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How to Be a Better Listener for Career Success

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Professional looking at laptop screen and listening during a virtual conference call on laptop.

According to a 2019 survey of education hiring managers and HR professionals, the most in-demand skill from employers is a “soft skill” – listening. Despite this, so many continue to work with colleagues that could benefit greatly from improving their listening skills.

Some examples include:

  • The supervisor that talks a mile a minute without waiting to see if what they are saying is understood.
  • The teammate whose listening skills only seem to apply to those in senior roles and not to peers at the same seniority level.
  • The folks who only seem to listen so that they can get their opinion in, not to engage with others at the discussion table.
  • The “interrupter” who talks over others.

What can you do to sharpen your listening skills? Here are 7 suggestions for things you can work on.

1. Put the phones and laptops down.

People feel more heard and respected when you are not distracted by screens and give them your full attention.

2. Repeat what was said and paraphrase your understanding.

Paraphrasing what was said contributes to the speaker feeling heard and keeps the conversation on track with what was presented. Doing this also helps to reinforce that you have integrated what was presented. The speaker will know if any clarification is needed.

3. Pay attention to, and use, physical and nonverbal cues.

Body language can have an impact on both your understanding and the speaker’s impression of how well you are paying attention. For example, nodding as a response to the speaker’s statements if you agree (or shaking your head if you disagree) and maintaining eye contact help demonstrate that you are absorbing information.

4. Ask questions.

Raising questions ensures that the speaker feels understood as well as helps ensure you get the clarification needed for a full understanding of what was said.

5. When you agree, say so.

Nodding in agreement helps a speaker feel heard, for sure. But nothing reinforces that you’ve heard what they’ve said like an actual verbal statement, like “I agree with everything you’ve said” or “you’re right!”

6. Don’t anticipate what you think will be said.

Listen for what the speaker is saying, not to anticipate what your response to it will be.

7. Don’t be afraid to ask the speaker to repeat.

If you missed something that was said, apologize for the failure in attention and ask the speaker if they can repeat it. 

Check out some Top Articles on HERC Jobs.

Interested in higher ed job opportunities? Explore our job board with over 60,000 job postings and sign up for a free job seeker account.

About the Author: Shirley Huey, J.D., is a consultant providing research, writing, and strategic development assistance to organizational clients. Her experience includes service on academic and professional hiring, diversity, and professional development committees as well as coaching peers and mentees. She is also a freelance writer, with a focus on her passions: food and culture

Reconnect With Your “Why” To Figure Out What’s Next

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Tired professional doign work on laptop.

When you wake up each day, are you excited to get to work? Are you motivated to perform your tasks well? If you didn’t answer a wholehearted “yes!” to those questions, don’t fret. You are not alone. 

In a time of great economic and workplace upheaval, where staffing shortages are frequent and many have chosen to join “The Great Resignation,” people are asking themselves hard questions about what they want from their jobs and careers.

Staff in many organizations have been asked to take on more responsibilities. Many feel overwhelmed, stressed out, and overburdened at work. Others feel a bit lost in their career direction. Still others feel that their work goes unappreciated and struggle for their contributions to be seen.

Kuukua Yomekpe, a former university academic advisor now chef/entrepreneur who cooks and gives lessons on West African traditional foods, spoke of working in a department down several staff whose roles went unfilled for an indefinite period of time: “I realized that I had a choice. I had bills to pay, so it was a hard, difficult choice, but my mental health was impacted. Sometimes [making the hard choice to leave a job], it’s what you have to do.”  

If you are feeling frustrated with your work responsibilities and finding less enjoyment at work, here are some strategies to help you move forward, assess where you are currently, and identify where you would like to see your career going. 

Clean Out Your Workspace 

What does cleanliness or organization have to do with work satisfaction? Research shows that decluttering supports a feeling of calm and decreases anxiety. Creating an organized and tidy workspace (and, in this time of working from home, living space) can be one step towards getting to mental clarity. 

Examine Your Values

Identify what the underlying values are that led you to your current job, role, and responsibilities. Take some time to reflect on where you are in your career and whether what you are doing now aligns with the values you identified then. If there’s a disconnect and you have a hard time answering that question, challenge yourself and ask further questions. How did you get here? Remember, this exercise is about YOUR values, not the next person’s. Getting a promotion may be your goal for this year, or perhaps carving out more time to spend with your loved ones. What is important is figuring out what YOU value, then how well your current work lines up with that. Once you find that answer, you will have your starting point to figure out what should come next. 

