How to Promote Your Academic Career

Alexander Clark and Bailey Sousa urge academics to leave their ‘fixed mindsets’ behind if they want their careers to flourish

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Is your latest career success testimony to your no doubt commendable talents? Connecting career achievements to ability seems obvious – and crucial in today’s competitive academic environment.

Yet we would argue that we are often blind to the connections between ourselves and our work, and seriously underestimate the influence that our mindset has over career success and happiness. This can be demonstrated by looking at two psychological approaches: the “fixed” mindset and the “growth” mindset.

The fixed mindset: success based on self

For Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck, a “fixed mindset” is evident when a person’s perceived accomplishments are psychologically associated with their abilities and attributes. Ongoing work achievements provide sustaining self-verification and vindication. In other words, success happens because we are smart.

Yet just as success is affirming, setbacks and failure can lead to perilous self-doubt and to worries about appearing competent and respected. Goals involving uncertainty, discomfort or higher risk of failure are, therefore, avoided. Ambition and creativity are reduced.

Experiments show that when children with fixed mindsets fail artificially difficult tests, they buttress their self-esteem by being openly disparaging or looking down on peers. In a similar way, labelling colleagues as “struggling”, or seeing them as inferior, leads to higher stress, “peer victimisation”, aggressive retaliation and underperformance.

As those with fixed mindsets assume that others’ behaviour can’t change, peer conflicts resulting from this perpetuate and escalate rather than resolve.

Does talk in your workplace dwell on people’s smartness and successes? It’s ostensibly positive to celebrate awards, grants and publication achievements in websites, announcements and conversations. But our personal mindsets are also influenced and reinforced by those of our working cultures.

This can lead to workplaces that foster failure-avoidance, lower ambition and even unethical research conduct. Notably, the children who failed the experimental test also exhibited a higher willingness to cheat next time.

With some academics confessing to using questionable research practices to increase the chance of success in their work – such as cutting studies short or withholding negative findings – fixed mindsets have important ethical consequences, too.

The growth mindset: learning always

Conversely, people with “growth mindsets” focus predominantly on bringing their hardest and most astute efforts to their work and, crucially, seek to improve by learning from whatever transpires.

Research links the growth mindset with many benefits, including: greater comfort with taking personal risks and striving for more stretching goals; higher motivation; enhanced brain development across wider ranges of tasks; lower stress, anxiety and depression; better work relationships; and higher performance levels.

These benefits don’t happen because difficult work is avoided – it’s actually more likely to be sought.

However, despite research supporting the growth mindset, its influence in academia remains limited. More critically, the centrality of learning in academic work makes the growth mindset seem self-evident: we spend our careers developing new skills and teaching, so what’s the new or big deal with the growth mindset?

Beset with difficult work, financial constraints, bullying and poor mental health, it’s also tempting for academics to dismiss the mindset as hollow positive thinking or a “magic solution” that will only distract us from the real underlying problems and inequities in academia. Yet we would argue that academia also primes us for the fixed mindset and an incapacity to change this.

When doing challenging and sometimes uncertain work, it’s more pleasant to dwell on successes and more reassuring to attribute achievements to our talents while casting others as less able than ourselves. Departments compound this by reinforcing the importance of staff abilities and past successes over their ongoing learning and effort.

Most importantly, breaking our own fixed mindset spell is extremely difficult because our mindset itself determines our perceptions and unconscious biases.

Strengthening your growth mindset

When our mind, careers and workplaces are built around the fixed mindset, how can we grow our growth mindsets? In our new book, How to be a Happy Academic, we make some suggestions.

• Learn more: let go of what you cannot control, and focus your efforts on seeking to learn, improve, persevere and work astutely.
• Forgive yourself: instead of perpetuating your own success story, accept and honour the intentions of your actions even when you fail.
• Catch yourself: next time you feel insecure or judge a colleague harshly, stop and reflect on why. Identify what fears about yourself are expressed in your feelings and how you can think about and treat others better.
• Share more: tell colleagues and students more about your failures. Both these and your accomplishments have a place in your career story.
• Above all, though, remember that you can be a successful academic who remains a colossal work in progress. Success in academic work is not only about your growing résumé, but being a growing person, too.

Alexander M. Clark is a professor of nursing, and Bailey Sousa is director of the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology, both at the University of Alberta. Find out more about their book.

When it comes to self-improvement, we know a lot of methods. To get fit, you eat right and exercise. To grow in physical strength, you train and lift weights. To improve your memory, you get enough sleep and intentionally learn new things.

But what can you do to improve and grow in your career?

Regardless of where you’re at—whether you’re a senior manager or an entry-level employee on the front lines—you can continue to grow and advance your career and professional goals.

And higher education gives you the shoes to take that next step.

