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The Talent Development Suite (TDS) is a tool to assist you with your personal
career development planning. Unlike other career planning tools, the TDS is a
personal process that does not depict your skills, but gives you a personal idea
of your future (private and personal) life. Please find some more background
information regarding the development of the TDS further below.
The TDS is designed so that researchers can use it without the help of a
professional career coach. However, for some of the tasks, an
involvement of a professional career coach is almost indispensable as career and
life decisions are very complex. Alternatively, you could ask your
family, friends or colleagues to assist you with those tasks. Involving other
people gives you an outside view on certain challenges, which can be very
helpful for finding an appropriate solution.
The TDS is structured into four different assessment sections called “Future",
"Present", "Past" and "Personal Journey Map" (with the circle on the right-hand
side, it is possible to jump between the different assessments; however, we
recommend you to go through in the present order). The final assessment
“Personal Journey Map” is divided into four steps. We recommend to fill
in only the first step of the Personal Journey Map, should you use the TDS by
yourself. We think that you will need the assistance of a sparring
partner to go through the three final steps of the Personal Journey Map as well.
We are aware that completing the present instrument requires a lot of effort and
energy. We expect it to take you about one to two hours to
complete the “Future", "Present" and "Past" assessments as well as the
first step of the "Personal Journey Map"). An additional hour is required to go
through the process with a sparring partner and also fill in the last three
steps of the “Personal Journey Map”.
We recommend you to find a moment in your day to ponder about your life. Maybe
sit down in the sun or go for a short walk before starting the task. Find your
own way to leave the busy world and reflect on your dreams and aspirations. You
might want to start today and continue on the TDS one week later. Do not feel
forced to finalise each task, just fill in as much as comes to your mind in that
specific moment. Please remember that the TDS is not only about your
professional life, but also about your private life.
We are convinced that after having gone through the TDS, you will have a
better understanding of your professional as well as of your private
life. And you will realize what steps you should take in order to
achieve a successful career as well as a fulfilled private life. For this
reason, when working with the present tool, do always have a holistic approach
in mind thinking about all aspects of your life.
You have the possibility to save your data and work on the TDS at a later stage
by using the same link. In order to do so, please login at the top right-hand
corner with your e-mail address, name and a chosen password. Do not forget to
save your data before you close the page, especially if you wish to access your
data at a later stage. You can logout anytime; your answers remain saved and you
can access them when you login again. Also, once finished, you can print and
save your personal answers in a PDF using the PDF button. (Should you prefer to
work on the TDS in a paper version, then please go directly to the last page and
print the TDS with the PDF button).
All the best for your future career and may all your personal dreams come true!
Talent Development Suite – Background Information
Who is it for?
The Talent Development Suite (TDS) is a tool created within the EURAXESS TOP III project. It aims to assist
postdocs from one through three years after completing their PhD. This is the
period in which researchers tend to make up their mind whether they prefer to
pursue an academic or a non-academic career. However, the TDS can also be used
to support PhDs and postdocs more than three years after their PhD.
How was it developed?
A qualitative analysis approach was used to create the tool. First, the three
partners from Switzerland, Norway and The Netherlands pursued 10-15
semi-standardised interviews with researchers as well as academic and
non-academic stakeholders in order to investigate what postdocs from one through
three years after their PhD need most and what is expected in an academic vs. a
non-academic path. Parallel to this, a literature research was made to collect
the range of tools that already exist to support young researchers. The results
were analysed and compared and provided the basis for the creation of the Talent
Development Suite. The TDS was revised in a workshop with more than ten members
of the EURAXESS network within the TOP III project to make it work for as many
research cultures and countries as possible. Finally, the TDS was converted into
an online tool that was tested by young researchers in CH, NO and NE to see
whether it is user-friendly and useful. Afterwards, the TDS was finalised.
What is it?
Unlike other existing career support tools, the TDS does not evaluate
researchers’ skills and abilities but focuses on a researcher’s vision. The
results from the interviews showed that this was what they needed most.
Interestingly, parallel to the development of the TDS, ETH Zurich’s HR
department conducted a focus group study with young researchers where they i.a.
asked them to compare the Vitae and the IDP model. One key result was that
researchers do not only want feedback on their abilities and skills but need
help to find their vision, i.e. assistance to find out what their dreams for the
future are. This result seconded the findings of the TDS study.
About EURAXESS
EURAXESS is a European network active in 40 countries. It aims to improve the
European Research Area (ERA) by making it easier for international research
talent to move to and in between European countries. The idea is that
internationally mobile researchers should be able to follow their talent to and
across Europe without (too much) hassle. This network started around 2002. It is
growing, developing and gaining importance (www.euraxess.eu). The EURAXESS TOP
projects help the EURAXESS network to adapt to new challenges and allow it to
professionalise. Within the EURAXESS TOP III project, there was a special focus
on the topic of career development. Important results can be found here:
https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/career-development/researchers
The document was prepared in the framework of the EURAXESS TOPIII project (Gr.
No: 665934), funded by the EC under the Horizon 2020 programme.
This work was supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research
and Innovation (SERI) under contract number 15.0260. The opinions expressed and
arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the
Swiss Government.