At the beginning of her career, a freshly minted Ph.D. began receiving invitations to join various Who’s Who lists. She was tickled to have been nominated by those mysterious persons who had submitted her name, and she dutifully sent in her information and added the bullet points to her CV.
One of these invitations turned into aggravation, though. Salespersons began to call her office trying to sell plaques, coffee mugs, and other logo material, as well as the printed registry of other honorees (at almost $400). She asked them not to contact her anymore and did a little research on the company. It turned out, of course, that the particular “honor” she’d received was probably the result of her name’s being on a mailing list, rather than of any actual accomplishments.
In fact, an Internet search of the phrase “Who’s Who scam” had some interesting results. Of a particularly grievous sort were those that demanded payment for the “honor” of appearing in the printed volumes. Bought honors are not really honors at all.
I thought of this when a faculty member asked me how having these kinds of “honors” would look on his CV. Knowing the person’s actual achievements, I answered that Who’s Who-type notices wouldn’t hurt, but I also encouraged him to visit the Web sites of the sponsoring companies to help clarify exactly which kinds of lists were involved.
While the honors are nice to use in public introductions for lay audiences and to send to one’s mom, it’s good to employ discernment in how one uses these honors in professional settings.
What impact, if any, do you think various “Who’s Who” entries on a résumé has on a search (or tenure or promotion or whatever) committee?
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12 Responses to Which ‘Who’s Who’?
john_d_foubert_phd - January 19, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Has anyone, EVER, been turned down for being listed in one of these books? If not, as I suspect, that should say something about how high an honor it is to be listed.
seengland - January 19, 2010 at 4:01 pm
I think they do “hurt” on a cv for a faculty job application. Such listings have always raised questions for me about the person’s judgement.
lkvamme - January 19, 2010 at 4:03 pm
Not only do these “Who’s Who?” deceive me about the honor; but when I declined the listing, they badgered me! I would never recommend it to anyone. It just may make you look foolish.
haohtt - January 19, 2010 at 4:06 pm
I have been contacted by numerous Who’s Who directories over the year. Marquis Who’s Who is the only one that I have found to be legitimate. The others (Madison, Strathmore, Cambridge, etc.) required a membership fee or for me to purchase a “deluxe edition” of the registry to be listed. Although Marquis sent me information about purchasing the directory, they did not make purchase a requirement for inclusion in the directory.
rharmon63 - January 19, 2010 at 4:10 pm
The only thing the listing of a Who’s Who nomination does when I see it on a resume is tell me that the person submitting the resume is not very sophisticated. Come on folks, if you can be nominated by an unknown entity who just happened to “find” you when those around you haven’t acknowledged anything extraordinary,….it’s probably not worth much. That this is a surprise to people in academe worries me…
higherandhigher - January 19, 2010 at 4:33 pm
It may not harm one’s chances, but it certainly won’t help. Leave it off!
11893310 - January 19, 2010 at 4:37 pm
The original Who’s Who is a British publication dating from 1849, and it was (and is) quite an honor to be invited to have one’s name and vita included. The American version of Who’s Who, Marquis Who’s Who in America, dating from 1899, is, likewise, a place of honor, to say nothing of both Who’s Who as excellent sources for elusive biographical detail (Just who was that baronet in 1867 who. . ?)Other than the Marquis Who’s Who in America and the original British publication, I’d avoid every other Who’s Who as so much pretensious fluff and not likely to impress a hiring committee. It doesn’t me whenever I review resumes and candidates. However, I have been included in two Marquis’ Who’s Who: . . . in the Midwest and the Y2K edition of . . . In America, staying away from all the others. In my discipline, which is a professional field not given to research and publication, the fact that I have published a fair bit and conducted research, plus have been listed in the Marquis’s publications, is a gee-wheez-wow factor, which can be exploited with restraint and good taste in job hunting. It can also back-fire, as in, so-you-think-you-are-better-than-we-are-huh? I list the Who’s Who entries down at the bottom of my resume, after my adjunct teaching, conference directing, and consulting assignments, separate from professional honors, grant awards, assistanships, etc.
mothergrogan - January 19, 2010 at 4:58 pm
I think two things are absolutely true about this. One is that there is only one legitimate publisher in the US, which is Marquis. This has been considered and in some circles no doubt still is a significant honor. The second fact though is that few people inside academia would know this, and would associate any Who’s Who listing with the fraudulent ones. Additionally, I would say that in my own experience, even Marquis is not especially good at identifying and listing people in academia. I was listed once as a junior faculty member when I had one book and only a few other publications. Perhaps more accomplished faculty members were asked, but did not respond. (See point #2). I would say most definitely leave it off a vita. It might be more appropriate for an administrative resume, as a measure of national prominence in one’s field, but it is never going to be an important credential, and may lead some to question your judgment and suspect that you may fall for other scams, such as vanity presses. (Such things have been known to happen both at my institution and in the rich world of the academic novel).
john_d_foubert_phd - January 19, 2010 at 5:04 pm
This is a serious question. Does Marquis turn anyone down? What kind of “honor” is this, really? Post number 7 reads as though a representative of Marquis wrote it.
spritchard - January 20, 2010 at 6:15 am
I’m a librarian. Many of us keep up as to which publishers of biographical information are bogus/vanity, and which ones legitimate; moreover, it is often known how the entries are compiled and whether or not one can “apply” to be included. You can’t apply to be listed in Marquis; and they get their proposed names through databases of book and journal publications and news articles. Another directory (not called a “who’s who” but a major listing of academic faculty) gets it names from textbook orders via bookstores. Anyone who wants to know whether a given directory is legit can easily find this out with a little bit of consultation and checking of reviews and publisher information. Such directories and definitely not all the same; some are total garbage, but there are definitely reliable ones that are selective, vet their entries, and don’t require payment (though they do require your permission to include your information).
carolslin - January 20, 2010 at 8:16 am
Regardless of whether it is legitimate, it you have to consider a Who’s Who listing in your resume, you probably don’t have much else to showcase yourself. Leave it off. It is no better than a recommendation letter from your parent.
chenshaw - January 20, 2010 at 11:51 am
I have been nominated twice by students (with their names identified) in marquis Who’s Who in American Education. That one I list on my CV. I have recently been hounded by another organization where I would have had to pay to be included. I declined.