Get in Touch With Your Strengths 

Consider what you and others have said are your strengths. Ask your friends and colleagues what they consider to be your strengths. Are you tapping into those strengths in your current role? 

Assess Your Tasks

Are you doing things you enjoy? We all need a certain amount of satisfaction in our lives, to engage in activities that bring us happiness and lead to a sense of fulfillment. What are the activities that bring you joy? In assessing your work, ask yourself are you engaging in activities or tasks that you enjoy? Are you practicing skills that emphasize your strengths? Are you doing work that challenges you in the ways that you seek to be challenged? Are you learning and growing in your role? If the answer is no, see what you can do to introduce these activities into your life whether at work or in volunteer or other spaces.

Identify What You Want

Define what “success” means to you in terms that are meaningful and achievable, whether it’s salary, title, flexibility, influence, or whatever measure you seek. Remember if you define success in ways that are unrealistic or perfection-based, you may set yourself up for additional anxiety, stress, and unhappiness. Be compassionate to yourself. Remember that success means different things to different people. 

Be Flexible

Remember that purpose can change over time. What gets you revved up and excited in your work life at one stage of your life might be different at another stage. Revise your goals and intentions accordingly. A friend who is a successful full-time professional and a mother of two young children recently compared her life to younger, single, childless women, wistfully remembering what that was like. I reminded her that she explicitly chooses to dedicate more time to her family, prioritizing that over attendance at professional networking or social events. Reframing that as a choice helped her reconnect with a sense of success – that she WAS meeting her life goals and purpose. 

Check out some Top Articles on HERC Jobs.

Interested in higher ed job opportunities? Explore our job board with over 60,000 job postings and sign up for a free job seeker account.

About the Author: Shirley Huey, J.D., is a consultant providing research, writing, and strategic development assistance to organizational clients. Her experience includes service on academic and professional hiring, diversity, and professional development committees as well as coaching peers and mentees. She is also a freelance writer, with a focus on her passions: food and culture.

From Military Life to Campus Life: How Veterans Can Ease into a Higher Ed Career

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Portrait of higher ed professional, former veteran
Headshot of Wayne Hutchison

Wayne Hutchison is the Managing Director of the Full-Time MBA Program at the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. Before that, he served in U.S. Air Force from 1997-2018, earning the rank of Major. 

A veteran’s transition to civilian life, specifically a job in higher education, isn’t always smooth. Wayne Hutchison shares advice in making a career change from the military to higher education, including how to ease the transition to civilian life and what to expect from a higher ed institution.

What To Look For When Applying

When military members move to a new installation, they frequently are paired with a sponsor or mentor that will help onboard and educate them. Ideally, a higher ed institution would also be able to connect you with a veteran sponsor that is currently on staff, especially in places that traditionally have a high military or national guard population.

Sometimes it can be difficult to locate a veteran sponsor, so you should also consider connecting with mentors in career fields you are interested in.

“I realized in this day and age there are so many resources to make that connection technologically,” Hutchison said. “But you cannot replace or devalue what it means to have the human factor, and if you have a vet that can have that conversation with.”

If a mentoring or sponsor program isn’t available at the school that you’re looking at, there are also federal, state, and local agencies that have mental, medical, and support resources for veterans and their families.

The transitions a family can also go through are significant, and the needs that a family will require are diverse. Even if you have difficulties in connecting to individuals with firsthand military experiences, many support resources across the country that can help a military family in transition exist.

Adjusting to a New Workplace Culture

There are many aspects of a higher ed workplace that will feel familiar to veterans. In both environments, you are working with large groups of people on a deadline for a common cause. But there are differences that aren’t necessarily better or worse, but do require an adjustment.

While the military presents a linear chain of command where it’s clear how decisions will get made, a higher ed workplace may require decision making by consensus or crowdsourcing.

In military service, a diverse group of individuals goes through similar training and development, with a common connection based on the work they do, to create a strong collective. In the higher education environment, military veterans can find challenges in connecting professionally with others that do not share their experiences.  

The speed at which you operate may also be an adjustment, since many of the tasks you complete in a workday may not be emergency-related or high-stakes in nature.

One thing that helps is to never refuse training and always be on the lookout for educational opportunities to prepare for new roles. Hutchison has said yes every time he’s asked to be on a committee or consider taking a workshop. It’s another example of how the ethos he developed in military service has helped him sustain a second career. He also pursued his Ph.D., a six-year odyssey that has prepared him to advance in his career in higher education administration.

