Enable strategic networking across generations

Julia Trattnig, Karin Grasenick | 29 September 2021

Especially in interactive contexts, it is important to consider EDI principles as these are often overseen in dynamic situations.

Furthermore, research has shown that women and other vulnerable groups do not interact in the same way as men (Hearn, 2020). It is thus essential to actively encourage women, young researchers and minorities to interact and thus ensure equal opportunities. To achieve this, it is crucial to create specially designed formats which allow facilitated interactions for networking across generations.

To support networking in an unequal setting, e.g. senior and early-stage researchers, it is essential to prepare and promote targeted questions in a facilitated session (e.g. during a break or in a hands-on workshop). In such a networking session, early-stage researchers have the possibility to ask PIs and senior researchers (so called “Career Ambassadors”) questions related to career development. Early-stage researchers (ESR) are highly interested to learn from PIs and their personal experiences. Especially persons who lack role models in specific fields of sciences are often eager to hear their stories.

The concept is as follows:

When taking place in a room, ESRs will be encouraged to first share their thoughts in small groups, then asked which questions they have. When taking place online, questions will be prepared to first vote on (see below), then use the chatroom or talk directly with PIs.

If there are no immediate questions from ESRs, the facilitator will engage in a conversation with the PIs.

Online format: 3 questions prepared for career coffee talk; participants vote for the first question:

• What were the most difficult career decisions you had to take?
• Have you ever experienced biases towards yourself or colleagues? How to react?
• What do you consider as most important skills in academia (in addition to scientific excellence)?

 

The following paragraphs summarise background information

on questions that PIs might be asked.

 

• You might be asked to sketch the milestones of your career.
  How did you become part of your scientific community?

Networks seem to be important. In this respect, you might raise awareness to the fact that it can be difficult to become part of a network and gain visibility within the network. Especially our natural tendency to work with people who are more like us (homophily) can make it difficult for women or minorities to become part of the network.
Networking and important information exchange related to career decision making often takes place outside of office hours, in combination with specific activities (alcohol consumption, sports etc.) this can also exclude persons with e.g. family obligations (Brink/Benschop, 2011).

 

• How to find support in academia? (a post-doc position, a mentor)

A mentor is not necessarily a formal mentor, but can also be a colleague, a relative, a supervisor or a friend who had more experience than you. This person might have offered advice to you, coached your confidence in certain situations or introduced you to other people that played a role for the further development of your career (Grasenick, 2021).

 

• Which success factors do you consider important in your scientific field? E.g. publications in high-impact journals, etc.

You might wish to draw attention to the relevance of first authorship, citation circles e.g. to not only publish but become cited by colleagues. Again, women and minoritised groups are less often cited and first or last authors. In this respect, early career stage scientists should reflect on their citation practices.
Other examples for differences are: request for co-authorships, h-index, teaching responsibilities, contracts (permanent, full-time, or part-time), male networks, reference letters and even career advice (Dworkin et al., 2020).

 

• What skills are relevant for an academic career? What else should be considered as success factor, e.g. phases of productivity, “multitasking” career (like managing family obligations and academia)?

When considering skills, also transferable skills should be considered (e.g. collaboration in an international team, communication skills, stress tolerance, etc.)

 

• You might also talk about the milestones in your career and what strategic steps you took to achieve them.
• Do you remember any critical situations or decisions to make that might have risked the further development of your career? What conclusions did you draw from this experience?

For example, the decision to reduce working hours at a certain point of the career might influence the further development of the career by receiving a higher position later than foreseen. This might especially be the case for young parents who wish to go on parental leave (Brink/Benschop, 2011).

 

• When you think back to particularly work-intensive times, what did you do to manage your life-domain-balance? What would you advise others to keep a healthy life-domain-balance?

Keeping a healthy life-domain-balance is important as both physical and mental health are bases for excellent work performances. Although it is “normal” to have work-intensive periods, overall life domain balance should not be neglected in the long term.
Especially women might ask related questions, as they often do more reproductive work (i.e. childcare and domestic work) and thus have less time for themselves. Thus, family planning might also be a topic. Men as role models would be of high relevance in this respect too (Besselaar/Sandström, 2017).

 

• Collaboration is crucial for an academic career (becoming part of a network, being published and cited). Since academia is getting bigger (more researchers), competition has grown. Concerning the ideal of collaboration and fairness in science: To which respect does competition influence career opportunities? What would be your advice?

Workload and resources are sometimes distributed unequally within a team (e.g. time spent in the lab, coding, maintenance, conference organisation, more lectures, management of third party funds, …):
Whereas some scientists are more able to focus solely on their career, others find it more difficult to say “no” to extra work not directly beneficial for their career – on average more women will be asked for such additional work. In general, women feel more responsible for the overall team or institute.

 

• What would be your advice? (in general: how to deal with stereotypes towards women and minorities, difficult situations within a team and supervisor, etc.)