A Forbes article by Jacquelyn Smith states that many adults return to school to enhance their career. The article cites author Laura Vanderkamp in saying that many believe “additional education will help them achieve their career goals, like making more money, advancing in their current occupation, or starting in a different one.”

Additionally, the article mentions from career coach Nancy Collamer that most return to school “to bolster their range of marketable skills and credentials, which, in turn, makes them more competitive—both at their current employer and in the overall job market.”

And, according to 2014 Pew Research, college graduates ages 25-32 earn $17,000 more each year than those with just a high school diploma.

Education is an influential step in staying competitive and enhancing your skills. Whether you’re starting out in your career or returning to continue to build upon your years of experience, pursuing educational training helps you keep moving forward.

Here, we share five reasons why pursuing education can advance your career at any level.

1) GAIN KNOWLEDGE

This reason may be a given. When you pursue an undergraduate or graduate degree, you’re equipped with practical skills and knowledge that you can apply to your workplace. For example, in a business administration degree program, you’ll learn best practices in accounting to understand the financial aspects of your work. In a management program, you’ll learn leadership principles and how to deal with conflict.

This knowledge can be both factual and practical. This means that the information you learn is not just interesting to know but will be of great use in your current role and to where you hope to go.

And just because you’ve reached a high-level management position doesn’t mean you should stop learning. Undergraduate and graduate degrees can help build upon your experience and broaden your skillset.

2) ENHANCE YOUR SOFT SKILLS

When you return to school, you learn far more than just different management styles or how to create an influential presentation. You also learn more subtle, but equally important, skills.

These so-called “soft skills” include strong abilities in areas like communication, teamwork, critical thinking and problem-solving. Each of these talents can add value to your organization, wherever you are. And, such skills can give you the experience to be prepared and equipped to take that next step toward achieving your goals.

3) DEMONSTRATE A STRONG WORK ETHIC

Pursuing education in addition to your normal work routine will most likely not make your schedule easier. It takes work and determination to achieve a degree. But doing so will demonstrate a strong work ethic to your team and your supervisors.

In an article from Six Sigma Online at Aveta Business Institute, the author notes the positive message continuing your education sends:

Education is always something that supervisors and business executives like to see. When their employees have the drive and initiative to expand their knowledge, it is a good sign that they will be able to benefit the company further.

Demonstrating a strong work ethic and a commitment to your goals gives management hope that you can continue to be successful in your work environment. And, if you’re already in management, a committed and dedicated attitude sets an example for your co-workers and your direct reports.

4) BOOST YOUR CONFIDENCE FOR SUCCESS

When you earn a degree, you accomplish a big step. You gain knowledge, skills and experience to help you both in your career and in life in general. On top of that, by gaining additional skills in communication and problem solving and achieving your goals, you can also increase your confidence.

And studies have shown that greater confidence leads to greater career advancement.

According to a study from the University of Melbourne cited in an article from Science Daily, there’s a strong correlation between confidence and success. In the study, participants ranked their confidence at various education levels, and findings showed that those who reported higher confidence levels earlier on earned better wages and were promoted quicker.

5) GROW YOUR SOCIAL NETWORK

No, we’re not talking about adding more friends on Facebook. In a classroom setting, you have the opportunity to interact and meet with fellow students who may come from a variety of professional backgrounds.

In being exposed to a broader professional network through continuing your education, you can get to know people who may be in similar situations as you or have been in the spot you’re in and have continued to advance their career.

Your network, grown through earning a degree, can be a wealth of insight and information as you advance your own career.

Grow your career through education

To grow your physical strength, you need to train and work at exercising and lifting weights. To grow in your career, you’ve got to put in the work to deepen your knowledge, gain skills and develop a network that will help you take that next step toward where you want to be.

Whether you’re a seasoned manager or new entry-level employee, a degree from Cornerstone University can help you take that step. Check out our degree programs to discover the path that can equip you to achieve your goals.

After you finish your PhD thesis, you might be tempted, or even excited, to pursue a career in academia. Or you might be looking at postdoc contracts because you don’t know what else to do.

A career in academia does suit some people quite well, but you need to know what you’re getting into before you set foot on that path.

1: There is no academic career ladder

There is no academic career ladder. It’s a pyramid, and it’s crowded at the top.

Most postdocs never progress to permanent positions (or tenure) simply because there are fewer available and there are more people trying to get into that top tier than are retiring or dying.

It’s certainly possible to get up there, but it takes determination, which means being certain that’s what you want. So you can make the decision to leave now, delay the decision, or make a determined effort to make progress in your career.

Not knowing what else to do is not the same as “I can’t imagine doing anything else”.The question to ask yourself is this; do you ever wake up early because you are excited by your work?

‍If yes, continue. If not, do something easier and better paid.

2: Being smart and working hard is not enough

Being good and waiting to get noticed just isn’t enough. Lots of other people are as smart as you, and just as hard-working.

