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Marketing Yourself - Episode 38
97 Plays6 years ago
On this episode of the Women in Archaeology Podcast we will be discussing how to market yourself. We will discuss internet presence, using in person networking to your best advantage, and the importance of showing up!
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Transcript
Introduction to Women in Archaeology Podcast
00:00:01
Speaker
You're listening to the Archaeology Podcast Network. Hi and welcome to the Women in Archaeology podcast, a podcast about for and by women in the fields. On this episode, we will be talking about marketing yourself as an archaeologist.
00:00:21
Speaker
Joining me for this discussion are Kirsten Lopez and April Besoff. Ladies, thank you so much for being here. It's always a pleasure to talk to both of you. Thanks for having me. Always. Yeah, it's always great. Anytime you want to come on, we love having you. Yes.
Online & Real-world Visibility for Archaeologists
00:00:38
Speaker
So as I mentioned, we're going to be talking a little bit about marketing yourself. And this is really a continuation of an earlier conversation that we had
00:00:49
Speaker
on the podcast where we talked about careers. And April, you were kind enough to join us for that conversation as well and had made a comment about making sure that you are findable in the digital space as well as in real space if you want to get jobs. So
00:01:15
Speaker
you've had some interest from people about what are some good ways to make yourself more easy to locate online and how do you do that for various different points at your career.
Networking Opportunities for Students
00:01:31
Speaker
So maybe if we could start from the I'm an undergrad, this is my senior year or I just graduated in May and I'm trying to break into archeology
00:01:46
Speaker
And what are some things that people can do to help them be successful with that?
00:01:53
Speaker
Yeah, I think for the people who are just starting out, a lot of it is going to be, who do you know? And are those people willing to have their name associated with you out in the world so that their friends can vouch for you in a way of saying, oh, well, if you've worked with Kirsten and she thinks that you're great, then I'll probably think you're great as well.
00:02:20
Speaker
I think people talking about their experiences on maybe slightly less formal places like Day of Archaeology, that blog that happens once a year where everybody's invited to post. If you post about what you're doing as an undergrad, the research you're doing, the professors you're working with, or if you're
00:02:40
Speaker
working for a CRM firm or wherever you are, getting your name out there with the other people who are higher up in your field as far as experience level, people will automatically assume, since you're basically playing with the professionals in that space, that you're a professional and they won't see you as green as you might actually be in your
00:03:02
Speaker
field school is the strongest network that you have as a new archaeologist. Most archaeologists are highly encouraged to take a field school before they finish their undergraduate degree.
Importance of Field Schools in Archaeology
00:03:16
Speaker
Those people that you've worked with, hopefully for at least four weeks out in the field, if not for eight weeks out in the field,
00:03:23
Speaker
Those are the people who are going to be a real tight network for you for the rest of your career, but also the people who ran that field school, they have so much information about you that they could tell almost any employer. I think a lot of people don't think to ask their field school directors for letters of recommendation or to be able to list them as a reference. Lots of people think they have no references.
00:03:47
Speaker
But classes, you need to have the professors know who you are so they can be references for you. You need to volunteer on their research projects. You need to get yourself out there. So I think everything with with marketing yourself is, you know, act like a professional as soon as you decide you want to be a professional and seek out every opportunity and talk to people and let them know, like,
00:04:12
Speaker
Go to your old professors and say, whether it be email or whatever, that, hey, I'm looking to join an excavation this summer. Do you know anybody who's looking for anybody? And I bet you most people are going to hire somebody that comes through that venue faster than they're going to hire some random resume that comes through the mail or through email.
00:04:32
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, so those are some excellent suggestions. I would like to add to that, when you are looking for field schools, if there's an area of the world that you think you want to work in, and there are people who work in that part of the world who run a field school, try and go to that field school. I mean, it's tempting. There are so many field schools in these great, amazing locations that, I mean, who wouldn't want to go hang out?
00:04:58
Speaker
on the Mediterranean in the middle of summer with Blue Ocean and just absolutely gorgeous scenery. But if you're thinking about it early enough, if you can try to go to a field school with people who will help you make the connections that you need to make in the area that you want to work in, then you're more likely when you go to that field director and say, do you know anyone who's looking for work?
