The Importance of Self-Promotion
It’s no big secret that the job market for scientists these days is highly competitive. Whether you want to:
- Land that tenured academic post
- Get your foot into industry
- Win a starter grant
- Secure a fully-funded studentship
…The competition is so fierce that when it comes to your career, you cannot afford to avoid using self-promotion if you want to get ahead.
To succeed in your next career goal, you have to convince department heads, hiring managers, recruiters, funding panels, and/or principle investigators that you’re the best candidate who’s applied.
For this, you need to be able to maximise the effectiveness of your self-marketing to make your application the easy one to say ‘yes’ to.
Whether you’re in academia or industry, it’s no longer enough to put your head down and do good work.
Depending on the transparency of your direct report, your contributions may not always be that obvious to higher management levels or the movers and shakers in your field (i.e. those who have the power to change your future).
Others can (and will) take credit for juniors’ work. You need to learn to speak up in this environment about your achievements – even if this feels uncomfortable.
Unfortunately though, self-promotion isn’t something that necessarily comes naturally to academically-trained scientists:
- A Self-Deprecating Psyche: In order to be robust scientists, we’re trained to be self-critical about our data. Objective critiquing is engrained in us from an early stage of our research training and this is part of what makes us such fantastic problem solvers. However, it also means that our default setting is toward self-depreciation rather than self-promotion.
As a result, many academics feel uncomfortable in the realm of self-promotion, even when it comes to progressing their careers.
- Team Credit: When working in the lab environment, we’re encouraged to talk about the ‘we’ of the research team rather than the ‘I.’ And this makes perfect sense, given that most research is done in a collaborative manner these days and single-author publications are becoming increasingly rare.
Yet when it comes to progressing your career, you need to be able to bring your personal achievements to the fore and take credit where it’s due.
- The Vulgarity Myth: Self-promotion has a bad name in academia. Seeming viewed as crass and below intellectual priorities, an attitude of ‘I don’t need advertising, I only need to be smart enough and have good ideas to succeed,’ perpetuates. And although this is a myth, many young academics feel if they ignore this messaging, they risk committing a social faux par in the research community.
However, this type of condemnation is a freedom only the privileged few (who have enjoyed career success) can afford to perpetuate. Often this is nothing shy of hypocrisy and although they might not admit it, senior academics will have used self-promotion to good effect early on in their careers (and probably still do), to progress.
When applying for jobs, self-promotion becomes even more critical. You have a very small window to impress on the job market. A quick glance of your CV/resume with maybe an hour-long interview, and the people in charge of deciding whether you’re selected or not for the role, will use this brief introduction to make a judgement call on your suitability.
Funding panels are no better. Often one or two individuals on the panel will be tasked with reading parts of your application. They’ll then briefly present what they think the rest of the committee, and based on this limited introduction (plus expert reviews if they have to hand), the panel will then rank your application in order of competitiveness with only the top few receiving funding.
Therefore, you have to present yourself positively as a candidate both on paper and in person. It’s essential to present the very best version of yourself with all the relevant information that the decision maker (head of department/hiring manager/recruiter/funding panel/principle investigator etc). needs to make an informed choice about you.
My advice is to ignore the haters and learn to toot your own horn!
A Simple Stepwise Approach to Self-Promotion
Self-promotion is trickier than it sounds. From a young age we are taught that self-promotion is ‘big-headed’ and essentially ‘shameless.’
Couple this with your academic training and there’s a strong feeling of uncomfortableness around self-promotion that you carry with you from childhood, and that’s reinforced as a researcher.
It’s no wonder many of us struggle with self-promotion, because it’s not something we’re used to doing!
However, you will need to deal with this discomfort to effectively promote your career success.
So if we naturally struggle with self-promotion, how do we pull it off?
The answer is three-step approach:
Step 1: Know your next career move: Understanding what you want to achieve next is essential in getting your messaging correct to take that next step. I’ve advocated before that career planning should be something you incorporate into your weekly work routine.
You cannot self-promote if you are drifting and are unsure what you want you want to achieve next, because you lack the direction to know what you want to say and to whom. Nailing down where you’re going next, allows you to understand how you’ll need to self-promote in order to get there.
