Academiclog

Networking on the Network

Keywords: graduate studies

I talk a fair bit to people about what I do, because I find it interesting, and it seems that dangling conversational tidbits like "I'm an AI Researcher" or "I work with artificial intelligence for spam detection" is enough to get people to ask about what my job entails. (This is a big change from when I used to say "I'm a mathematician" whereupon people's eyes would glaze over and they'd change the subject.) Among the things I get asked by fellow students or would-be students is whether I have any advice or readings that helped me figure out what to do. Most of what I know about academia comes from chatting with my mentors and friends at the university, so I don't usually have much to suggest.

I was looking at the website for someone who I saw speak earlier this year as part of a digital security seminar series, and he had a link marked as "a must-read for all Ph.D. students." Curious, I thought I'd give Networking on the Network a read-through.

It turns out that this is an absolutely fascinating essay. It's an elabourate explanation of the social structures involved in academia, including all those unwritten rules, why they're there, and how they should be followed, and how doing this will help you. That makes it sound kinda dry and preachy, but it's really not. It answers questions I wouldn't even think to ask. To be honest, I don't know how much of this is true, because I'm really a novice academic, but there's plenty that was familiar to me. And, of course, I've learned that I'm doing some things all wrong, and other things are exactly what I would do already.

I probably would have been paralyzed with fear if I'd had all this information available to me before I went to my first academic conference. It was terrifying enough as is without having a picture of the possible social structures involved. Reading this makes me more scared that I'll accidentally mis-step at the next conference. However, as NotN emphasizes, you are dealing with real people here. People can be pretty forgiving to confused new grad students, in my experience.

I'm bookmarking this one for future reference, since there's a lot more there that I'm going to absorb in a day. Plus, a lot of it (like the process of finding a job and getting tenure) is going to be more relevant to me later, so I want to be able to read it then, when I'm more likely to understand it.

I think it's interesting not only because this is the world I'm working in, but because it's a pretty interesting glimpse at what makes this different from other societies. Try skimming a single section (say, the one on conferences) to see if this will interest you before trying to sit down and read the whole thing.

posted by T @ 2:07 PM