00:05:24
Speaker
in this area, if they work in that area, they're more likely to say yes.
Managing Professional Online Presence
00:05:28
Speaker
I would like to also just add a little tidbit as a field school student. If you haven't done this yet, of course, if you're already through your field school, it's a good thing to think about how this went. But just your general behavior during field school can help or hurt you in some cases. But a lot of it is,
00:05:53
Speaker
As April mentioned, making those connections. I know my first CRM job was through another field school student. She was able to get a job before me, had to give one job up for another, and was able to suggest my name and pass me along an email to my first employer.
00:06:15
Speaker
But if you end up burning bridges during your field school, you may have some challenges. So if you haven't done your field school yet, it's one of those things that can be particularly challenging on a personal level, just because you are, of course, this depends on the field school, but most
00:06:38
Speaker
in most field schools, especially on the eight week ones, you end up in a location that may be somewhat remote and you may be somewhat isolated in less than ideal conditions with these people for many weeks or for that period.
00:06:55
Speaker
And that can bring out the best and worst in people. So just kind of keep in mind how that went if you've already gone through field school, some of the better experiences you've had. And also, you know, even if things didn't go so well, try and keep in touch with everyone and reassert those bonds a little bit. Because even if there was a falling out, a lot of the times, you know, most people understand that, you know,
00:07:21
Speaker
That may not have been your best you in that moment if it wasn't something really crazy. But that is something to consider when you're looking at or thinking about both your previous field school experience or looking for for a new one. I think that extends to conferences and social media as well. You know, always be thinking about what you're projecting yourself as and who you're projecting yourself as. Yeah, definitely.
00:07:51
Speaker
And this can get into a whole rabbit hole on alcoholism in archaeology, but I think I'll just mention that and then move on. We may have touched on that in other episodes, but that's a whole other...
00:08:09
Speaker
thing. So making sure that you're on your best behavior when you're around people you're hoping to be employed by and not succumb to the temptation of competitive drinking.
00:08:22
Speaker
Yeah, and another thing with field school selection is everybody wants to have the least expensive field school, but that might not pay off in the long run. The field school is the investment in your career. And if you go to the field school that has the people who are well connected in what you want to do,
00:08:41
Speaker
Theoretically, if you're good at that, it'll pay for itself in the long run versus the field school that maybe run through a community college with a local historian who's not really an archaeologist at all, and that you're not going to get into those networks that way. And I think that's where the danger gets in for people doing online degrees, that if you do an online degree, you have to take on that responsibility of building your network that you're not going to build
00:09:07
Speaker
if you had gone to class and had those people that you're going to be taking classes with and talking to on a regular basis. Yeah, definitely. Today is day and age, right? Online presence has become more and more important for a variety of reasons. I can personally say that when I
00:09:34
Speaker
got out of it was actually my graduate degree, because I went directly from an undergraduate degree into master's program. But I wanted to create a LinkedIn profile, but I kind of looked at it and was like, Oh, like, I've had some summer jobs, and I did a field school, and I've got my education. But
00:09:52
Speaker
what else am I putting on there? And how am I making myself seem employable?
Optimizing LinkedIn for Career Goals
00:10:00
Speaker
I'm not sure I did the world's greatest job at that. So I don't know either April or Kristin if you have thoughts on that aspect of things.
00:10:11
Speaker
I think LinkedIn serves as an online resume and therefore if you're not working in archaeology the whole time and you put all those things on there, it could get confusing to people. Like say you say that you're an archaeologist and then your last three jobs are working in a hospital and then people aren't quite sure. So thinking about
00:10:34
Speaker
What you're projecting on there, and if you are working in a hospital, but you want to go back to archaeology, are you listing what you're doing there in a way that's like, I'm a project manager instead of using hospital lingo? That makes it seem like you're looking for another hospital job. If you scroll all the way down to the bottom and LinkedIn, it has like,
00:10:53
Speaker
groups that you're a member of and things like that. If you can boost your archaeology cred on your LinkedIn profile by just saying that you're members of these groups, it doesn't necessarily mean you have to interact with the group, but it's just a way of kind of putting those tags on there. And that way people can see what you're doing might be just a holdover until that you get back into your archaeology career. But the danger of LinkedIn, I think, is that
00:11:22
Speaker
It's always going to present everybody as just an employee. So if your vision of yourself is that you're a researcher, it's not a great place to convey that at all.