“For veterans looking to transition into roles in higher education, know that it can be a very rewarding experience, with several opportunities to leverage skills and expertise honed during your military service,” Hutchison said. “Advance planning and research, paired with a willingness to adapt to available roles, will help set you up for success. After you make the transition, continue to look for opportunities to serve the institution while identifying areas for personal growth.”

Check out Top Articles on HERC Jobs.

Download our free ebook, Veterans Transitioning Into Higher Ed (Revised Edition) for more information on your shift from military to civilian careers. Explore additional resources for veterans from HERC Jobs.

About the Author: Harold Gutmann is the director of brand and marketing strategy at Santa Clara University. He is a longtime writer and editor who is proud to work in higher education, and encourages all job seekers to consider it.

Identifying and Managing Workplace Culture

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Historically, workplace culture has been an excuse to invalidate applicants based on implicit biases because it was both incorrectly prioritized and evaluated. The evaluation of applicants for their culture fit can be such a threat to underrepresented groups that they may “edit their CVs to take out their culture, anything that resembles it, so that they are more likely to get some interviews.”

Workplace culture is the compilation of behaviors that reflect the underlying values of employees, including their attitudes toward work, communication and interaction habits, values, and commitments. Cultural fit describes the concept of screening an applicant’s values, beliefs, and behaviors to evaluate whether they match that of the workplace. While workplace culture and cultural fit have been misused as scapegoats for implicit biases, they are helpful concepts in principle.

Based on those definitions, here are some tips to evaluate workplace cultures for compatibility and learn how to manage workplaces that aren’t compatible.

Evaluating Workplace Culture During Interviews

Ideally, the culture of the physical workplace should match the values and beliefs described in their job posting and recruiting materials. Unfortunately, that’s rarely the case. Beforehand, decide what you care about most and what your values are. For example, what is your ideal working environment? How do you prefer to communicate? Do you work better independently or collaboratively?

During the interview, the best-case scenario is to see the workplace in real-time, preferably at mid-day and either early morning or late evening to see if long work hours are a part of the culture. After you’ve had a chance to observe, ask yourself what your initial thoughts were. Were your initial thoughts negative or positive? Did the workplace feel comfortable, aseptic, or chaotic?

There are also a lot of questions that you can ask of your potential employer during the interview. Along with asking questions to evaluate the needs and values you previously identified, some of the best interview questions for cultural fit include:

  • how the company engages and supports employees,
  • how the company deals with conflict and politics, and
  • what the day-to-day work environment is like.

Leadership development expert Mikaela Kiner encourages you to keep in mind that every organization and/or department has “a unique value system, approach to conflicts and internal politics, and working environment. If someone tells you otherwise, be suspicious!”

In the event you find a workplace where the culture seems to fit but you suspect that implicit biases are at play and/or it isn’t obvious that you’ll be a good fit, it may be possible to preempt the potential employer’s conclusion. When Gustavo Razzetti felt he was in this situation, “he would pitch himself as a wildcard, [saying] ‘If you’re looking for someone to keep steering the ship in this direction, that’s not me. I’ll shake things up and make a change.’”

Managing an Incompatible Workplace Culture

Workplace culture can be difficult to assess on the fly. Ideally, your values and beliefs match those of your employer, but those can be easily distorted by apathetic or overly zealous co-workers. If you’ve found yourself in a situation where the workplace culture doesn’t seem compatible, Laura Hamill, Chief People Officer and Chief Science Officer at Limeade encourages you to ask yourself if you’re “uncomfortable because you disagree with the culture or because it’s challenging? The latter could actually make for an incredible growth opportunity—but it does require you to be open and resilient.”

If that isn’t the case, then you’re likely to consider finding a new employer ASAP. Because that takes time, or you may not have that option, there are ways to try mitigating the effects of a negative work environment. If you feel lonely and/or lack a connection with your co-workers, try reaching out to employer-sponsored groups (e.g., women’s, biking, or music groups). Forming a connection with co-workers and/or taking some space from the office by improving your work-life balance can help you cope with a less than ideal workplace culture and its consequent dynamics.

About the Author:  Dr. Ada Hagan is a microbiologist with a passion for making science accessible. In 2019, Dr. Hagan founded Alliance SciComm & Consulting, LLC as a means to use her strong background in communications and higher education to help make scientific concepts more easily understood and make the academy more inclusive to future scientists from all backgrounds. Her writing and research have been featured by BBC Radio 4, Science Careers, The Scientist, Massive Science, and the American Society for Microbiology.

How Veterans Can Make the Change to Higher Ed

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Veteran higher education professional sitting at work desk with laptop

Wayne Hutchison is the Managing Director of the Full-Time MBA Program at the Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. Before that, he served in U.S. Air Force from 1997-2018, earning the rank of Major. 