So how can you get ahead?

You have to know what you’re aiming for, set yourself a target and a time frame, and make the decisions necessary to get you there.

If you decide, before your first postdoc, that you are aiming for a permanent position by the age of 32, that gives you a framework for making decisions.

Is that next contract going to advance your career, or just delay your exit? Is it just the first thing that came along?

Are you publishing results just to stay alive, or to make a name for yourself?

3: Contacts are the lifeblood of your career

Who you work with is at least as important as what you do.

It’s vital to find people to work with who are interested in your long-term career, people you can learn from, and people you can trust.

Absolutely the best way to do this is to treat conferences and seminars as networking events, rather than expenses-paid boredom (or stress when you have to present).

If you go to a conference and don’t introduce yourself to at least 10 people, you are wasting your time.

‍Those contacts are the lifeblood of your career.

‍It’s OK to search through job listings, but it’s better when the opportunities come to you.

If nobody knows you through your work yet, the only way to start is by meeting people personally. Get out there and get known, because nobody else is going to do it for you.

You owe yourself a career development action plan

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Gary Waters / Getty Images

Career management is a must if you expect to gain maximum success and happiness from the hours you invest in work. You are likely going to work 40 hours a week for your entire adult life, and by managing your career effectively, you can make the best of those 40 hours.

Share your goals with your boss and gain a partner who can help you broaden your experience.

Developing your talents and skills will stretch your world and enable more of your unique contribution. This, in turn, can make your career success.

Opportunities

Many employees have not thought past their current job or the next promotion they’d like to receive. They need to broaden their short-term thinking. As employees are promoted up the organization chart, fewer jobs become available, yet continuing to grow skills and experience should still be a priority for people obtaining value from and adding value to their career.

There are multiple ways to experience career growth by investing in your career development and progress:

• Job shadow other employees in your company to learn about different jobs. This can broaden your skills and increase your value.
• Explore lateral moves to broaden and deepen your experience. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut. Being able to handle multiple jobs can add variety to what you do and broaden your skills.
• Attend classes and training sessions to increase your knowledge. New strategies and technologies relevant to just about every career are being introduced constantly. Stay up to date on your job and industry.
• Hold book clubs at work to develop knowledge, and share terminology, concepts, and team building with coworkers.
• Seek a mentor from a different department that you’d like to explore. Leaning on someone else’s experience is a great way to gain knowledge and introduce yourself to other opportunities.

5 Tips for Career Growth and Development

Dr. Tracey Wilen-Daugenti, vice president and managing director of Apollo Research Institute and visiting scholar in Stanford University’s Media X program, recommends five additional career management strategies.

The future belongs to those who can really connect and communicate.

Photo by Dylan Gillis

Having excellent writing skills can make you an indispensable member of your team or company. And it’s one of the best ways to remain consistently employable – no matter your profession. Especially when you consider that workers can spend a third of their time reading and writing emails alone (according to a Carleton University study). Then, depending on your role, it’s likely that you’ll also write reports and memos and, perhaps, proposals, PowerPoint presentations and social media updates.

Granted, there is an array of software to make sure that your writing is accurate and polished. So that with the click of a button, you can have perfect grammar and spelling.

But these apps can only work with what’s already on the page. They don’t know what was said at last month’s management meeting. Or, that a client is close to canceling a contract. Or, that another needs reassurance that service delivery will be swift and hassle-free. They simply cannot read between the lines.

A recent report by management consultancy firm, McKinsey, called “Jobs lost, jobs gained: Workforce transitions in a time of automation” stated that there will be challenging transitions ahead at work. And that in about 60% of jobs, at least one-third of activities could be automated.

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However, as Bernard Marr writes: there are key skills that robots simply cannot master. These include empathy, critical thinking, creativity, strategy, imagination and vision. To stay ahead of the curve, your writing needs to demonstrate these qualities. So, it’s essential to plan and strategize so that you effectively straddle the line between what is said and unsaid. This is where many people slip up. And according to a Conference Board survey of 431 human resources professionals, writing is one of the biggest employee skill gaps.

Unless they’re suffering a nasty case of writer’s block, most people are able to physically get their words onto the page. However, the writing skills needed to truly support their business, or professional goals are often missing. These take time to master and involve a lot of a shift in mindset. For instance, the best written communicators do lots of leg-work before sending emails or typing reports. And they’ll spend considerable time planning how and what to write. It takes time to learn effective writing tools, techniques, tips and tricks. But once learned, they can fast-track your success.

To get you started, here are three things you can do right now to improve your writing skills and help future-proof your career in the process.

1. Focus on your readers

In between deadlines, meetings and a packed schedule – it’s easy to just fire off documents without really thinking through what’s needed. But in a world of canned messages and auto-responders, truly thoughtful writing makes you memorable.

