While every person's career path clearly requires an individualized plan for true success, based on insight from hematology leadership and fellows, the ASH Trainee Council has created a generalized framework to help guide those in the PhD training track for a career in hematology.

Continuous Priorities Early Predoctoral (Year 1-2) Training Late Doctoral (Year 3-5) Training Postdoctoral Training 

Throughout your career it is critical to keep up-to-date and on track. The following tips should help guide you at any stage of your career.

• Schedule formal meetings with your PI at least once a week. Prepare for these meetings. Bring a list of experiments, problems, and questions to review. These meetings will help develop your ability to provide technical information and explain your research, and will also serve as a mechanism to troubleshoot your experiments. These meetings are also a great way to develop a rapport with your advisor and keep you motivated. If your PI is not available weekly, be sure to carefully plan and prepare for whatever meeting time you have to get the most out of it.
• Attend a weekly seminar series and/or journal club at your institution to help keep you up-to-date. Don't be afraid to attend seminars that are outside of your area of expertise;view these as opportunities to familiarize yourself with general topics as well as increase your specific knowledge.
• View research with an open mind. This not only applies to how you view your data, but also applies to how you approach presentations by other scientists. What is interesting about their work? Can the approaches/techniques they use be applied to your research?
• Strive for independence, while maintaining productivity. By the time you enter the "real" job market (whether in industry, academics, or government) you should have the skills to perform independently and with confidence. However, never be afraid to ask for help when you need it.
• Present your research at a national or international research meeting once a year. 
• Attend a national or international research meeting, particularly the ASH annual meeting.While attending a meeting takes time away from your research, the networking opportunities and advice you receive is invaluable.
• Think critically about manuscript preparation . Consider why you are doing your next series of experiments (introduction). Write a description of your data, and create high-quality figures (results). As you read papers, take notes on key points you want your work to convey (discussion).

Continuous Priorities Early Predoctoral (Year 1-2) Training Late Doctoral (Year 3-5) Training Postdoctoral Training 

Additional Resources

• The Individual Development Plan (IDP) concept is commonly used in industry to help employees define and pursue their career goals.  MyIDP is a unique, web-based career-planning tool tailored to meet the needs of PhD students and postdocs in the sciences.  For more information visit: http://myidp.sciencecareers.org/ 

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