00:11:35
Speaker
It's not a great place to put things like this podcast that you guys do. If it's on there, you have to scroll and scroll and scroll, and it's not the same sort of thing as a job. But I think on a CV, you would have it higher up than LinkedIn would allow you to have it.
00:11:54
Speaker
I think it's easier to get more CRM kind of contacts from LinkedIn, but if you're looking to work as a consultant for somebody else's project, I think having something that's more on the research gate or the academia, even though those are very problematic sites in themselves.
00:12:12
Speaker
having your own blog, having something that shows what you want to be known for. So I think that's the first key to marketing yourself, is that you have to be able to sit down and say, what do I want to be known for? And you have to figure out
00:12:28
Speaker
Are you already known for it? Is somebody else known for it? And then you could just look at what they've done and try to emulate that a bit. But if you rule yourself right now, and you don't find yourself the way you want people to find you, then you know that you have to do something different. So the huge strength of LinkedIn is that it'll come up really fast on a Google search. And any personal website can be much further down. But on LinkedIn, you can have a link to your personal website.
00:12:57
Speaker
And that will help it get found easier. If you're on Twitter and all these other things that also has the link to your personal website, you'll be found easier. But then on Twitter, you could have in your job, your little description of yourself, you could say what you want to be known for. So I think thinking about how you're marketing yourself online has to start with, do I want to be
00:13:22
Speaker
Somebody who's getting a job you know and in CRM on something like that great linkedin is perfect do i want to be seen as an academic do i want to be seen as a researcher do i want like the local community to contact me and ask me to do lectures for them.
00:13:37
Speaker
they're not going to pull you off a LinkedIn for something like that. They're going to look to see if you're doing something else in the community already. Sometimes putting yourself out there as who you want to be is the way that people will see you that way. Sure. I did want to make one note on LinkedIn. I know some people who do work in hiring and if you do have a LinkedIn profile, one of the things people really look at is for those
00:14:09
Speaker
They're like personal statements from previous colleagues. So if you can get previous field school supervisors or if you've done CRM, people who are on the CRM crew with you to write something about you that's positive. If they're going to write something terrible, you don't really want that on LinkedIn.
00:14:36
Speaker
but the hiring managers really like seeing that. Generally, I'm not sure not being a CRM archeologist, being kind of a museum academic archeologist, the requirements are probably slightly different.
00:14:53
Speaker
But that is apparently a very underutilized function of LinkedIn that carries a lot of weight. Huh. That's good to know.
Leveraging Twitter for Professional Growth
00:15:02
Speaker
And it could be a reciprocal thing, like you offered to do it for the people that were on the last project with you and asked them to do it for you. It doesn't have to be that you're always asking for somebody to do it for you without giving anything back. Yeah. Oh, definitely. And even if it's your boss, you can write
00:15:20
Speaker
a review because sometimes people feel like, oh, I should only ask my boss. And then they should write something for me because they are my supervisor. But you can write something for them as well that's like, this person was an amazing project manager. They made sure that things got done in a timely and organized fashion, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I think that would be a really great way to rate your employers without quite
00:15:44
Speaker
doing it having necessarily a blatant negative impact. Because I know there are questions that float around in CRM about what firms to work for, what firms not to work for, for a number of different reasons, and doing a positive review for employers that you've liked.