So, spend a few minutes thinking about the needs of your readers. Ask yourself: Who exactly are they? How much do they know about the subject/issues you’re writing about? How important is what you’re writing to them? What will they look for first? What is the most important thing to include? What types of data or supporting evidence do they value? What do you want them to do, say, feel and think after they’ve read your document?

Don’t underestimate the power of these questions. For example, I once worked with a group of engineers who wrote regular reports for their clients but weren’t getting much response. So, they had no idea whether they were doing a good job, or whether their clients were happy. The problem was that they wrote reports for people “out-in-the-field”, some of whom didn’t speak English fluently, in difficult to understand, academic language. As they shifted their thinking to the needs of their readers, they realized the need for a very different writing style.

1. Ask for feedback (and really listen to it)

What results or feedback (spoken or unspoken) are you experiencing with your documents? What are you doing that you could do differently? And what signs are there that your writing may need improving?

Start by considering some recent documents you have written. What kinds of frustrations might your readers have when they read these? How much of what you write do your readers instantly understand? Is there a call to action or a direct request? Have you let your readers know what you’d like them to do, feel, think or say?

In addition, don’t be afraid to directly ask people what they think about your written materials. The answers may surprise you.

1. Forget the flounces and frills

At work, it’s essential to keep writing simple. So avoid using flowery sentences, and too much insider jargon. People tend to overestimate how much their readers know about topics that they’re very familiar with. And even if your readers DO understand you, there are no extra points for making them work hard to decipher your writing. In fact, a survey by Harvard professor D.H. Menzel found that the human brain struggles to properly process sentences longer than 34 words. Keep yours at around 20 and keep them simple.

Finally, remember that writing is a muscle, and that consistent training will improve it. However, if you always focus on your readers and have a service mentality – you’ll be leaps and bounds ahead of the crowd. Because the future belongs to those who can really connect and communicate.

Setting specific, measurable goals can provide a path to improve your career and achieve certain accomplishments. You can use goal setting when given a certain task or project, or to personally advance in some way. You can set goals towards promotions, creativity, education and many other various ways to improve your life and career.

Let’s look at why setting goals can help improve your career, what types of goals you can set and how to set goals.

Why setting goals is important

Setting goals is important because it gives you a framework to achieve milestones. Wanting to do or complete certain things in life is a great start. Goal setting provides a path for you to actually do them. There are two types of goals you should consider setting: short term and long term.

What are short-term goals?

Short-term goals are more immediate goals you set for yourself to achieve your larger, long-term goals. You can think of short-term goals as milestones or stepping stones. Short-term goals usually exist in a short timeframe, anywhere from days or months to one or two years. Examples of short-term goals might include completing small tasks or projects, gaining experience or taking classes. You will use what you accomplished in the short term to complete your long-term goals.

What are long-term goals?

Long-term goals are usually large goals you want to achieve over several years. You will use several milestones to achieve long-term goals, setting short-term goals to achieve it along the way. Long-term goals might include getting a job in a certain career, being promoted to a certain level or completing a lengthy, complicated project.

Setting personal goals

Setting goals for your personal life will help you reach personal achievements. You might set personal goals to advance a number of categories in your life for things like hobbies, health or education. Setting personal goals can help you achieve success in your career as well.

Advancing your interests by building experience in hobbies you enjoy or skills you want to improve can easily transfer into your professional life. These are often good things to include on your resume if relevant to the jobs you’re applying for. Spending time improving on things you want in your personal life can also help you be more focused and energetic at work by paying attention to your work-life balance.

Here are a few personal goals examples:

• Advancing hobbies like playing a musical instrument or playing a sport
• Improving on skills like graphic design or public speaking
• Increasing your knowledge about a certain topic or area of study
• Focusing on building or improving relationships
• Financial goals like saving for a certain purchase
• Physical goals like training for a marathon or completing a certain fitness challenge

Setting professional goals

Setting professional goals can help you both complete certain tasks or projects and achieve any personal career goals you might have. If your company or manager doesn’t have a specific framework for you to set goals in your job, you might consider setting your own career goals. You can also set your own goals if you are self-employed. Your career goals should address both your current situation and your larger long-term career ambitions.

Here are a few professional goals examples:

• Being promoted to a certain position
• Completing a large project
• Solving a complex problem
• Improving certain soft or technical skills
• Successfully switching careers or industries
• Getting a certain award or recognition

How to set goals

While there are several different ways to set goals, there are a few steps you can take to ensure the best possibility of success. Your goals should have five key elements to make them achievable. These five elements make up what is known as the “SMART goal” framework. SMART stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-based. Let’s take a closer look at how to set a SMART goal:

1 . Make your goal as clear and detailed as possible.

