Creating or Updating a Mid-Career Professional Development Plan: Register now for workshop on Jan 10

This annual workshop designed specifically for Associate-rank faculty-- whether dual-mission, teaching-mission, or research-mission-- will be held on Monday, January 10 from 9-11am. (The decision about in-person or Zoom will be influenced by input from registrants.) The process of creating and refreshing a professional development plan (PDP) is the foundation of WPI’s relatively new Associate Professor Mentoring Program initiated with our ADVANCE grant. All are encouraged to participate regardless of years in rank, but we especially recommend participation within 1-3 years of being promoted to Associate. 



Having a PDP fosters mid-career agency and meaning, and may lessen feelings of burnout: What work do I want to take on and why? What might I pause, set aside, or discontinue? The PDP template and process guides you to envision, sharpen, or revise this chapter of your career by conducting a self-assessment of values, passions, and strengths; placing those in the contexts of departmental or institutional needs and of promotion criteria; planning specific short-term and long term goals and actions; and identifying a mentoring team and broader network that can help you achieve your goals. It’s also excellent preparation for annual conversations with department heads. 



“This workshop…gave me a block of time to actually THINK about planning my own outcome in a purposeful way.  That was something that I seriously needed, but wouldn’t have set aside the time for myself without this prompt.” – 2019 participant



If you would like to attend, please register here. As the holiday break gets closer, we’ll communicate with registrants about some modest preparation for the workshop and whether it will be in-person or online.