I am going to tell on myself.
I only have two regrets about getting my doctorate: (1) I didn’t get an editor earlier, and (2) I didn’t take advantage of the conferences I attended.
I, smartly, used conferences as an opportunity to move each chapter of my dissertation forward. The conference deadline was the date by when I had to complete the chapter and then reduce it to presentation size.
That worked well.
What I didn’t do well, because, in spite of what I often look like to people, is actually milk conferences for professional connections. I didn’t use conferences to find mentors; I didn’t use conferences to see if anyone would like me to contribute to their collections of historical essays; I didn’t use conferences to explore the possibilities of work outside of academia, and the list goes on.
Now that I work part-time in the academy and as a coach, I am MUCH SMARTER about approaching conferences so that I don’t only get good feedback on my work, but that I build the foundations I need to continue my alt-ac work.
Many of you who are in academia could use some brushing up on building the connections to build your academic work. Because in spite of what we tell ourselves, academia and other jobs often function in similar ways.
If you don’t think that the people who have tenure tracked/tenured jobs don’t use connections, you have stuck your head in the sand. Yes, my partner is REALLY WELL PUBLISHED, but the current job is owed to connections with the advisor from her doctoral program and other professional connections in the department.
I was just reading a column from the Chronicle of Higher Ed that said often, to get a publisher to think about your work, you need professional references to move that forward.
Same with grants.
It’s a new year. Let’s start with a clean slate. Let’s get the skills we need to develop the professional connections you need.
Register here.