In March 2020, when Michigan State University began closing down due to COVID-19, Wayne Hutchison remembered his military training, and systematically went door-to-door in his building to ensure students safely went home to await further instructions from the university on how classes would resume.

“My response to emergencies is still very much present,” Hutchison said. “It just doesn’t come out as much.”

When it came to a COVID response, there was a direct connection with Hutchison’s prior military service. But the transition to civilian life, and specifically a job in higher education, wasn’t always as smooth.

Here is how Hutchison was able to make the change from the military to higher ed:

Find a Rewarding Second Career

Hutchison’s father, Martin, served in the Air Force for 26 years, and Wayne knew by the time he was 8 he wanted to be a military officer. What he never thought about growing up was what an eventual transition to civilian life would look like.

Through significant self-reflection and the help of some amazing people, he was able to make a great transition to a second career in higher education.

Hutchison advises veterans who are the least bit curious about transitioning to higher ed to ask for help.

“Sometimes this can be challenging,” Hutchison said. “We are trained in many instances to really use the resources we have available for maximum effect and sometimes that people might think they shouldn’t or they can’t ask for help. I would encourage every veteran who is looking to transition or it’s just looking for a growth opportunity to ask for that support, and it will be there.”

He suggests finding someone who is doing the job that you might be interested in, and call or write to ask for 15 minutes of their time. Explain that you’re a veteran in transition and you’d like to talk to them about their experiences, and whether or not your skills would be a good fit. Hutchison has tried this many times and never had a bad experience.

“I have never been turned away,” Hutchison. “I find that folks are very willing to give help and support if asked. In many instances, veterans look at things outside our military service as vague or ambiguous, and sometimes it’s hard to really find that footing. One easy way to find that footing is just to connect to something you find interesting and just ask.”

Don’t Expect a Quick Transition

The process from deciding he was going to hang up his uniform to working in higher ed took Hutchison about 30 months. He started taking interviews in corporate America, did professional journey mapping, and talked to people at Michigan State, where he was an Air Force ROTC training instructor for his final four years of military service.

He had the same questions most veterans would have – how would his experience translate to a new setting? Would he need to learn new skills?

“I really remember that initial anxiety,” Hutchison said. “Okay, you’re going to give up this thing you’ve done your whole professional life, and for what exactly? I knew I wanted a personally meaningful second career but was not immediately sure of what that looked like. I think many veterans could feel that way.”

A crucial step was to plan early. Hutchison spent a year working on his resume, taking out acronyms that a civilian wouldn’t understand and removing information that was potentially confidential before it was ready to be sent out.

One key instrument of his journey was that he relied extensively on a career consultant to shape his resume and make the connections between military experience and civilian positions. He also took advantage of his spouse Jaimie, a professional career coach, who tailored his resume to his career goals and conducted mock interviews.

Check out Top Articles on HERC Jobs.

Download our free ebook, Veterans Transitioning Into Higher Ed (Revised Edition) for more information on your shift from military to civilian careers. Explore additional resources for veterans from HERC Jobs.

About the Author: Harold Gutmann is the director of brand and marketing strategy at Santa Clara University. He is a longtime writer and editor who is proud to work in higher education, and encourages all job seekers to consider it.

Grow Your Career Where You Are

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Professional considering internal career advancement opportunities

A November 2021 survey commissioned by BestColleges.com found that 28% of respondents either left their previous employer or changed roles in 2021. An additional 38% of respondents plan to change roles and/or employers in 2022. On campus, about 660,000 employees have left since the pandemic began, primarily through layoffs and voluntary departures. While about one-third of these jobs were recovered in the spring of 2021, many former higher ed employees are starting their own businesses or transitioning to education-technology companies.

The force that has kept campus positions full until recently is the dedication of higher ed staff to the greater mission of higher education. According to qualitative interviews conducted by The Chronicle of Higher Education, “Many staff members stayed in their jobs despite the heavy workload, low pay, and rare opportunities for advancement. Some saw their work as intrinsic to their identities.” Commenting on career advancement opportunities, one interviewee remarked, “I don’t use the term glass ceiling. It’s a cinder block.”

This lack of internal advancement for anyone who isn’t tenure-track faculty means that advancing in an institutional role (and boosting your salary) generally requires getting a job at a different institution or leaving academia. There are several reasons, however, that you might not be interested in leaving your current institution, and that doesn’t mean your career has to stagnate.

