Professional Networking Strategies

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Professional Networking Strategies

• TLRC University Week Session
• University of Louisiana at Monroe
• August 20, 2009
• Mona A. Oliver

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Is academic success based solely upon
achievements?
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Unspoken Mysteries of Academic Professionalism

• Many inner workings of academic life are rarely
  discussed explicitly.
• YET
• Understanding how the system works is an
  important component of success.
• Inside Higher Education (July 31, 2009)

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Building Towards Faculty Success

• Faculty need to
• continually cultivate good relationships with
  senior faculty and with peers, making connections
  across depart- ments and campuses, not only at
  their home university but also outside it
• build a reputation as an ethical teacher,
  researcher, and scholar
• build a strong dossier
• collect letters of recommendation from experts in
  their discipline

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Significance of Networking in Academia

• The more people you know in your academic
  world, the more opportunities you will have to do
  things, whether it be attending conferences,
  setting up conferences, or obtaining funding for
  projects and research. (As government financing
  dwindles, having a wide range of contacts takes
  on greater importance.)

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Two Models Of Higher Education

• The autonomous-self model
• The relational model

Bennett, John B. Collegial Professionalism The
Academy, Individualism, and the Common Good.
Phoenix American Council on Education The
Oryx Press, 1998.
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The Autonomous-Self Model

• Faculty rarely collaborate, shun peer review,
  and often spend more time with research than
  involving themselves in the broader university
  community.

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Autonomy or Isolation?

• But, autonomy is not the same as
• isolation the contacts you make at your
• own institution and within academe in
• general are crucial to career success.
• Networking is a critical function of career
• researchers, for it builds collaborative--
• even multidisciplinary--participation in
• research projects, publications, and
• research profiles.

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The Relational Model

• Faculty focus on finding common ground,
  collaboration and togetherness. The development
  of the collegial ethic is at the heart of this
  model.

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Why Collegiality Matters?

• A collegial department figures heavily in
  faculty satisfactionahead of the institutions
  work and family policies, ahead of clear tenure
  policies, and even ahead of compensation,
  according to the national survey data we
  collected between 2005-2007 for the Collaborative
  on Academic Careers in Higher Education, a
  research center at the Harvard Graduate School of
  Education.
• Trower, Cathy A. and Anne Gallagher. First
  Person Why Collegiality Matters. Chronicle
  of Higher Education.
• Nov. 11, 2008.

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Is Collegiality More Than Congeniality?
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Collegiality?

• Collegial faculty
• appreciate good intentions of senior faculty
• are respectful of students, staff, colleagues,
  and supervisors
• practice good time management and do their part,
  realizing that we are all busy
• dont hog resources or find ways to get by
  departmental rules
• socialize with faculty regularly even if just in
  small ways (This too is networking.)

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Professionalism?
One of the challenges to the collegial model
Bennett acknowledges is the difficulty in
defining and clarifying what professionalism is.

• AACU Handout

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Standards for Professional Behavior

• Commitment to quality
• Reliability (following through on commitments)
• Taking responsibility for ones own progress and
  actions
• Respect for others, including others
  expectations for confidentiality and privacy
• Personal integrity, including avoiding conflicts
  of interest and bias, and adhering to the rules
  of ones discipline, school, college, and
  university

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Professional Networking Advice

• Consider whom you wish to network with
• Those with a very good publication and research
  grants record
• Those with higher, similar, and lower academic
  status
• Those within and outside your discipline or
  subject area
• Those within and outside of higher education

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Besides keeping a supply of business cards to
exchange, what else should I know about making
useful professional contacts?
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Networking Tips

• Join professional associations and groups youll
  quickly learn which are worth your time. (Note
  that academic feuds are common, but stay away
  from turf battles, proxy wars, cliques, etc.
  Also, never burn bridges in the small world of
  academia.)
• Identify key personnel youd like to contact by
• - attending meetings conferences, symposia,
  department seminars, etc. to find out who has the
  information /or influence that you need.
• - considering whether you have useful contacts
  within your division and with external agencies

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Networking Tips

• Ask yourself what you are going to do to keep in
  touch with your contacts.
• Dont just develop contacts, use them. Ask
  questions about who, what, when, where, why and
  how rather than those answerable with yes or no
  to open networking conversations and show others
  you are interested in what they have to say.

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Networking Tips

• To build trust and relationships, seek ways to
  help others. (e.g. Volunteer for governing
  committees of the associations to which you
  belong.)
• Keep your eyes and ears open for anything useful
  then follow up on it, use it, or store the
  information for future use (which means you must
  be organized).

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Networking Tips

• 7. Networking means building a net of
  colleagues with common interests who may be in
  the next office across campus at the campus
  across town, down the interstate, or abroad and
  it may be done in the hallway, at conferences, or
  through electronic lists and email.
• See www.academia.edu (whos researching what)
• http//network.nature.com (connecting
  scientists)
• www.researchgate.net (scientific
  network)
• Phil Agees Networking on the Network
• http//www.scribd.com/doc/887315/Networking-on-the
  -Network