Investing time and effort to reflect on who you are as a professional and to better understand your skills, interests, and values – such as intellectual freedom, recognition, salary and geographic location –  is the first step of the career planning process.

Building self-awareness can help you:

• be effective in your current role, by identifying skills that require further development and also understanding how you best work with others, and how you can use your strengths to drive progress in your research project(s).
• understand what you want from your career, recognise jobs where you can excel, and identify career areas and employers that would provide the rewards, motivation and lifestyle you need to be satisfied and productive in the future.

Starting your career planning with self-awareness can therefore help you be more strategic in your career development, and explore potential careers with clarity.

Key questions:

• What skills, interests, values, and personality traits do you have? Can you identify and articulate these easily? 
• How might your skills, interests, values and personality traits inform your career choices?
• Are there specific skills you need to build for your target career?

Additional considerations

If mental health issues or work-related conflicts are affecting your career planning, consider exploring what support mechanisms are available to you.

At EMBL, counselling services provide free and confidential advice on mental health and wellbeing for all staff. For conflicts or other work-related issues, a confidential service is available from the Ombuds Office. Support is also offered from Human Resources, Trusted Advisors, Mental Health First Aiders, an online mental health platform, the Health and Safety Office, and the Staff Association. Early-career researchers can also get support from the Dean of Graduate Studies, Graduate Office, Postdoc Office, Predoc and Postdoc Representatives.