Before joining millions of others in the Great Resignation, here are two things that higher ed job seekers need to know if they want to advance within their current institution: (i) there are two ways to further your career without moving to another institution and (ii) how and where you find internal advancement opportunities is institution-specific.

Get to Know Job Redesign and Horizontal Career Paths

There are two nontraditional methods of career advancement that might work at your academic institution: job redesign and horizontal career paths.

A job redesign can involve job enlargement and/or job enrichment. Job enlargement is the process of adding variation and scope to the standard duties of your job. It’s common for additional responsibilities to slowly creep into your to-do list. By embracing this unintentional job enlargement, you can take control of the situation and use it to your advantage. Keep track of the new responsibilities as well as any additional training and/or skills that were required. Next, identify ways to further enrich your job. That is, how can you increase the depth of your job by taking more control of new tasks through planning and organization. Comparing your original position with the new role that you are (now intentionally) moving into, along with the new skills and expertise required, may convince supervisors to redesign/reclassify your position and, hopefully, include a pay raise.

Horizontal career paths (aka career lattices) were introduced in the mid-to-late 1990s to encourage lateral employee movement. Horizontal movement allows you to challenge yourself with new tasks and find new ways of furthering the mission of education that may bind you to higher ed. Moving within the institution also means that they get to keep an employee (you!) who is a known performer. While academic institutions don’t generally seem to have this structure in place, you can facilitate this transition for yourself by applying to open positions as an internal applicant.  

Find Out How Your Institution Supports Internal Career Advancement

Unfortunately, since each institution has its own organizational structure and internal jargon, there isn’t one way to identify opportunities for internal career advancement at academic institutions. For instance, internal career advancement might be discussed as internal hiring paths or promotional paths.

To get started decoding your institution, look for an internal staffing structure. This structure should divide the institutional positions in families according to the type of work (e.g., Admin, Alumni Affairs, Facilities), then further break down into generic job profiles and progression, where available. The staffing structure should provide an overview of the tasks and complexity involved in each position and help you see how your responsibilities might change in a different family and/or position.

Each position may also have a staff position description that more specifically describes each position on campus and how it aligns with the needs of the work-family and larger institution. These position descriptions should also clearly outline what success looks like for each position. If you are interested in pursuing job redesign, this position description can help your case for job reclassification. If this is the case, you should also see if your institution has a process in place to pursue job reclassification.

If you’re having difficulty finding and/or understanding your organization’s structure, Human Resources should be able to facilitate access to these, or similar documents, and clarify most questions.

Check out more Top Articles on HERC Jobs.

About the Author:  Dr. Ada Hagan is a microbiologist with a passion for making science accessible. In 2019, Dr. Hagan founded Alliance SciComm & Consulting, LLC as a means to use her strong background in communications and higher education to help make scientific concepts more easily understood and make the academy more inclusive to future scientists from all backgrounds. Her writing and research have been featured by BBC Radio 4, Science Careers, The Scientist, Massive Science, and the American Society for Microbiology.

Accessing Mental Health Support at Work

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If you’ve needed mental health support over the last year, you’re not alone. According to Dr. George Everly, a disaster mental health expert at Johns Hopkins, “There’s no doubt that the coronavirus pandemic will be the most psychologically toxic disaster in anyone’s lifetime… This pandemic is a disaster of uncertainty, and the greater the uncertainty surrounding a disaster, the greater the psychological casualties.”

Although 39% of employers have updated their health plans since the pandemic began with 30% increasing access to mental health services (e.g., telehealth), 40% of employees reported that their employers haven’t done enough to support their mental health. A July 2021 survey found that two-thirds of employees had clinically relevant anxiety and depression symptoms and 25% don’t have access to an in-network therapist. In the 2021 HERC Job Seeker Survey of higher education professionals, respondents reported confidence in some of the support provided by employers during the COVID-19 pandemic, but confidence dipped when rating their employer’s prioritization of employees’ mental health.

Below are tips for evaluating the mental health services provided by potential employers as well as identifying and using available services at your current employer.

Evaluating Potential Employers

Mental health benefits are a critical concern that 76% of workers consider when evaluating potential employers. The Social Security Administration lists the following as four characteristics of a mental health-friendly employer:

  • A good track record: Use social media and informational interviews to ask former employees about their mental health-related services. Particularly helpful information may come from someone that requested an accommodation.
  • Flexible timing and scheduling: A strict 9-to-5 schedule is often unnecessary, particularly in higher education. Look for employers that actively accommodate alternative schedules.
  • Specific accommodations: In light of the pandemic, ask employers what (mental) health accommodations they offer and if any of their employees actively use them. Telecommuting, on-campus mental health professionals, a holistic and comprehensive employee wellness program that addresses stress management, mental health time and/or days, mental health training for supervisors, and clear expectations for promotion are all good signs.
  • Mental health benefits: Does the employer offer mental health and substance use disorder benefits? If so, pay close attention to the financial requirements (including copays), treatment limitations, and the provider network. Adequate mental health care should not prove financially burdensome or require finding and out-of-network provider due to low in-network availability.

