Career planning for PhD candidates

A career plan is a useful tool for setting goals for your career and helps you explore your future career opportunities. The career interview is conducted in connection with the annual employee interview with the aim of making a plan for your future career journey after completing your doctorate. USN (human resources department) has prepared templates that can be downloaded. Please contact your immediate manager if you would like further information regarding the career interview.

1. Career conversation

2. Career and competence development plan

Euraxess Personal Career Plan

The Euraxess Career Development Plan is a good tool for self-reflection and personal development related to career. It is available as a downloadable handbook (.pdf) and as an e-learning tool. Euraxess' Personal Career Plan

Career-related courses and webinars will be announced on this website or directly in your doctoral program. Through our international alliance partner EDUC, many useful and up-to-date courses and sessions are offered that give you the opportunity to strengthen your generic skills, develop new knowledge and enable you to make informed career choices on the way forward after completing your doctorate.

All EDUC courses for PhD candidates can be found here

Finally: PhD Career Days at USN 10-12 June. 

Take part in this 3-day career event - there will be many exciting workshops, presentations, networking, socializing with fellows from 8 European countries, career training and much more. The event is open for all USN PhD Candidates - if full, last year Candidates will be given priority. Submit your application now! Application for EDUC TESE Days 2026 - Nettskjema

Application deadline: 29 March.

There are several online tools to use when exploring your interests and possible career paths. They assist you in defining your career goals and map out your general skills. The overview below is not a complete list but show a series of tools we recommend as support. Share and discuss your career plan with your academic colleagues, supervisor, research group leaders or other PhD scholars to get feedback and make a realistic career plan.

myIDP

myIDP is especially developed for technological, natural science and health PhD specialisations. The tool assists you in defining goals and exploring a variety of career options through four stages:

• Self-assessment (skills, interests and values)
• Career exploration
• Goal setting and
• Implementation

It contents the following functions:

• Exercises to help you examine your own skills, interests, and values
• A list of 20 scientific career paths with a prediction of which best suits your skills and interests
• A tool to set strategic goals for the coming year, with optional reminders to keep you "on track"
• Articles, tutorials, and other resources
• Related Videos to IDP and Career Planning

Read more about the IDP-process and use of myIDP here

Imagine PhD

A career exploration and planning tools for postdocs and PhD students in the humanities and social sciences. The tool is a resource that focuses on the knowledge gap between doctoral education and career opportunities. 

• Assess career-related skills, interests and values
• Explore career paths that suits your field of study
• Create self-defined goals
• Map out the next steps for career- and professional development success

Go to Imagine PhD

No limits: exploring careers for researchers

A toolbox that gives you guidance, advice and challenges you with questions connected to your own needs and goals. Go to No Limits

Other resources

EURAXESS: here you find information and various support resources for researchers, including;

• Career Orientation Tool, tool for mapping interests and needs and planning further career development
• Career Handbook for Young Researchers, aid for developing a career plan
• Virtual Webinars, a collection of webinars with various career relevant topics
• EURAXESS Smart Talks, podcasts on relevant topics related to research, innovation and entrepreneurship

VITAE: Digital self-help resources such as;

• Researchers Career Stories, real stories about people's research careers
• Action Plan for your Career Development, tips and advice on how to create a career plan

• Creating an effective academic CV, tips on how to create an academic CV and collection of various examples

• Exploring career opportunities for researchers, tips on how to search for job opportunities

• The Vitae Researcher Development Framework Planner, a digital tool for developing and maintaining a career plan

Are you planning an academic career? Learn how you can take an active role in shaping your own career and competence development, and ensure a smooth transition from one position to the next. Open research practices are leading to changes in how research will be evaluated going forward. The National guideline for academic career paths, NOR-CAM, outlines a new holistic approach to the assessment of academic competence. In short, future evaluations will focus more on qualitative assessment, the responsible use of quantitative indicators, and the recognition of a broader range of scholarly results and contributions to societal impact.

An assessment matrix (USN - KVM) for academic careers has been prepared to function as a tool for people who wish to apply for a scientific position at the university, employees who wish to apply for promotion or transfer, members of expert committees that assess applications and for unit managers when advertising positions or in conversations about employees' career development. 