00:16:03
Speaker
might be a good way to do a good kind of kickback for those that you've really enjoyed working for, because if they end up getting more good people from you and from your recommendations for other techs to go work with them, I would think would be more likely to hire you back again, just because you've been a positive member of the team. Definitely. Yeah, for sure. April, I'm also really glad that you brought up kind of Twitter as a
00:16:32
Speaker
medium for getting yourself out there because I know oftentimes people think of Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat and all of the other social media platforms that exist and there are more of them than I can probably name. But as primarily social platforms and they are social platforms but I think sometimes people do
00:17:04
Speaker
disengage the social and the professional and that it is really important kind of what you
00:17:13
Speaker
put out there. And that might not have been something that you thought about when you got a Facebook account when you were 13. Yeah, I've tried to keep my Facebook more as my family and friends and my Twitter as more of a professional thing. My standard for who I follow on Twitter is if they have the word anthropologist or archaeologist in their description, I follow them. If they don't, I don't.
00:17:36
Speaker
Right? So I built this community of like, I've got like 1500 people that I follow who are all anthropologists and archaeologists. And it's the way I keep up on what anthropologists and archaeologists are talking about. And other than people I was friends with in grad school, I don't have any friends or family that I'm connected to on Twitter. You know, that's for for Facebook, but lately, professional contacts have been
00:18:02
Speaker
Friending me on Facebook like crazy, and I've kind of lost track of that, but I don't really use Facebook So I guess the joke is on them a little bit I'm not rejecting them, but you're not going to get any real content for me over there But I post on Twitter almost every day, and I was very reluctant to start with Twitter But I went on my first academic sabbatical and I felt totally disconnected from
00:18:27
Speaker
the anthropological world. I didn't have to go to class, I didn't have to interact with students, I didn't have to do anything but write, and I felt kind of isolated. So I said I would only do it while I was on sabbatical, but I've gotten so much out of it. At the AAAs that are coming up the end of November,
00:18:47
Speaker
Um, I've organized a session completely on Twitter that's teaching archeology as social justice. And my co-organizer is somebody that I met off of Twitter and pretty much every single person on that, that panel. Um, and it's a lightning session of five minute, uh, presentation. So there's like 10, 15 people on the panel. They're all people that I only know from Twitter. So how could you say that that's not a great networking tool? Nice. Yeah.
00:19:15
Speaker
For sure. And I'm definitely going to have to check that out because I'll be at the AAA. All right. So I do want to add on the Facebook note for technicians, for CRM technicians, Facebook is actually a really good tool for finding work just because it's one of those types of jobs being temp work and usually somewhat short term to very short term.
00:19:43
Speaker
is there's almost always people that are in a jam and need somebody. So there, you know, they exhaust other resources and Facebook has become sort of this. I've seen it as not totally the last resort. I mean, the last resort is like getting, you know, people that you may not want to call back to come in. But it's it's a tool that's used to kind of reach out into the community to those who have been connected and
00:20:13
Speaker
It's nice because if you watch some of these Facebook groups of archaeological technicians, you can kind of look back and see how these specific individuals have interacted with the group and kind of get an idea for their social dynamic before you call them back to hire them. So that's kind of a plus as a hirer, but as
00:20:35
Speaker
a person who is looking for a job. I do see, especially during the summer months, posts all over the place for CRM tech work. So that is something to keep an eye on and be involved in. So I think that is an excellent place to end our first 20 minutes. And we will be back after the break to talk some about good ways for marketing yourself when you're a little bit further on in your career.
00:21:09
Speaker
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And concierge is C-O-N-C-I-E-R-G-E to get going and go digital today. Call us before you make any decisions. We've been there before. Hi, and welcome back to the Women in Archaeology podcast. So far on today's episode, we have been discussing ways to market yourself as an archaeologist.
00:22:58
Speaker
At the end of the last segment, we were talking a little bit about the use of Facebook and Twitter and other forms of social media, about being careful what you put on them and keeping some of them social and some of them academic. Just really quickly before we segue into talking about marketing yourself when you're a little bit further into your career, I wanted to mention that Twitter has also started to be used as a
00:23:26
Speaker
academic platform for archaeology. I'm talking particularly about Lorna Richardson is the organizer of the Public Archaeology Twitter conference, which are conference papers in a series of 140 character tweets, which is a really neat idea. It's a great way of
00:23:48
Speaker
engaging with the public, engaging with your fellow archaeologists. You can have some robust conversation. It also cuts down on the carbon cost and carbon footprint of having to go somewhere to have a conference. A whole bunch of archaeologists flying in from all over the place is not necessarily kind to our planet. So I'm really happy to see that that is moving forward.