Identifying Mental Health Services

Ideally, you should seek out access to mental health services as soon as you start a new position, regardless of whether you need them at that time. After all, 80% of Americans will experience a clinically diagnosable mental health event at some point in their lifetime. Having the information already on hand when you do need mental health care will make it easier and faster to access.

In any event, be sure that you know the legal mental health obligations of your employer. For instance, in the U.S., businesses with at least 15 employees must provide reasonable accommodations. There may be additional protections and/or benefits based on your city and state.

You should also check your email for communication from a supervisor or human resources (HR) about the available mental health services. Most institutions have a website that describes their health benefits as well as one dedicated to mental health services. If you have trouble finding this information, or it is unclear, reach out to HR or a supervisor for help.

Using Your Mental Health Benefits

The American Psychiatric Association reported in 2020 that 30% of employees worry about retaliation or being fired if they seek mental health care. The most straightforward and affordable way to access mental health services without disclosing them to a supervisor is to find an in-network provider. Every health insurance company maintains a website listing in-network providers by health specialty.

Unlike the primary care doctor that you may see annually, mental health professionals need to be seen frequently (usually at least once a month) and need to be someone that you can feel emotionally vulnerable with. If things don’t seem to click after the first few appointments, don’t stop seeking help, instead, move therapists – this may happen a few times.  Remember that you can use your HSA funds to pay for mental health services tax-free.

If necessary, advocate for yourself and request accommodations. Before you begin this process, there are some important things to know:

  • Regardless of whether you think you may need accommodation, you DO NOT have to disclose your disability during the application process and this DOES NOT affect your right to an accommodation after hiring. Although you will need to provide some information about your disability when discussing accommodations.
  • Consider what your employer and/or supervisor may already know, or not, about the limitations of your disability, whether through workplace mental health trainings or elsewhere. This will help you identify relevant pieces of information to include with your request.
  • Identify the resources or support that you want and those you need. Who controls your access to this resource? Whether the resource(s) are “owned” by your supervisor or HR may impact who you decide to discuss your accommodation needs with.
  • Consider who among your supervisors and/or HR colleagues have talked about their own mental health, shared personal challenges, and shares a level of trust with you. Factor this information in when you choose who to have this discussion with.

Resources for accommodation discussions:

How to Ask Your Boss for a Mental Health Day Off Work

How to Talk About Your Mental Health with Your Employer

Check out more Top Articles on HERC Jobs.

About the Author:  Dr. Ada Hagan is a microbiologist with a passion for making science accessible. In 2019, Dr. Hagan founded Alliance SciComm & Consulting, LLC as a means to use her strong background in communications and higher education to help make scientific concepts more easily understood and make the academy more inclusive to future scientists from all backgrounds. Her writing and research have been featured by BBC Radio 4, Science Careers, The Scientist, Massive Science, and the American Society for Microbiology.

3 Steps to Building Your Online Network

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Woman on laptop for online networking

Online networking is increasingly important and, for some, the only option for meeting people. Knowing what you want to achieve can drive who you need to connect with. Online networking should be done regularly; it shouldn’t be an activity you think of doing only when you need or want something.

Networking is both making new contacts AND revisiting your existing connections, which may be people you have/had strong relationships with or “colder” contacts that you only have in your network because of mutual connections.

Whether you’re a newbie or seasoned online networker, these tips will help you focus your strategic efforts to connect with people to support your professional goals.

1. Figure Out the “Place(s)” that Works Best for You

If what you’re trying to achieve can be accomplished through your current connections, then a good place to focus your efforts is on social media. The best social media platform for your online networking can depend on your line of work and what types of connections you have. The most likely place for you to start is LinkedIn, which bills itself as the social media platform for professional networking.

Groups on social media (like on LinkedIn and Facebook) are a great place to network with people you likely don’t know, but have common interests or backgrounds (e.g., college alumni, higher ed professionals, regional networks) that instantly add meaning and value to your connection.

Another way to find others with common interests or backgrounds is by attending virtual networking events and conferences. The technologies that support these events have become more sophisticated and offer tools that encourage networking.

