EQUALITY GUIdE - KU Leuven

Chapter 4 ! Scientific communication 211
The exercise with the bullet diagram puts forward the people who can have an impact
on your career and the way you can reach them. Try to reach the most important people
with one or two steps. Examine whether you have positive or negative relationships
with those people and make a state of affairs.
You do not build networks from your office. As you grow older, it gets easier to make
contacts. Develop networks yourself, for example within the current group of trainees.
4.1.2.1.11. Is there life outside the university?
Even if you wish to stay at the university, you will have more chances of realizing that
ambition by being open to other scenarios: by holding on to a dependent position you
seem very vulnerable.
It is a good idea to keep applying for jobs from time to time, even if it is just for fun.
That way, you get a free check-up of your CV, telling you what is missing and what
you have to work on. Applying for another job is like a barometer for your career planning.
When you get an offer, think twice before accepting or declining it. Be selective in
what you do and do not accept.
4.1.2.1.12. How to increase your visibility?
! Dare to ask advice, make a call. What do you say or do not say? How do you ask
for trust? Formulate your intentions in a clear way, because on the telephone there
isn’t any non-verbal contact. If you ask someone for advice, be sure to thank that
person or to give feedback about how things went afterwards. It is a game of ‘give
and take’.
! Make a personal website. A department chairperson sometimes censors the list of
publications. Give a complete list of all the publications on your own website and
add those articles as PDF files. Articles that are available online are more often
cited.
! Give education outside the department, cooperate to information days, science
parties, etc but keep your focus. Always keep in mind what you want to achieve by
doing so. You can be helpful and work hard, but is it good for your PR? There is a
risk they will ask you for everything. Be sure to get the necessary return.
! Talk with others outside the university. Increase your visibility at other universities. If
you do not know how to get in or reach the people you want to reach, you can
always go to a reading of a professor you want to speak with for example. Address
him/her after the reading, ask some more information and then tell him/her about
your own research.
! Proceed slowly. First make sure they know your name and face. Try to characterize
yourself in two or three sentences. What makes you interesting? Ask the other person
about his/her interests and take up on them. Be original, funny and humorous.
! Check the data and verify whether your name is mentioned. If you cooperate to
something, do you get a PR return? In the beginning of your career in particular,
you are prone to accept all kinds of tasks that are not really to the point.
! Keep a personal directory. Send Christmas wishes, remember anniversaries and