By  Roxana Chiappa and Iris Viveros

Since the classical book “Getting A Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers”, written by Professor Mark Grannoveter in 1976, there have been hundreds of articles that discuss the role of networks in the process of the job search, especially in the academic sector. This body of literature shows that academic networks play four main roles: a) expand the opportunities for knowing about job opportunities; b)  distribute jobs exclusively among the members of the network (See Lee et al., 2021; Nielsen, 2015); c)  contribute to adding credibility and/or prestige to job applications through recommendation letters; d) expand the possibility to access symbolic (e.j. Prestige; invitations to write) and material resources (access to academic equipment)  (Hefferman, 2021). 

It is such the relevance of networking in the process of academic job search that some institutions teach their postgraduate students how to network and present themselves in a way that sounds appealing. While there is nothing wrong with “learning to do networking”, one has to be careful of not getting lost in the process in times of increasing neoliberalization of academia. 

As the feminist scholar Chandra Mohanti (2013) says, neoliberalism has coopted most spaces of universities in different countries; and when the neoliberal agenda is driving the scene, networking may become a transactional business that dehumanizes the social component of wanting to genuinely know others, which is at the heart of any networking activity.

Without any attempt at offering a formula, we would like to invite you to consider the process of building academic networks from a place of curiosity and passion for continuing learning during your postgraduate studies.  The following are some suggestions that may be useful in that direction. 

• If you are just starting a masters or doctoral degree, getting to know your field of study as if you were an investigator entering into a new space is a very good strategy. Search online or ask about the professors and senior postgraduate students within your institution that are working in research areas similar to yours. If you have the opportunities to approach them in person, connect with the intention of genuinely getting to know another person and share your research interests and personal story from that space. Typically, academics and postgraduate students are eager to know others that share similar interests. 

• Check for the national and international professional organizations that lead the academic conferences within your research field and explore whether they offer workshops, summer schools, fellowships or any other learning opportunities for early career scholars. Keep records of deadlines and apply to these opportunities, since they are very fruitful spaces to meet peers and other academics working on interesting projects. 

• Submit research proposals to the national conferences in your field at least one during your postgraduate studies.  Academic conferences provide a series of opportunities to meet other academics, peers and potential employers. 

• When you go to academic conferences, look for the sessions and/or people who are presenting in your field. You may email them ahead to ask them about their possibility to meet with them or you could directly go to one of the sessions. Either way, prepare yourself with questions to ask them. 

• Identify the latest books written in your research area and write a book review of those titles. This requires searching for a journal interested in the book review, for which you will likely need to first write to the editor and ask about it.  Doing a book review is a very good learning experience and it generates a platform of visibility that likely will lead you to meet others who are engaged in similar themes as you. 

• Identify the social organizations and government agencies that may be interested in your research area and evaluate whether their  initiatives overlap with your work. Evaluate if they have initiatives to which you can contribute to. 

• Search and join the collectives or groups that make sense to your heart in the city where you are living.  Each place has its own gems, but sometimes those gems are not that visible.  If there is no such a group, explore the possibilities to create the space you are looking for.  

• Look for the special interest groups (SIG) related to your research topic. After Covid, there are many SIGs that gather members from different institutions and countries that meet virtually on a regular basis. As it was said earlier, if there is no such a group, take leadership and create one. These platforms tend to catalyze other research/academic projects, such as conference presentations, special issues, and other research projects. 

Like the professor Maresi Nerad (2011) metaphorically indicates in one of her articles , “it takes a global village to train a researcher”. This view calls into question the classical assumption that the advisor is the main responsible of the training, and invites early-career scholars to connect with people beyond institutional and national borders from a place that values the “process of learning”.  From this approach, one of the most relevant processes  that postgraduate students have ahead is to develop the conditions to discover the members of their village and continue cultivating genuine connections that will nurture their learning in contexts of increasing competition and marketization of the social space, including social relationships.

References

Granovetter, M. S. (1973). The Strength of Weak Ties. In American Journal of Sociology (Vol. 78, Issue 6, pp. 1360–1380). https://doi.org/10.1086/225469

Heffernan, T. (2021). Academic networks and career trajectory:‘There’s no career in academia without networks’. Higher Education Research & Development, 40(5), 981-994. https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2020.1799948.

Lee, E., Clauset, A., & Larremore, D. B. (2021). The dynamics of faculty hiring networks. EPJ Data Science, 10(1), 48. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-021-00303-9

Mohanty, C. T. (2013). Transnational Feminist Crossings: On Neoliberalism and Radical Critique. Signs, 38(4), 967–991. https://doi.org/10.1086/669576

Nerad, M. (2011). It takes a global village to develop the next generation of PhDs and postdoctoral fellows. Acta Academica Supplementum, 2, 198-216.

Nielsen, M. W. (2015). Limits to meritocracy? Gender in academic recruitment and promotion processes. In Science and Public Policy, 43(3), 386–399). https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scv052.