00:24:15
Speaker
And on that note, I will bring us into talking a little bit about marketing yourself once you've already made your kind of entree into archaeology and have gotten your foot in the door. Are your marketing strategies different, April, do you think? Or do they remain mostly the same?
Mid-career Advancement Strategies
00:24:41
Speaker
I think if you're somebody who's looking to move up to be a project manager, you really need to display your writing skills, your report writing skills. Every time I'm talking to somebody who does hiring in CRM, they don't want us in academia to be teaching them about different cultures and
00:25:04
Speaker
And all the histories of things and social theory as much as they want us to teach them how to write so they could go in and write a report. That's what they're having the hardest time filling those spaces as project managers for. So if you've.
00:25:19
Speaker
been working as a field tech, you should be asking for opportunities to write report sections for your project manager. And who doesn't want to have less work to do? OK, you want to take a shot at this? Go ahead, write me a draft. And then I'll smooth it out and make it into the cochlear report. And then if they're satisfied with what you've given, then maybe they'll make you a co-author on the report that they have. Or at least they'll be able to write you a letter recommendation that says that you're
00:25:48
Speaker
have the skills to write a report.
00:25:52
Speaker
There's lots of small opportunities out there on that internet thing to do writing. We were just mentioning the AAA conference at the end of November. And for anybody who is a member or anybody who's wondering if they should be a member, they just sent out an email that they're looking for people to serve as reporters at the conference. And all you have to do is email them and they'll sign you up to be a reporter and you'll do blogs for them, you'll do tweets for them. What a great way to become
00:26:21
Speaker
known by people, both as somebody who could write because you're seeing information, you're summarizing it, and if you then are going to sessions that are relevant to the topic that you are an expert on, your name is going to be out there in spades and people are going to be wondering where you came from. How did you get there? It's just that you paid attention to an opportunity that came through an email that most other people ignored.
00:26:46
Speaker
When sapiens.org started up as a new news venue, a new blog, they were just sending out emails, who wants to write for us? So taking up those opportunities to either have your own blog or write on somebody else's blog to show that you're a good writer, that will help
00:27:04
Speaker
to establish yourself either in academia or as wanting to be a project manager or project director for CRM. And then for more of the academia world, especially if you've just done like a master's degree or even definitely if you've done a PhD, you should be organizing conference sessions. You should be contacting everybody that you know who's up and coming in your field. And you should be saying, hey, let's all get together at this next conference and talk about
00:27:34
Speaker
the exact topic that you want to be known for. And that way everybody's connecting your name to that topic, but they're also seeing you as a leader in that area. And again, people are going to be wondering how come they hadn't heard about you before. And you're standing up there confidently in front of the room and saying, okay, I brought all you people together to talk about whatever it is that you want to talk about. So both of those are things that I would really emphasize in the middle of your career to
00:28:03
Speaker
to get your name out there and start getting people to offer you those higher level positions. I'd definitely say half the battle is just showing up. And this can be kind of at any stage of your career, really, but it's, I think, very valuable about in mid-range, which is kind of, I like to not think that I'm quite mid-range, maybe low mid-range in my career stage, but mostly just because I did a late career switch.
00:28:33
Speaker
And how I see this is just showing up and you end up with weird opportunities you wouldn't necessarily have thought yourself to have. I found myself one of a handful of people that showed up for one of the interest groups that I'm involved in with the SAAs and ended up a co-chair.
00:28:52
Speaker
Um, and I had not expected to that, nor was it like on my list of priority of things to do, but it's a very rewarding experience and I've actually gotten a whole lot out of it that I never even thought would have occurred, uh,
Seizing Opportunities at Professional Events
00:29:08
Speaker
in, in joining or in, in filling this role. So there's all sorts of little things that'll pop up. Um, our local.
