Career Talk

How to Make a Name for Yourself

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By Mary Morris Heiberger and Julie Miller Vick

Question: I recently went to an academic conference and attended a panel discussion of speakers in my field. The work of a few of them was truly marginal, and I feel that what I've done is much better and more substantive. Yet no one invited me to participate. Sometimes I feel like it's a closed circle out there, and I can't figure out how to break in. Do you have any advice for me?

Mary: We're happy to give it a try. Last month we addressed some of the ways that people draw unwanted attention to themselves through misfired e-mail messages and other technological mishaps. This month we'll talk about the positive side of the equation -- how to use both new and old modes of communication to become a presence among the people who interest you.

Julie: It may seem like the same people always receive the invitations to speak at meetings and it may appear that they don't have to do anything to ensure that they're part of the program. The reality, however, is that most people -- particularly those relatively new in their field -- have to work to get themselves known. In short, you have to be your own public-relations agent. That notion may make some shudder, but it shouldn't. It doesn't mean shameless self-promotion or changing your personality. It simply means that you have to get yourself known the way you want to be known.

Mary: Do you want to be seen as the reliable colleague, as the person doing cutting-edge work in a certain area of research, as the advocate for a particular position or group of people in your field? Spend some time trying to define exactly what it is that you would like people to know about you and your work. The point of doing this is not only self-promotion but to create a wider audience within which to discuss your ideas.

Julie: Perhaps you want different groups of people to know different things about you. Naturally all of them should be true, but some things are more relevant to one group than to another. Try to pare down to its essence what you want to say to a particular audience. Ask yourself, "If my colleagues were to describe me or my work in one or two sentences, what would I most like them to say?"

Mary: Then focus on making both your behavior, and what you say, consistent with that message. Say you want to be viewed as an effective teacher on your campus. When you talk to colleagues, focus on what has gone well in your classroom, rather than elaborating on what has gone badly or complaining about your students. And if you work in a toxic environment where it doesn't pay to be too effusive about teaching, then simply complain less than most of your colleagues and try to move to a more positive place.

Julie: Communicating a message assumes, of course, that you have someone to communicate it to. If you want to be known, then you have to get to know people. There's no alternative. If you're not very outgoing, you may have to push yourself to do this. Introduce yourself to people you don't know on your own campus, at colleges you visit, and at scholarly meetings. Find ways to stay in touch with people you've already met. Seek out colleagues in your department or in other departments with whom you can discuss related research and shared pedagogical interests.

Mary: Take advantage of every chance to speak to an audience. If public speaking doesn't come naturally to you, work on it. Many campuses have communications or teaching centers where you can get some coaching on public speaking. Check out a recent column here on the subject of living with public-speaking anxiety. Many people have told us that joining Toastmasters, a self-help organization for people who want to improve their ability at public speaking, has been an inexpensive option that's worked well for them. Toastmasters draws its membership from the general public. The advantage of that is it will force you, when you talk about your work, to make it comprehensible to a broad range of people.

Julie: An easy way to improve your speaking ability is to find ways to make presentations to faculty members and students at your institution. As you let yourself become known on your campus, you will gain not only experience and confidence but also a broader network of people who recognize you and your work.

Mary: While we would never suggest that you use the Internet to avoid speaking with people face-to-face, it certainly offers a fine opportunity to expand the number of people who are familiar with your work and views. Make sure your Web site is clear and easy to use and doesn't look amateurish. Set up links on your site to other Web sites that are important in your field. The idea is to make your site so helpful that people will keep coming back. Here's an example of what we mean, found on the Web site of Jack Lynch, an assistant professor of English at Rutgers University at Newark.

Julie: Join electronic mailing lists in your research area. Make thoughtful contributions. Become a "respected voice" on the list, someone whose posts others look forward to reading. The best way to identify relevant e-mail lists is to ask your colleagues. Some Web sites also allow you to search for e-mail lists, such as L-Soft.

Mary: Now let's return to the original question about getting invited to make a presentation. The first step is to find out about forthcoming conferences that will have panel discussions on a subject in your area of expertise. Of course some sessions are open to all submissions, but if you see that there will be an invited panel on a topic you know something about, talk to your adviser or another faculty member and let them know you are interested in presenting at the meeting. See if they might be willing to recommend you to the panel organizer. If you feel ready and able to give such a talk, you probably are, and they are probably willing to recommend you. A recommendation from a senior scholar certainly carries a lot of weight. Then, it's up to you to follow up with an e-mail message, a telephone call, a prospectus, or whatever it takes to confirm for the organizer that you would be an appropriate and, in fact, excellent, speaker for this meeting.

Julie: You have a certain amount of control over what will be said about you when your name is passed on to a conference organizer. Whatever concise description of your research you give is probably the one that will be repeated. If you make your research sound boring and irrelevant, a third party isn't likely to want to be indirectly associated with it by recommending it to anyone. If you've already described your research persuasively, it makes it easy for your "sponsor" to be persuasive.

Mary: If you can't get anyone to put in a word for you, do it yourself. Sometimes all that's necessary is to ask -- again, taking care to give a coherent, interesting description of your work. Even if you don't get a "yes" this time, someone else has just learned about what you have to offer.

Julie: And when you get the chance to present at a conference, you have more work to do, and I don't just mean preparing your talk. If you are scheduled to be on a panel, find out something about the other panelists ahead of time. Introduce yourself to them.

Leave plenty of time after your talk to chat with members of the audience. If people come up to you afterward and ask questions, find out their names and e-mail addresses, give them yours, and arrange to meet for coffee to continue the conversation.