For example, instead of “I want to be better at public speaking,” you can say, “I want to successfully give a 10–15 minute presentation to an audience of 50 or more people.”

2 . Define how you will measure success.

For example, if you want to switch from a job in sales to a job in marketing, you might set milestones along the way that address how to develop the skills and experience marketing employers are looking for. To do this, you might set your measurement as learning and focusing on one skill per month.

3 . Check whether your goals are achievable.

Setting goals you can accomplish within a reasonable timeframe will help keep you motivated and focused. You should work to understand the full scope of your goal ahead of time to ensure it is possible to accomplish.

For example, if you are in your first professional developer job and your goal is to become a senior-level .NET developer, you might need to set smaller, short-term goals before reaching this larger goal. If you find that a goal is not achievable because you don’t have enough experience, one of your new goals should be to gain more experience.

4 . Make sure your goal is relevant.

You should set goals that align with your values and contribute toward your long-term goals. Each goal you set should be relevant and meaningful to you, moving you closer toward where you want to be. To make sure you are setting relevant goals, you might ask yourself, how will achieving this goal help me? Does accomplishing this goal contribute toward my larger, long-term goals? Why does this goal matter to me?

5 . Set a beginning and end date.

Setting a timetable to achieve your goal can both help keep you motivated and on-schedule. Before setting a goal end-date, be sure to research all the milestones and possible roadblocks you might run into along the way. For example, if your goal is to get promoted to the next level at your company, you might give yourself six months. If you haven’t achieved your goal, you might give yourself extended time or reconsider whether your goal is achievable and realistic.

Setting both personal and professional goals will help give a structure and path to success. Many employers value candidates that have a record of setting and achieving goals. This shows that you can be a focused, goal-oriented employee. Employers often ask about goals in interviews, so you should prepare to talk about your goals and what you’re doing to achieve them during the hiring process.

Tips and Tricks: How to promote your research successfully online

Fran Davies , 26th June 2015

In our first post in this blog series, we introduced the advantages of using altmetrics to curate your digital identity as a researcher. The aim of this post is to look in more detail at how you can do just that, and provide some tips for how to adapt your online activity to successfully promote your research. We also talked to Ethan White, Biology researcher at the University of Florida, and Jacquelyn Gill, Professor of Ecology at the University of Maine, to see what tips they had for our readers.

Blogging

Jacquelyn Gill’s blog

Ethan and Jacquelyn both said they use blogs and Twitter most often to promote their research. Blogs are a really great way to introduce new research and participate in the conversations that are happening in your field. However, the blogosphere is not simply an online space from which to alert the world to your own activities.

Following other blogs, commenting on other people’s posts and including links to other blogs in your posts means you can participate in wider academic discussions, and potentially invite more engagement with your own research. If you create a blog using WordPress, Blogger or Tumblr, you can view and save preferred blogs from the same platform using the built-in “suggested blogs” sections on their sites.

You can also install the free Altmetric bookmarklet to see if anyone has mentioned your own research (or even other research published in your field) in a blog post – simply drag the bookmarklet to your browser bar and click it while viewing your article on the publisher site to bring up the Altmetric data.

For more blogging tips, this post from Helen Eassom at Wiley has some great suggestions for effective practise.

Maintaining a consistent digital identity

Ethan White’s Twitter profile

It’s important to be consistent with how you present your identity across different online platforms. For example, you might want to use the same photo across your university faculty page, blog homepage and social media accounts, so that people who might be interested in your research can instantly identify you and verify (for example) your Twitter account against your LinkedIn profile.

Another way of maintaining these connections is to link between platforms when posting. You can do this by sharing your newest blog posts on social media, or including a link to your blog or website in your Twitter bio and faculty page. According to Jacquelyn Gill, “Maintaining visibility on multiple platforms is key! I’ve found Twitter to be an especially great resource in signal-boosting blog posts and new articles. Most other platforms don’t take much work, but it’s always worth putting in the time to keep them up-to-date”.

Networking

Blogs and social media networks can offer the opportunity to engage with people you might not otherwise have had the chance to meet. If (for example) a fellow researcher leaves an interesting comment on one of your blog posts, it should be easy to respond to their comments, and perhaps later locate them on social media to continue the conversation. The people they follow might also be useful contacts to engage with, thereby increasing your own network. If you’re on the conference circuit, it’s always worth following up any talks you give with a link directly to your published research, using the conference hashtag to alert other delegates to your tweet.

As with blogging, the Altmetric bookmarklet can show you who has been sharing both your own work and other outputs published in your discipline via their blogs and on Twitter, Facebook, Sina Weibo and Google Plus – providing insight into who it might be worth following or reaching out to for additional visibility in future.

Ethan White had lots of interesting things to say about using online platforms to manage and update your professional network. He argued that it’s more useful to think of blogs and social media as tools to create mutually beneficial relationships that support knowledge dissemination.