2. Show Your Best Self Through Your Profile

When you’re networking online, the first thing a person will likely do once you’ve gotten their attention is click on your name to find out who you are. Your profile is essential to kickstarting what will hopefully be a mutually beneficial connection.

Make sure you update your profile. Some profile housekeeping tasks include adding any new experiences, uploading a (new) profile photo, and revising any headlines/descriptions to reflect your current situation and interests.

Take your profile up a level by transforming it into a vehicle to tell your story. Instead of or in addition to a laundry list of current/past job responsibilities and skills, include how you ended up in a role and what you learned from it. In the Headline or About sections, share your values and what drives you to do your work every day.

Lastly, use your profile to show off your expertise and celebrate your accomplishments. Upload projects and other samples of your work that you are most proud of. LinkedIn allows you to ask for recommendations from your connections – think strategically about who you might want to get one from, such as your past supervisors/managers, direct reports, and others that you’ve collaborated with.

Your profile for a virtual networking event or conference may be simpler than a social media profile, with fewer fields to fill out. At the minimum, upload a photo, share your current title or situation, include your contact information, and link to your social media profile(s).

3. Be Active and Engaged

You’ve figured out where you want to be and your profile is ready for viewing, so it’s time to get out there. Whether you’re engaging with direct contacts or in groups on social media, start liking/reacting to other people’s posts. Post your own updates, questions, and suggestions.

With groups, you may want to observe for a while to get familiar with what types of posts are typical and other group norms. If you’re up for it, your first post could be to introduce yourself and pose a question, share a timely resource, or simply state why you’ve joined the group.

To maximize your time at a virtual networking event, be proactive in engaging with others, more so than any other “place” because it is the closest thing to real-time networking, plus you may have paid to attend. Participate in activities organized by the event host, such as video chatting with fellow attendees and stopping by virtual exhibitor booths. Some of these ways of engaging may feel awkward but remember you’re there to make connections and many people are also trying these tools for the first time.

During your online networking adventures, always be aware of how you show up (such as following proper etiquette and being mindful of what information you share) and take time to build a solid network. Just like all relationships, investing time and resources in expanding and strengthening connections can garner significant benefits in the future.

About the Author: Marcia Silva is the director of marketing and communications at the Higher Education Recruitment Consortium. She strives to create engaging, research-informed content that empowers job seekers and employers committed to creating inclusive workplaces. She is passionate about using digital media and technology to encourage participation and strengthen communities.

Do’s and Don’ts for Following Up on Your Application

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Male professional reading laptop screen

You found a job opportunity that matches what you’re looking for, at an institution that you’ve been eyeing for months. You submitted your cover letter and resume and received an automated email confirming receipt.  Two weeks have passed, and you still haven’t heard from a real person, which surprises you – you thought you were a strong candidate. What can you do? Are there things that you should avoid doing?

Don’t Assume You’re Being Ignored

Only getting an automated response to your application submission can be annoying, but there are many possible reasons why you haven’t heard from a real person yet. Your application could still be sitting in an inbox, unopened.

Some institutions have extensive hiring processes that require leaving job postings up for a certain amount of time before they can take them down. Going through applications to identify strong candidates can also take a long time, especially if multiple people are involved. Check the original job listing for any information about the institution’s hiring process and timeline.

Another possible reason for a delayed response is that many HR departments are short-staffed, making a long process even longer. Like other sectors, higher ed is experiencing staffing shortages during the COVID pandemic.

Do Find a Contact Person

Reaching out for an update on your application status is completely acceptable. First, figure out who to follow up with. Check if there’s a hiring manager listed in the job posting. There may also be a note to NOT contact the hiring manager. If that is the case, do follow that guidance otherwise you could hurt your chances of being considered.

If you can’t find a real person to contact in the job posting, check your personal connections. Do you know anyone that works at the institution? If you do, they may be able to find out who the hiring manager is.

If your personal connection can’t link you directly to the hiring manager, ask them to put in a good word about you, which could be better than your own direct follow-up message. It might also be in your connection’s interest to help you if the institution has an employee referral program.

If no hiring manager is listed and you don’t have any contacts working at the institution, then do research online to locate a recruiter or someone in HR. Check the institution’s website or find the institution on LinkedIn and go through its list of people/employees. 

Do Send a Follow-Up Message via Email or LinkedIn

Many hiring experts recommend waiting about two weeks after you’ve submitted your application to send any kind of follow-up message. A written message is preferred over a phone call because it shows that you respect that person’s time, plus it gives you some space to make your personal pitch.

