Career planning discussion

In connection with the completion of the mid-term review, a career planning discussion should be offered to the doctoral student. The departmental representative is responsible for this. If the doctoral student wishes the meeting can be held with only the departmental representative, but normally supervisors are also present. The career planning discussion can be held as part of a doctoral student progress meeting or on a separate occasion.

The starting point for the discussion is the doctoral student's plans, thoughts, questions and wishes regarding the career after the dissertation. One element could be to return to the individual reflection the doctoral student wrote during the department's introductory course about his or her goals with the education and thoughts about the future. An essential question to discuss and decide on is whether something in the final phase of the education and in the ISP should be adjusted to better support the doctoral student's needs and future plans.

Questions for the doctoral student to think about which the conversation can be built around:

• Do you have plans for or thoughts about the time after the defence?
• Can something be done during the rest of the education to adapt to and facilitate the "career plans"? By whom?
• What do you find most rewarding or most motivating in your current work?
• What are you good at?
• What do you want to learn?

The form for doctoral progress meetings can be used when the departmental representative writes a short account of the discussion, including any changes in planning and the ISP. If the discussion was carried out as part of a doctoral progress meeting, it must be clearly stated in the minutes that it also included a career planning discussion.