“Developing a good network of online colleagues will ultimately help you promote your research online more successfully. Think about it this way: if you had a colleague who only ever stopped by your office to tell you that they’d just had a new paper published, you might not be super excited to see them, but if you have a colleague who you talk to about lots of different things, and respect based on their opinions on science in general, then you’d be excited to hear that they had a new idea or had just published a new paper”.

Ethan’s analogy works really well, and suggests that a researcher’s attitude towards online engagement with research is just as important as their practises.

Sharing your own research online

Ensuring you research is as freely accessible as possible can really help raise your profile online. Make a habit of uploading articles to your institutional repository or sharing them amongst academic networks like Mendeley, Zotero or ResearchGate (once they are free of any embargo restrictions, of course), so they can be read by people who may not otherwise have access.

You can also use services such as Figshare to upload and attach unique identifiers to non-article research outputs, such as datasets, posters or images – giving other researchers the opportunity to reuse and build on your work (dependant on your chosen security and copyright preference settings). Once you’ve made your research available, you might like to include links to your outputs from your email signature, institutional faculty page or LinkedIn profile, or even post it to a subject specific forum.

If you’re keen to take it a step further you might like to consider building your own website to showcase your work. There are lots of free platforms available, so this need not be technically daunting – try Moonfruit or Wix to help you get started.

Finally…..how can I make sure my online activity is picked up by Altmetric?

If you have a blog, email [email protected] with the homepage and a link to the RSS feed, so we can add it to our list, and start picking up mentions of published research outputs in your posts.

When blogging about research, make sure you embed a link to the article in the main body of text. Our software ignores headers and footers when scraping a page, so mentions of articles in footnotes don’t get picked up.

When posting on social media, attach a link to the main article page of the research output on the publisher website, rather than to a PDF.

As always, feel free to give us feedback on this blog post – thanks for reading!

Updated Thursday, April 19, 2018

Setting yourself apart from the crowd can be challenging in today’s competitive business world. As an independent consultant, your knowledge and skills can be the difference between landing the assignments and clients you want, and lead to struggling to prove your value.

Having knowledge and skills above and beyond the basics of your field can give you a professional advantage. Here are five ways to keep your job skills and knowledge up-to-date.

1. Take Professional Development Courses

Professional development courses can help you expand your professional skill set, learn something new, or even earn academic credit to put towards a degree. Online training courses are particularly convenient because they are affordable and flexible. Just be careful to do your homework—evaluate instructor bios, read reviews, and check the syllabus carefully before putting down your credit card. You can also find professional development courses through vendor-taught classes, traditional universities, and training institutions.

2. Utilize Online Resources

The Internet is a limitless source of free information and educational resources. Attend educational webinars, follow the blogs or social media accounts of industry experts, or bookmark and regularly check industry news sites and online forums to stay current on the latest trends. If you haven’t already, sign up for news alerts for your inbox (Google Alerts works well) or set up an RSS feed like Feedly.com to easily put all of your industry news in one place.

3. Attend Professional Events

Professional events are valuable ways to learn about growth and development in your industry. Local companies, business associations, and professional groups often host seminars, forums, or workshops that can give you direct access and insight to experts in your profession. Treat these events as constructive networking opportunities to brainstorm and share ideas with colleagues who can provide fresh insight and perspective.

4. Network Online

As an independent consultant, you know the importance of building and maintaining a list of contacts to ensure a steady flow of work. Use LinkedIn to connect with high-ranking people at companies you’re interested in working with. Employ social media platforms to promote your own service or brand, network with industry experts, and keep in touch with former and current clients.

Start by finding which social site works best for you—connect with fans and followers on Facebook, creatively network and share news on Twitter, or utilize blogging to boost your online credibility, and connect with potential clients.

5. Invest in Continuing Education and Certification

While continuing education and certification programs typically require a more intensive time and financial obligation, they can help boost reliability, and demonstrate a commitment to your profession. Becoming proficient in a new software platform before it becomes mainstream, committing to upholding industry standards through a certification program, or staying on top of market trends by taking a class can increase your income and position you competitively within your line of business.

No matter which tactic you choose, maintaining enhanced knowledge and skills in your field shows clients you are well informed and dedicated. Set yourself up for success by investing in your job skills and knowledge today.

Whether you’re are a new graduate trying to figure out how to get a leg up in your career, or you’re a mid-career professional looking to secure your next promotion, you might be wondering what are the most important skills you need to help you get where you want to go. While it’s, of course, important to develop your industry-specific hard skills, what’s just as critical to your success are your soft skills. Soft skills are how you function in the workplace and interact with others. And while they’re not easily taught in a classroom or measured, they are key skills that we all need to have. Additionally, in our more globalized, fast-changing work environment, there is now a premium on the kinds of soft skills that allow you to keep pace with the future of work. So, if you’re looking to accelerate your career, here are the 12 soft skills that you need to succeed.