For more information about USN – KVM, please refer to its own website.  (Norwegian only)

Career-enhancing work

Career-enhancing work replaces what was previously referred to as compulsory work. Other career-enhancing work means work in addition to research projects and doctoral education that provides relevant knowledge and experience for further careers at higher education or research institutions or in other sectors (UH regulations § 3-16).

Career-enhancing work must also be seen in the context of meritorious results specified in the USN's competence assessment matrix.

Examples of relevant career-enhancing work:

• Contribute to teaching, laboratory and practical teaching, supervision and examination work.
• Training in the use and operation of research infrastructure.
• Norwegian language training, educational competence, HSE courses and the like that are necessary for carrying out teaching and research work.
• Participate in dissemination, exhibition and collection work.
• Contribute to the preparation of research project applications or the organization of professional conferences.
• Clinical activities.
• Contribute to ongoing research projects, professional development work, consultancy and research work in the professional community.
• Research-based innovation or dissemination project.
• Research mobility/abroad stay.
• Observation or collaboration with public or private actors.
• Office/position of trust and committee work.

As a PhD student at USN, you develop a broad range of competence that is relevant far beyond the academic field. Through research work, collaboration in projects and supervision, you build skills that can be used in many types of positions – in the public sector, business, organizations and in various forms of management.

Transferable (generic) skills are competences that you acquire in one context, but which are also valuable in another. During your doctoral education, you develop, among other things:

• ability to work independently and in a structured way over time
• analytical and critical assessment skills
• experience with project management and collaboration in interdisciplinary environments
• competence in communication, both written and oral
• problem solving in complex and unpredictable situations

Much of this competence is expressed in the research process – through data collection, analysis, writing, project management and dialogue with supervisors and research environments. These are skills that are increasingly sought after by employers outside academia, and can enhance your opportunities across a wide range of career paths.

Being aware of your generic skills makes it easier to explore different career options and to clearly communicate your expertise when seeking new opportunities. Career planning is therefore not just about what you research, but also about how you develop as a professional throughout your doctoral studies.

ResearchComp – The European Competence Framework for Researchers

ResearchComp is the EU's common framework for describing and strengthening researchers' transferable skills. The aim is to highlight the skills that researchers develop through research in addition to supporting career development both inside and outside academia. The framework consists of 7 competence areas, 39 skills and 4 levels. ResearchComp has a particular focus on researchers' transferable skills/generic skills. The tool can support you in clarifying the transfer value of your skills to other sectors and industries. It is particularly relevant for researchers who want to work outside Norway.

As a research fellow, you develop a number of skills that are directly relevant to a changing working world. Innovation and entrepreneurship are not necessarily about starting your own business, but about the way you approach problems, opportunities and collaboration. Many of these skills are developed through the research process itself. Innovation and entrepreneurship competence is part of your career development.

Typical skills that you strengthen through both research and innovation work are:

• Creativity and new thinking – the ability to see alternative solutions and discover opportunities.
• Problem solving in complex situations – based on analysis, professional judgment and systematic work.
• Initiative and decision-making – daring to explore new ideas and take ownership of processes.
• Collaboration and networking – necessary in both research projects and innovation.
• Developing and communicating ideas – in writing, orally and to different target groups.
• Process management – ​​driving a project, a study or an idea forward.

These are skills that employers value highly – regardless of sector.

USN KOIN: Resource for idea development and innovation

If you are curious about how your research can create value outside academia, USN KOIN (unit for commercialization and innovation) may be a relevant partner. The unit offers support in various phases of innovation processes, including:

• assessment of idea and innovation potential
• sparring on how research results can be applied
• help in identifying partners in the labor and business sectors
• support for early-phase project development (idea financing)
• assistance in applying for external funding

As a research fellow, you can use KOIN whether you want to further develop a specific idea, or simply want to explore what opportunities exist.

What does this mean for your career planning?

Developing competence in innovation and entrepreneurship will:

• make you more attractive in both academic and non-academic careers
• expand your scope of action
• strengthen your ability to create, influence and lead change processes

You do not have to aim to commercialise your own results to benefit from this – the skills themselves are valuable.