00:29:16
Speaker
chapter for Association of Oregon Archaeologists of all the local archaeologists that do CRM, academic archaeology in the state have a, you know, twice annual meeting or biennial meetings. And we had added a new position about a year ago. I've been attending these meetings and so forth for a little while.
00:29:44
Speaker
And it just happened to be that I was the only one who qualified for that position that showed up to this particular meeting one day. And granted, this is a position that I would have been hoping that I was going to obtain, but, you know, it's just one of those, oh, you know,
00:30:02
Speaker
not to discount my qualifications, but I happen to also only be the only one who showed up. And that's where it's just, you know, just going to everything that you can, being present online so they can find you later for sure and making sure that your stuff's polished. I know my biggest weakness online is I am the worst person at remembering passwords.
00:30:28
Speaker
So the multitude of social media outlets that I have to access regularly ends up becoming a pain, especially things that I don't access often like LinkedIn. I don't think I've updated that in at least a year. I'm totally a slacker. But I mean, that's one of those, I don't know how often I should be updating that either.
00:30:52
Speaker
Do you have any insights into that in April or Chelsea? I would say that things like this should be on some sort of predictable cycle for you. At the end of every year, the day before New Year's Eve that you go through and you refresh all of your public personas, have some sort of predictable pattern so that you will do it. That's a good idea.
00:31:16
Speaker
There are some I'm more often on Facebook and Twitter. I'm a bit better about. I'm completely inconsistent. I'm not super really on Instagram. I'm still trying to figure that one out. But LinkedIn, I've had a profile for, I think.
00:31:32
Speaker
almost a decade, almost as long as the platform's been out. But I have to change my password every time I log in, because I can never remember what it is, because it's been so long. But I've been having, actually, it was one of those things where people didn't really ever use it for a long time. And I've been getting more people trying to contact me through LinkedIn in the past year than I've ever had, which is kind of unexpected. So that's kind of nice. And maybe that's a new,
00:31:59
Speaker
newer, more relevant now than it was before. I don't know if that's the stage of my career or if that's something that's just shifted in social media at all. So, might I suggest the app on your smartphone? Because for the kind of like day-to-day people are, you know, looking for you and trying to connect with you.
00:32:21
Speaker
You know, it's an app when you're a smart phone, you log in once and then you're pretty much logged in. Yeah, that's true. That's true. You know, and I think theoretically you can update directly from the app. I don't know that I've ever tried because
00:32:36
Speaker
The keyboard on smartphones is small and my computer keyboard is so much easier to type on. Can Bluetooth it in? I have a fancy Bluetooth keyboard for that. I use that in the field instead of taking my laptop. Yeah, you're getting super, super fancy now.
00:32:52
Speaker
But I think you don't know when people are using your LinkedIn, because I almost never contact anybody through LinkedIn, but I like go there to check who somebody is. So if somebody said something on Twitter or in a blog or something like that, and I Google them and I get their LinkedIn page, I'll look at it and I'll evaluate whether I think they're a great source for that information, but I won't necessarily contact them. But I'm still getting exposed to them, seeing who they are, what they've done.
00:33:22
Speaker
And then they're in my head to the point that if I'm going to be looking for somebody to co-author a chapter with or invite to give a talk at Vassar, then I know where to find them. So I would say probably you'd get contacted from your LinkedIn, maybe one every 10 or 20 times somebody actually is looking at it and using it to know about you. So what you're saying is that I need to update my LinkedIn.
00:33:52
Speaker
The rule of thumb that I try to use is that every semester, I'm still in academia here, every semester you should have added something to your resume or your CV. I'm at the point where I'm adding something every month and that's not like a bragging thing. It's just that it's a constant living document that if you don't add it when it happens, you're probably going to forget things and then you're selling yourself short.
00:34:19
Speaker
Like today I added something to my CV that was from 2002 that I had forgotten about. And it was a technical report that I was a second author on, right? So if you don't make it a regular thing, then other people aren't going to be checking it regularly. You're going to be missing out things that might help you. It might be the one thing that'll get you that next opportunity that you're looking for. And it kind of shows the world that you don't value your career advancement. So why should they?