Step 2: Get into the mindset of the decision maker. You need to understand the needs of the decision maker who can facilitate that next step in your career What are their goals and why?
A commercial employer for example will probably want to know that you genuinely want the job, that you’re a high performer, that you’ll add value to the role, that your reliable, that you have industry knowledge (or at least know how to achieve it), that you’ll be a good representative for the company, and that you’re going to fit in well with the team.
Why? Because they want to hire the person they perceive as the ideal candidate, who’s going to do the job well and pose a minimum risk to the company as a new hire.
Step 3: Prove you can deliver. Finally, you need to develop strong messaging to demonstrate that you can deliver the decision maker’s needs. Essentially you need to prove you can do the job. Or in terms of funding, that you will deliver measurable outputs with the support provided.
Rather than just stating that you have what they want, you need to be providing examples demonstrating that you can do this and that you are the trusted, high-performing professional they are looking for.
If you’re transitioning to industry to a role where you currently lack that specific experience, then you must show why this wouldn’t be a problem:
- Demonstrate that you’ve tried to upskill: Emphasise relevant courses, memberships, or internships
- Emphasise your transferable skills that are relevant to the role
- Demonstrate knowledge, by using relevant industry-related words and terminology
- Mention any company or industry-relevant contacts you’ve made by networking in that sector
How to Self-Promote Well (and Not Come Across as Fake)!
Okay so when it comes to self-promotion in your career, you know you have to do it and you know the steps you need to take to get ahead, but how do you do it effectively without appearing as an egocentric, shameless bragger?
Below are some tips to help you get the balance right and master the skill of the seasoned self-promoter:
- Practice: Grab every opportunity to present, speak up, ask questions, and basically get noticed, no matter how uncomfortable you feel. Use seminars, lab meetings, conferences, networking events, supervisor meetings to learn how to present the best version of yourself to others.
- Storytelling: People can’t help but remember a good story, it’s hardwired into our stone age brains. The most effective communicators have all mastered the art of storytelling. Providing a consistent narrative around your professional achievements with a start (the set up), middle (the conflict), and an end (the tangible resolution), allows you to build emotional connections with others and will get you remembered.
If you want to learn more about the secrets of storytelling, the book ‘Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get from Good to Great,’ is a useful read.
- Focus on the message: Focusing on the messaging when you speak rather than yourself, reduces nerves by placing the emphasis on the unique information you’re sharing. When you speak, people’s primary focus is on how your knowledge/expertise can help them, rather than being directed towards yourself. Remembering this will reduce nerves and help present a more authentic you when meeting new people.
- Network: Network well and often. When meeting people for the first time, learn to say what you do in a way that leaves them excited to find out more. This requires a very brief, persuasive ‘pitch’ that highlights the value you add (focusing on how your work produces positive outcomes). The aim is not to dwell on past accomplishments, but articulate how you move projects forward.
Do NOT make the conversation all about you though! This is a really important etiquette tip. Aim to keep the conversation focus on them and not you. Find out what they do and what their challenges are. Can you add value for them? When meeting people it’s an opportunity to learn something new about the other person and maybe discover how you could help them.
- Feedback: Ask for feedback from colleagues and record it. Essentially, you’re gathering testimonial evidence from others to demonstrate your skills. You’re documenting data that supports your work accomplishments, and provides social proof that you have those skills.
Positive feedback is also an easier way to celebrate you own achievements, without coming across like you’re bragging. After all someone else said it, not you!
- Improvement: Scientists are taught to strive for perfection, but in terms of progressing your career, it’s important to focus on the next step, take action, build momentum, and not let perfectionism hold you back. Progression as oppose to perfection!
Learning how to self-promote well can be started at any stage in your career, so start practising today!
In Summary
- Whatever you career aspirations, you must talk positively about yourself to others if you want to take the next step in your career
- Self-promote in your career by:
- Knowing your next step
- Understanding what people need for you to take that step
- Demonstrating that you can deliver those needs
- Learning how to tell your story, focusing on the message, networking, and gathering feedback, are all great ways to improve your self-promoting skills
- Effective self-promotion takes practice, so to get good – start immediately!
Let me know how you’re getting on with this!
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