Practicing Self Promotion

Greg Hickok, Professor and Chair, Language Science

When preparing for tenure, probably the most important thing you can do is document everything you do and every little accolade you received. Even those that don’t make your CV, like a talk invitation that you couldn’t attend; an especially grateful note from a student you impacted; a unique teaching or scientific communication approach you pioneered; some code you developed and shared publicly; or a presentation you gave to a local school or other lay group. I keep a “promotion" folder where I can drop these sorts of things that aren’t typically noted in one’s career otherwise. For those things that do show up on your CV, think about how each item might contribute to more than one of major areas of evaluation (research, teaching, service, diversity). For example, I helped found a new professional society and secured a conference grant award to help support it. I naturally put that on my CV as extramural funding and noted it as something I did for service to my field. But looking back at that grant at promotion time, it occurred to me that a big part of the money we secured was to enable underrepresented groups to attend. I could easily have completely forgotten about that additional contribution had I not re-looked at what was in that grant. For every success you have, make a note about all of the ways it contributes to the university’s mission.

Another important thing you can do is find a mentor you can trust, someone you can get advice from as you navigate research, teaching, getting grants, managing administrative politics, and even personal issues (I’m thinking of work-life balance). It’s great if you can find someone in your field at your university. But it doesn’t have to be. The academic game is similar throughout the country and useful advice can be found from multiple perspectives. For more local perspectives, don’t be afraid to reach out to your chair or other more senior members in your department or related departments. We all benefit from each other’s success and most people are very happy to help.