1. Learnability

We’ll begin with learnability because it is arguably the most important 21st-century skill you will need to succeed. Alvin Toffler said, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” That’s because, in an environment where new skills emerge as fast as others fade, success is less about what you already know and more about adapting your skills by growing and expanding your knowledge base, so you can use new information and skills to respond to whatever is happening.

2. Resilience

Setbacks and failures are a part of life, but how you choose to deal with those roadblocks is what is critical to your success. Resilience is the ability to bounce back in the face of obstacles and failures. When you are resilient, you don’t focus on the ups and downs. Instead, you stay focused on your long-term goals, and you never lose confidence in your ability to prevail. By helping you face challenges and difficulties, resilience also enables you to handle stress more positively.

3. Agility

As the work landscape shifts, learning to be agile is a critical skill, as yesterday’s solutions do not solve tomorrow’s problems. At the heart of being agile is shifting gears when the context calls for it and responding accordingly to the needs of your workplace, clients or industry trends.

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4. Collaboration

In our increasingly hyper-connected world, we’re no longer expected to work just as individuals or only in silos. Our projects have become more complex, so the ability to work effectively as part of a team has also grown in importance. Given the increasingly global nature of work, your ability to collaborate, share knowledge and contribute to teams that can capitalize on a diversity of thinking and perspective in ways that everyone can benefit and drive to the shared outcomes is critical.

5. Verbal communication

Advancing in your career is not just based on what you do. There’s a good chance that at some point in your career you’ll have to use strong verbal communication skills so you can sell others on your ideas, products, or services. Whether you’re needing to explain your value when you are being considered for a promotion, presenting as part of a team project, or speaking on stage, you need to be able to communicate well and convey strong, persuasive ideas.

6. Written communication

We live in an era of tweets and sound bites, but good written communication skills still matter when it comes to your career. Whether you are sending professional emails, communicating with a client, trying to deliver a coherent business plan, or anything in between, you should be able to communicate quickly, accurately and effectively.

7. Empathy

The ability to empathize with others, or see things from their perspective by understanding their emotions and reactions, is a fundamental part of how we interact with one another. Communicating genuinely and authentically with others is vital because even in instances when you disagree with your coworkers on elements of a work project, for example, empathy allows you to demonstrate to others that they are seen and heard.

8. Creativity

Creativity is a crucial skill we all need because, in our fast-changing times, employers value employees who can look beyond the present and imagine future possibilities for their company. Creative workers are the ones who ask why. They question, they are curious, and in so doing, they develop new ideas and solutions.

9. Problem-solving

How often do you go beyond your immediate job as assigned and instead, use more knowledge, facts, and data to see gaps and solve problems? Being a good problem solver is essential because employers value people who can work through challenges on their own or as an effective member of a team by defining the issues, brainstorming alternatives, sharing thoughts, and then making sound decisions.

10. Leadership

The importance of building the right culture at companies cannot be overstated, so having the skills to be able to coach and empower others, and to motivate those around you do their best work, is highly valued for success.

11. Negotiation

Whether you’re in salary discussions, finalizing a deal with a client, or trying to find common ground with your teammates during a project, having strong and effective negotiation skills are extremely important. Being a good negotiator allows you to get to reach goals while you build relationships, which is a significant part of being successful in your career.

12. Technology

Technology is changing at an unprecedented pace, so even beyond the technical skills you need to master for your job, keeping up with technology is essential because of the tools that help you manage your career, differentiate yourself in the market, brand yourself, and build the critical relationships that you need to be successful.

Regardless of your chosen career path, building your soft skills is critical so you can set yourself apart from others in a competitive landscape.

Female professional on computer in living room — promote your career while working from home

Now that most professionals are working from home, being remote should not be a disadvantage come promotion time. That said, you still need to manage your career to be promotion-worthy and to manage your brand to get noticed. With everyone working remotely – including your boss, helpful mentors and supporters, senior leaders you don’t know as well – you need a strategy to proactively get and stay top-of-mind with the decision-makers and influencers of promotion decisions.

Here are seven ways you can proactively promote your career even when you work from home:

1 – Check in frequently

The cliché, “out of sight, out of mind”, could very well apply to the relationship between you and your manager. You may have had a great relationship when you worked in close proximity, and you still may have a great relationship, but you’re only going to know for sure if you check in. If you have a regular cadence for checking in, make sure it’s frequent enough now that you are both remote.

Your manager may not know how to manage remotely. Communicating with and collaborating with a dispersed team is different than managing a team all in one place, and your manager may not realize this. In addition, the pandemic, slowing economy and volatile political landscape add additional challenges, so even if your manager is fine with the remote curveball, there are plenty of other distractions. If you want to stay top-of-mind, you’ll need to check in more frequently than before.

