18 June 2010
By Andy Humphrey
My RSC careers advisor seems very keen on networking – creating a broad, extensive collection of academic acquaintances who could turn out to be useful rungs on a future career ladder. In a situation where 90% of aspiring academics never make it into an academic post, anything that increases one’s visibility to future employers has got to be beneficial. As long as it’s on the basis of your interest, aptitude and enthusiasm for your work, rather than the unfortunate incident with that bottle of port at the conference dinner, that is...
I’m the world’s worst at networking. I’ve been to a few conferences and made a bunch of contacts in my particular field of chemistry, but my advisor can’t be recommending that I hassle them with round-robin emails every few weeks to find out if there are any jobs going, surely? So what’s the secret? Should I be trawling the internet and sending out regular speculative requests for employment to the leaders in my field? Or do they have a secretary who opens all such requests and consigns them straight to the recycling bin – which I suspect may well be the case? Are social networks such as LinkedIn worth investing time and energy in, in an already busy week? Or should I resort to the personal ads: Scientist, 39, hard working, GSOH, own Ph.D., WLTM head of department in need of a bio-organic chemist, for fun and possibly something longer term...
Those of you who are good at networking, please help! Give us your tips, or some success stories to encourage us. And perhaps those for whom it HASN’T worked out might have some cautionary tales of their own to offer...
Hannah Dee20 June 2010 at 10:38 AM
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I've actually had job offers through linkedin - not academic jobs yet, but I've been approached by agencies working on behalf of some interesting companies. I don't use the site much for social networking - but I do keep my profile up to date, and I do make sure it says I'm looking for work when I am! I think it really helps to have lots of contacts, too, as you can only search people in your network so having a big network really makes a difference.
Blanka Sengerová20 June 2010 at 11:01 PM
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Hannah mentions LinkedIn. I am on there, keep the thing up-to-date but don't really use it very much and think my network is too small to be of much benefit. However, I do recommend getting a profile on academia.edu. It can be quite simple but it is somewhere to display your academic CV and it will tell you when someone searches for you on-line (and then clicks through) and which keywords were used. I found it useful when I was applying for jobs and noticed that when it was close to the deadlines of the jobs I applied for the number of searches increased. It also means that generally your profile will be the top link of a google search. I just googled - "andrew humphrey" bradford - and the top link is presumably your boss's academic CV, it would be good for you if the top link could be your CV (hence the suggestion for academia.edu). Although I do admit that my name is less common than yours so probably much easier to make sure I am the top link in a google search! >>Should I be trawling the internet and sending out regular speculative requests for employment to the leaders in my field? Yes, I think you should. When I was finishing my PhD and decided that actually I did want to do a postdoc after all, I looked at Unis in the region I wanted to move to (area bounded by Oxford, Southampton, London and Bristol so fairly wide) to see if there were any people interested in having me and might have funding available. I arranged a trip to talk to one of the group leaders who unfortunately didn't have funding but was willing to apply for funding with me if that's what I wanted, I got some "would be good to have you but don't have any grant at the moment" but at least people generally replied. I ended up getting an advertised post but having communicated with and meeting these people will be good for me in future if I am looking for another postdoc or for a lectureship at their institutions. One of my current colleagues, just about finishing his PhD, has got himself a couple of interviews lines up with people who aren't advertising for posts but who he thought he might be interested in working for. So I would definitely try and approach the "leaders in your field". Good luck!
Matthew Salois21 June 2010 at 04:30 PM
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Hi Andy. Like you, I am not very good at networking -- mostly because it is not something I like to engage in. I did join a couple of "networking" sites like academia.edu and while they offer some nice features like Blanka describes, I have yet to make any meaningful contacts. I have found conferences to be a very important networking opportunity. I take the approach of rather than trying to meet everyone under the sun in my field (which is far too taxing), I prefer to try and find just two or three individuals and really get to know not only their professional work, but a bit about their personal selves as well. Also, rather than trying to abruptly trying to introduce myself I have found that if a mutual colleague makes the introduction things go more smoothly.
Tennie Videler29 June 2010 at 11:00 AM
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Hi Andy, I don’t really believe you: I bet you network lots but don’t call it that- all your UCU work and taking such active part on this blog….. I network all the time, well, I love talking to people as I like finding out what makes people tick, but then I don’t really ‘leverage’ my network at all…. So maybe not the person to be handing out advice. But I did write a PGR Tips (a monthly set of practical tips for doctoral candidates that sometimes is more widely applicable) on networking at events: http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/61811/Current-issue-of-PGR-Tips.html. The issue before was on planned happenstance, or making your won luck, where networking is important: http://www.vitae.ac.uk/researchers/4069-244631/PGR-Tips-issue-41-creating-luck.html I’ve seen several good blogs on the use of Linked in: http://manchesterpgcareers.wordpress.com/2010/06/28/linkedin-whats-the-point/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+manchesterpgcareers+%28Manchester+Postgraduate+Careers+Blog%29 Several tips in www.careerrealism. Com But I think the main thing is to find a way of networking that you enjoy. Good luck!