Your message should succinctly confirm your interest in (and excitement about) the position, highlight your most relevant experiences and skills, and express gratitude for their time. This could be your first impression on the hiring manager. Your message should be strong and compelling enough to get them to WANT to find your application in their inbox.

If you don’t get a response to your message, wait another two weeks to send a short and final follow-up to double down on your interest and qualifications.

Don’t Be Hard on Yourself

It isn’t fun to feel like you won’t get closure on a job opportunity that you felt was perfect for you. The waiting and uncertainty can take their toll on your mental health – take a break from job searching when you need it. And when you’re ready to, resume your search; better opportunities are out there. Be patient and diligent and the right job will eventually appear in your job search.

Want CV/resume and cover letter tips? Download our free ebook, How to Apply for Higher Education Careers (Revised Edition).

Check out more Top Articles on HERC Jobs.

About the Author: Marcia Silva is the director of marketing and communications at the Higher Education Recruitment Consortium. She strives to create engaging, research-informed content that empowers job seekers and employers committed to creating inclusive workplaces. She is passionate about using digital media and technology to encourage participation and strengthen communities.

How an English Major Succeeded in a STEM Field

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ONEIL Center for Research Communication opens at Wright State University. Brandy Foster, executive director of the ONEIL Center for Research Communication is pictured second from left. (Photo by Erin Pence)
ONEIL Center opening at Wright State University. Brandy Foster, executive director of the Center, is pictured second from left. (Photo by Erin Pence)

STEM jobs are in high demand, while STEM professionals can be in short supply. English major Brandy Foster explains how you can break into a STEM field, even with a background in humanities.

I’d been intending to get my doctoral degree in 19th century British literature. I love Jane Austen—I thought I was going to be an Austen scholar and there’s a lot about that life that would still appeal to me—but a career-altering experience made me take a different path.

When I was an undergraduate English major at Wright State University, I was recruited by a mechanical engineering professor who had a really successful and prolific graduate research group, many of whom were non-native English speakers because they were international graduate students. And he was really frustrated that he was spending way too much of his time trying to correct language in proposals and dissertations and journal articles, and that wasn’t his strength or his interest, so he recruited me from the writing center at the university.

I was embedded in that group for a few years and I learned informally a lot of the genres of technical writing, and how to find my way in this really unfamiliar landscape of STEM. I had no prior inclination of working with mechanical engineers, so that experience changed the entire trajectory of my career. I was able to land that first job after graduating with my master’s as the proposal writer for the College of Engineering and Computer Science because by that time I really understood and excelled at writing proposals to the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense.

I found my place by demonstrating the value that someone who has a humanities background can bring to STEM and ultimately ended up as a senior lecturer in the department of computer science and engineering. Here’s how you can too:

Find Your Place

I wasn’t a computer scientist or engineer. I didn’t know how to program, and I wasn’t proficient in math. But I understood the social implications of STEM and technology. And I also was really attracted to the type of innovation that they do in computer science and engineering. It all seemed so cutting edge, and so I was able to model that in my own way and innovate within my job, and in what has turned out to be really, really fun initiatives.

Think Critically

You really have to understand how to attack a project or a problem. Imagine that you’re in an unfamiliar landscape—if you’re an English major, that might be a STEM topic. Or if you’re an engineer, that might be something related to medicine. We train our students on how to draw on the skills from their individual programs that cut across communication—problem-solving, critical thinking, and empathy are really huge.

Be Sensitive

STEM is significantly different from the humanities. The culture is different, the language is different, the genres are different, and the people are different. Certain personality types gravitate toward one or the other. So I think it’s having that sensitivity to cultural differences that we all should have and whatever way we engage with something that’s unfamiliar to us. So a high degree of sensitivity and empathy and then also confidence in our own ability to contribute.

Know Your Value

When we’re making a big switch, we might focus more on what we might perceive as our challenges, because we’re not the same as the people inhabiting that unfamiliar space. English majors are not the same as an engineer. But instead of focusing on the ways that we’re different, I think it was really important for me to understand what I had to contribute. My diverse perspective from theirs was something that could benefit the organization, and vice versa—I had a lot to learn from them as well. So I think that’s really important, just that sensitivity to cultural differences and that willingness to take that kind of risk.

Check out more Top Articles on HERC Jobs.

Brandy Foster is concurrently the executive director of two major centers, The ONEIL Center at Wright State and the Emergence Center at the university’s foundation, and a senior lecturer in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Wright State University, where she earned baccalaureate and master’s degrees in English Language & Literatures.

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