wondering if you can attend just one or a few of the workshops, please email your Postdoc Career Advisor and Professional Development Program Director, Alex Yen.
Have additional questions about PYP or what other career and professional development resources are available to postdocs? Please email Alex Yen, your CAPD Postdoc Program Director for Career Advising & Professional Development.