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2 – Report your results

Many companies are trying to contain or even reduce costs, so leaders are questioning every resource – including their employee count. It is critical that your contributions are clear and well-known. Do not assume your manager knows everything you’re working on – hence checking in more frequently. In addition, regularly report your results.

Your report can be a simple email to summarize what you have accomplished for the week, or it could be an update on the status of each of your projects. Better yet, ask your manager what format and frequency they would prefer. If they say they don’t need a report, send one anyway as a summary email at the end of each week. At the very least, you’ll have a written account for your next performance review.

3 – Align with company priorities – which may have changed

Getting results makes you productive. Getting results that matter to senior leadership makes you indispensable. Make sure your work aligns with company priorities, and re-confirm with your manager what the priorities are because they may have changed. Some projects may no longer have budget, while some may leapfrog to the top of the list because the new market conditions make them more relevant.

Being flexible is critical during unpredictable and changing times. Your day-to-day responsibilities may look very different. You may be asked to take on additional work or what feels like a whole new role. By aligning where the urgent work is, you stay busy where the need is greatest and hopefully where senior leaders are watching closely.

4 – Pay attention to possible next steps

With roles and responsibilities shifting, what next steps are available and ideal also shifts. If you had a promotion strategy mapped out pre-pandemic, check with your mentor and/ or your manager to see if that is still a viable plan. If company strategy veers away from an area that you were interested in, that may not be the best move right now. On the other hand, if the company is making new moves in response to the pandemic, slowing economy or other market conditions, these could present opportunities you hadn’t considered before.

5 – Stay upbeat

Unpredictable times are anxious times, and your manager and their manager are not insulated from the anxiety. If you are grounded and upbeat, that adds value, as you can be a stabilizing force on the team. It also enhances your executive presence since you exude confidence.

This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t surface problems or speak up if you have a different idea or point of view. However, make sure that you surface problems by offering solutions, not just complaining about what’s wrong. Offer a different idea or point of view, but always give the contributor of the initial idea (especially if it’s your manager) a graceful exit to agree with you and not seem wrong.

6 – Nurture your connections outside your immediate group

Your manager and immediate department are not the only decision-makers or influencers in promotions. While everyone works remotely, you won’t have opportunities to bump into people on the floor, in the elevator or at lunch. You will have to make a concerted effort to nurture connections outside your immediate group.

This includes taking an inventory of who you already know but need to reconnect with and who you don’t already know and need introductions. You’ll have to proactively schedule time to talk. You may need your manager, mentor or colleagues to make an introduction for you. If your company has continued town halls or other company-wide events virtually, take advantage of those opportunities to virtually bump into people you would otherwise not reach.

7 – Nurture your connections outside your company

Your current employer is only one place to promote your career. Given the market uncertainty, the most proactive promotion plan should include options outside your current employer. Prioritize connecting with your broader network outside your company, so that you hear about what is available elsewhere. At the very least, you’ll have a better understanding of how other companies are handling the current market challenges, and this may give you ideas even if you stay where you are.

As you focus on what you can do, don’t forget the company’s part

When are promotion decisions made? Who are the decision-makers? What backgrounds and track records typically get promoted for what types of roles? Even as you focus on what you can do to improve your prospects, don’t forget that your company has a promotion process in place. You need to know what that is and work within that system to make sure you focus on the right things with the right people at the right time.

Psychology students interested in an academic career need specific guidance. We’ve compiled job search tips, workforce data, information on non-tenure track positions and other great tools to help give you an edge.

Doing Post-Doctoral Work — Should I?
As the job market in psychology has gotten more competitive over the past couple of decades, the number of post-doctoral opportunities has grown enormously.

Curriculum Vitae Dos and Don’ts
Helpful hints for your curriculum vitae.

Interview and Job Talk Tips
Where to start and what to do to get prepared for an interview.

Variations on the Theme of Academic Careers: The Non-tenure Track Position
Learning how to secure a non-tenure track position is becoming increasingly important because the largest increase in university faculty positions in recent years has been in the category of full-time, non-tenure track positions.

Variations on the Theme of Academic Careers: Beyond a Psychology Department
The interdisciplinary nature of psychology makes individuals with doctoral degrees in psychology attractive as faculty members in a number of different academic settings.

Additional APA Resources

List of Salary Surveys from APA’s Center for Workforce Studies
Faculty salaries in graduate departments, APA member profiles and more information about salary distribution for psychologists.

Surviving and Thriving in Academia
This guide assists prospective and current faculty members who are women and ethnic minorities to select jobs that complement their career goals, and maximize their chances of gaining promotion and tenure.

Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contributions to Psychology
This award honors early career scientists for contributions in the first 9 years post-PhD.