to your own priorities and values.
Chapter 5
Building an Academic Network
A job search may feel like a lonely enterprise, but it is always conducted in the context of a web of social relationships. You work within a discipline with its own language, conventions, and structure of communication. Your own research has undoubtedly been strengthened by communication with other people; in some fields it has been conducted as part of a team. Your future includes leaving a department or lab with one social structure and culture to enter another. You will be explicitly recommended by several people, and those who are considering your candidacy may hear about you from others.
Whether you find these facts reassuring or alarming, by taking account of them as early as possible in your graduate career, you can strengthen your prospects in the job market. If you have not paid sufficient attention to them until now, it is not too late to focus on them. Networking is crucial, not only to get a job, but also to succeed at it and at your research. Some candidates are put off by the potentially exploitative aspect of networking; the goal is not to “use” people, but to engage in a mutually beneficial relationship. Scholarship benefits from exchange; your own work and ideas can be of value to others, even as you learn from them.
During graduate study it is critical that you change your self-concept from that of a “student” who primarily learns from others to that of a “colleague” who is actively engaged in his or her chosen discipline. If you view yourself merely as a job-hunting student, you will see networking as a petitionary activity, be hesitant to contact people, and perhaps run the risk of being bothersome. If you view yourself as an active member of your discipline, you will view networking more appropriately as an exchange of information, contact people confidently, and usually make them happy that they got to know you.
Advisors and Mentors
It is difficult to overemphasize the importance of an advisor in an academic career. When you enter the job market, and perhaps for years, you will often be viewed as “X’s student” or “Y’s protégé.” In some fields, the postdoctoral supervisor is extremely important. There are many things a supervisor can do to support you. You are fortunate if your advisor or supervisor is well known in the market you want to enter, thinks highly of you, spends time with you, is savvy about the employment market, and is enthusiastically supportive of your job search. Your first job search may well go more smoothly because you will be able to discuss your goals with your advisor, who will in turn perhaps reach out on your behalf to colleagues, paving the way to possible interviews.
While such a situation is generally enviable, you may also need to make a particular effort to distinguish between your own goals and your mentor’s goals for you, if you feel they differ. Making choices that are disappointing to an advisor will be particularly difficult. You also may rely too heavily on your advisor’s intervention and fail to master job-hunting skills as thoroughly as does someone who gets less assistance. If you are blessed with such an advisor, make a particular effort to learn from that person how best to make efforts on your own behalf. If you are doing postdoctoral research, your current supervisor can play a role in your search similar to that of a doctoral advisor. However, in addition to supporting your career development, a postdoctoral supervisor is also often dependent on your work to complete research. It may not be realistic to expect that person to enthusiastically support you for a position which would take you away before you completed the time you had committed to the postdoctoral position.
Dealing with a Difficult Advisor
You may have a less than ideal advising relationship. Perhaps your advisor is not particularly well known, brilliant but unskilled at interacting with other people, so formal and distant that you are honestly unsure what he or she thinks about your work, or, in fact, disappointed in your work and not hesitant to tell you so. Whatever the characteristics of this real human being, you can probably improve the relationship, profit from the individual’s greatest strengths, and, if necessary, find additional mentors.
If things are not going well between you and your advisor, your natural tendency may be to avoid talking with him or her. Resist this temptation! It is only through interaction that you can identify problems and attempt to address them. Arrange regular meetings to discuss your work, come well prepared for them, ask for as much feedback as you can get, take your advisor’s suggestions, and make sure he or she sees that you have done so.
If you sense that your advisor is not happy with what you are doing, but is not telling you why, ask more directly for feedback. You may learn that in fact there is no problem, or you may identify an issue you can address. View the immediate problem as an opportunity to learn more about how to manage conflict successfully, since you will encounter it again and again throughout your career. One of the most common problems people experience with their advisor is indifference or inaccessibility, because the advisor either is too senior to know how truly difficult the market is or does not support professional development for graduate students and postdocs. In addition, some advisors may believe that “the cream rises to the top” and that just doing good research is sufficient to secure a tenure-track position. If you experience these challenging attitudes from your advisor, you will likely need to be more proactive, possibly seeking advice from other faculty.
Even though advisors have considerable power, it is not unlimited. Most will respect you more if you think independently, respectfully express disagreement when it exists, present your ideas persuasively, and generally act as if you accept responsibility for your own career. Most advisors act responsibly; a few abuse their power. The latter are most likely to victimize those who are unwilling to challenge inappropriate treatment. If you honestly believe you are being treated unfairly or inappropriately, begin by learning what the norms for acceptable behavior are. For example, your advisor may be crediting your work appropriately according to standards in your field while you may feel it is being “stolen.” You can ask questions of other faculty members, graduate students, and postdocs; see whether your institution has formal policies and guidelines governing the relationship between advisors and students; consult publications of your professional association; and use online resources to understand how your experience fits into the general scheme of things. If you determine that you truly are being treated unfairly, it is usually better, although not risk-free, to seek fairer treatment, preferably with extreme deliberation and the guidance and support of a senior person who understands your department well.
Expanding Your Network
Whatever your relationship with your advisor, it is helpful to have as many senior people as possible interested in your success. Take advantage of every opportunity to talk to and get to know other faculty members in your department. Ask them for opinions, perspective, and feedback in areas where you genuinely value their expertise. It is not necessary or desirable to think of this interaction in terms of flattery. Research enterprises flourish on the exchange of ideas. Do not hesitate to develop mentors at other institutions as well, as their connections and influence can help you as an emerging scholar.
Your peers in the department offer another valuable source of perspective and lifelong contacts. Be realistic about the extent to which you will be competing with them in the job market; many candidates overestimate it. By and large, you have different strengths and interests. You will be far more successful if you exchange information and ideas with others than if you avoid interaction for fear of somehow giving them a competitive edge. In many ways you are “all in this together.” Beware, however, of becoming too involved in exchanging job-hunting horror stories. Every department has its share; some are apocryphal, and overindulgence in listening to and recounting them blurs your perspective.
The farther along you are in your academic career, the more important it is that you have established an independent network of colleagues and peers. If you are going on the market again several years after earning your final degree, some of your most important recommendations may come from outside your degree-granting department. However, if you have lost touch with faculty members there, before you begin a search is a good time to reconnect.
Professional Associations
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