Tips/advice on how to improve profile in academia

[Dheshakkilm]

Just that really, any tips on how to be more visible and have a greater profile in academia....... a long time ago when I was fresh out of my PhD I was given the advice that you need to create a buzz about yourself, get people talking about you (in a good way ofcourse). Not specifics on how to go about doing this but I would assume it means giving talks at conferences, seminars, networking, organise workshops etc etc. I’ve always been rubbish at networking but after seeing colleagues who were excellent networkers ( but not particularly great academics) secure great jobs I’ve put effort into improving my networking skills. It’s one of those skills I wish I had known was going to be super important.

Anyway, I wondered what advice you’d have on improving your profile.

You should say what field you want to raise a profile in.
What do you want to achieve by 'creating a profile'?

• aiming to be professor one day?
• aiming for higher salary /negotiable salary?
• you want to do media engagement?
• higher job satisfaction?

Twitter is my interesting place nowadays.
Publishing too, of course, Publishing great work most of all.

I’m not in academia any more but for me there were 2 types of academics - those who were passionate about their field and those who would move between areas in a more traditional career path. What is it that drives you? If it’s the former, networking with people who share interests is key - through research, Twitter, conferences. If it’s the latter you need to concentrate on your efficiency/papers and widening rather than focusing your networks.

twitter can be very useful to build academic connections - to start with, follow only other academics and tweet only about work-related things (not politics / etc). It is especially useful if you have a paper coming out and you can do a tweet-thread on it to encourage people to read it.

In the pre-covid days, I would encourage junior academics to organize a workshop or mini-conference. There are often little pots of funding for conference organizing (which gives you an extra line on your CV under 'grants') and you get to invite some big-name people to come to your event and meet you etc. It is harder to do this right now, but could be a good plan for 2022?

Another option is to offer to edit a special issue of a journal. Again, you get to invite people to take part and discuss work in your field and establish yourself as a big name in your topic. you will also get to publish an editorial on the collection of papers.

I think you have to do things worth reading/talking about ?? No?

Downriver I don't think it's that simple. Women often believe that hard work and talent will rise them to the top, then wonder why less talented people get promoted often stepping on them on the way up! I think you have to do work that is interesting and people want to talk about it- but often we miss the bit about promoting it to others, inviting others in to share it and shouting loudly about it in the media, because women are socialized to see that as boasting, or imagine people less than favourably receiving their work (imposter syndrome). I think we have to actively fight back against that instinct to be modest and not to boast, and think of it simply as sharing our work. Why write stuff, why develop great ideas or workshops or grant, and then not fully share or promote them?

@SignsofSpring exactly. This is what I was trying to get at. I was explicitly told people who spend all their time in their office/on their research (i.e me) would not get very far no matter how interesting the work is unless they know how to sell it. After all, it's the same thing you need to do for a successful grant proposals, sell your idea and make a convincing case of doing so.

Thanks for all the advice so far - it's very helpful.

To answer some of the questions from previous posters - I work in a STEM field and the reason for doing this are many (not limited to getting a permanent position but thereafter too). Given that you're already doing good, interesting work, how do you make sure you raise your profile so people immediately associate you with this body of work. I've seen many (male) colleagues of mine do this very well - I'd call their talks perfect sales pitches/performances, it's not about the work (which many others are also working on) but the fact that they're able to sell it and forever have their name assigned as the leader/frontrunner/pioneer of that project.

I'm not a leader. I don't know who the leaders are in my field.
tbh, I think it's a bad thing for science if there are clear 'leaders', but that's just my tuppence.

What gets my attention are people who explain the science very well. Spiegelhalter & Chris Smith (virologist) are both prominent in my mind right now, for good science comms on broadcast media. Universities love you to publicise them (positive stuff obviously not negative) by talking to journos as 'experts'.

Brian Coz rose to prominence for same sort of skills in his field.

On Twitter, people who write funny things about their expertise area or who break down complicated matters to fundamental principles, they get followers. There are a lot of 'explaining' threads on Twitter some of which are critiques of each other's work, that can be very attractive. A kind of mutual egging each other on to produce better through constructive criticism if you're lucky. These threads can be useful to colleagues & get attention, for instance...

Signals of lower viral load linked to Israel covid vaccine programme

Ionnidis comparing influenza to covid: critique

Abomination of PNAS article about airborne/masks covid.

Each of those thread starters has thousands of followers; consider what they said & do.