Module 24 Activity Worksheet

Module: Module 24: Career Pathways and Graduate School Preparation
Duration: 4 hours
Generated from the module page. Edit modules/module24.md, not this file.

Capability target

Produce a 12-month pathway plan (skills, applications, mentoring actions) with explicit fit criteria and decision checkpoints. Operationally: you can name two or three realistic next steps and say what evidence each requires, you have written the actual outreach messages rather than planning to, and every deadline that gates a step is in a calendar with its lead time attached.

You are done when you can demonstrate this, not when you have filled in every box below.

Before you start

Check that you have:

• At least one project artifact to discuss in applications/interviews
• Basic familiarity with fields of interest

Bring one question you already have about this topic. Write it here so you can check at the end whether it was answered:

My question:

Questions this module answers

Keep these in view. At the end, answer each in one sentence.

1. What capability profile does each path require?
   • Your answer:
2. How do I assess advisor/lab/program fit beyond reputation?
   • Your answer:
3. Which hidden norms influence selection decisions?
   • Your answer:

The task

Scenario: You are planning your next step (graduate school, research assistantship, or industry role) in connectomics. Use real targets, real names, and real deadlines; generic targets produce generic plans.

1. Build a fit matrix for three options, including the reversibility and cost columns.
2. Draft one mentor outreach message per option, each naming a specific piece of that person’s work, linking one artifact, and asking one answerable question.
3. Define a 90-day capability-building plan in which every gap closes into an artifact.
4. Identify one hidden-curriculum risk and its mitigation, and one mentorship-map role you currently have nobody in.

What you hand in

• Fit matrix
• Outreach draft set
• 90-day action plan
• Risk/mitigation note
• Mentorship map with named gaps

Working checklist

Tick as you go. If you skip a step, write why — a skipped step with a stated reason is a decision; a skipped step without one is a gap.

• Define two or three realistic target pathways, each named specifically enough to have a deadline (not “graduate school” but “three neuroscience PhD programs with connectomics groups”).
• Build the capability gap matrix: rows are targets, columns are the capabilities each selects on, cells hold the artifact that demonstrates it or the word “gap”.
• Convert each gap into a 90-day action with an artifact as output, discarding gaps you cannot close in the time available rather than carrying them as anxiety.
• Build the outreach plan: who, in what order, with what artifact attached, and by what date.
• Draft application and interview narratives anchored in concrete work, using one project as the spine and naming what went wrong in it.
• Run due diligence on each target by talking to current and former group members, using a fixed question set so answers are comparable.
• Iterate with mentor and peer feedback, then set dated decision checkpoints at which you will choose rather than defer.

Evidence and reasoning

Fill one row per claim you make in your artifact. A claim without a limitation is not finished.

Confidence. For your main claim, mark one and say why:

• High — two or more independent lines of evidence agree
• Medium — one strong line, or several that share a weakness
• Uncertain — the deciding evidence is not available to me

Why:

One alternative I considered and rejected, and the reason:

Misconception self-check

These are the errors this module is designed to prevent. Confirm you did not make them, or note where you nearly did:

• I did not assume: A program’s prestige is a sufficient proxy for whether it fits you.
• I did not assume: Publication volume alone predicts mentorship quality.
• I did not assume: Not knowing the unwritten rules means you are not cut out for this.
• I did not assume: A career decision made now must be defended for the rest of your career.
• I did not assume: A good supervisor makes other mentors unnecessary.
• I did not assume: Asking for a letter is an imposition that should be kept as brief as possible.

Session timing (facilitator reference)

Rubric

Score yourself before anyone else does. Where you fall short, name the specific next action rather than a general intention.

• Minimum pass: pathway choices are justified by capability evidence; outreach messages are specific and professional; the plan includes concrete timelines and milestones with real deadlines attached.
• Strong performance: incorporates mentorship and belonging considerations explicitly; anticipates barriers and states mitigations; uses reversibility and cost as explicit criteria; and produces at least one contact the learner initiated independently of their supervisor.
• Common failure to flag: overgeneralized plans with no evidence of fit, outreach drafts that could be sent to any laboratory, and hidden-curriculum barriers named but not mitigated. Also flag plans in which every mentorship-map role is filled by the same person.

My self-assessment:

• Strongest part of my work, and the evidence for that:
• Weakest part, and the specific next action:

Exit prompt

Draft one 5-sentence mentor outreach email with an alignment statement naming a specific piece of their work, one relevant artifact you can link, and one question answerable in a single sentence. Then check it against one test: could this email have been sent to anyone else? If yes, rewrite the first sentence.

Your answer:

Peer review (swap worksheets)

Reviewing someone else’s reasoning is the fastest way to see the gaps in your own. Assess the evidence quality, not whether you agree with the conclusion.

• Is every claim paired with specific evidence?
• Is at least one limitation stated, and is it a real one?
• Is the confidence level justified by the number of independent evidence lines?
• One thing this person did better than me:
• One question I would ask them:

Module page: /modules/module24/ · Slides: /modules/slides/module24/ · Facilitator guide