00:34:48
Speaker
If you're constantly updating it, they're going to keep checking back and it's going to look like you're more of an active professional, whatever your profession is. Yeah, I will add to that. There was recently the social media manager of one of the larger museums in New York. And unfortunately, I can't remember
00:35:10
Speaker
um, which museum it was, but they decided that they didn't need a social media manager anymore. Um, and people, you know, kind of talked to him about his own social media presence, um, including what he was doing on LinkedIn. Um, and the, the advice that he gave was that if you're only updating LinkedIn when you need it, you've already missed the best opportunity.
Maintaining Authenticity While Networking
00:35:39
Speaker
Um,
00:35:41
Speaker
because the networking that you can do in terms of connecting with people is best done when you're not looking for a job because it makes it seem like you're only doing that because you're looking for a job. So it's about kind of the impression that you give people around the timing of
00:36:09
Speaker
you know, when you're when you're updating things. And that goes with for a lot of things, as far as people want to hire people who already have a job, because you already somebody else already values you.
00:36:21
Speaker
So when you go to conferences, if you don't have anything under your name as far as affiliation, some people will stay away from you because they think that you're going to be asking them for work. Whereas if you have an affiliation under there, even if it's the college that you still have one credit to go before you finish your graduate school,
00:36:40
Speaker
It shows that you're affiliated with something. You're not just a random person who's going to come talk to you. So it gives people some context. But everybody values somebody that is already in a position because somebody else is valuing them. So if you have everything up to date while you have a job, then people might offer you a job more than, oh, I've been unemployed for six months. Well, why have you been unemployed? Maybe something is wrong versus somebody else thinks you're valuable right now.
00:37:10
Speaker
Thinking ahead and planning that, especially if you're in CRM and you know that your jobs are seasonal, you have to be on top of it because nobody's going to be looking in the dead of winter. Yeah. So I did want to say, even though my LinkedIn, I just downloaded it on my phone, has been completely neglected. I actually do a lot of research gate work,
00:37:37
Speaker
Um, my presence on there is if I try and keep that updated. And also I really liked that outlet in networking sort of in real time with people who are doing the same things as you. Um, not just for, Hey, what are you up to? But also learning about other projects that are similar to yours. I'm currently working on my masters. It's been totally.
00:38:04
Speaker
one of the best tools in trying to network in other universities for people that I can get information from that are still working on their theses, are about to publish. There's obviously things that they can't share if they're about to publish, but
00:38:20
Speaker
just getting an idea of like, oh great, this is so close, you know, where did you get this piece of information? Like, you know, different perspectives from different professors from different schools and colleges have different sort of orientations and how they approach their archaeology. So having, you know, the networks at the conferences is amazing, but then
00:38:45
Speaker
poking at their other, you know, once you meet some of these people and you make those connections, connect with them on places like ResearchGate or academia.edu. And those are some really neat places where you can find papers that aren't necessarily published. You can find, I found that a lot of people will post their presentations from conferences.
00:39:10
Speaker
on academia.edu in order to because people will look for that. That is something that I've had people ask me, hey, can I get your stuff later? Like, great, I'm going to be posting it up there on academia, you know, later. And so that's a really neat way for
00:39:29
Speaker
to put yourself out there as sort of in progress, or at least that's been my way of putting myself out there as in progress on an academic level. But of course, CRM may not be looking there if that's the avenue that you're hoping to go soon.
Academic Networking on ResearchGate
00:39:45
Speaker
I'd been doing CRM for a while, but academia being kind of a new playground, it's been sort of my more recent toy.
00:39:58
Speaker
Yeah, so there are two things that I would say about academia and ResearchGate. One is that I believe several journals have now sent letters to people for violating copyright asking them to take their
00:40:16
Speaker
like journal articles down because the agreement that they signed was that it would be behind a paywall, that they could have a copy themselves for personal dissemination or whatever the language is. But some of those freely available PDFs may unfortunately start disappearing. So if you're listening to this and there's something you're interested in and it's still on there, go download it now.
00:40:44
Speaker
But the other thing is, I know I've definitely talked to people who have either used academia or researchgate and will find a paper that maybe has a title and an abstract, but the bulk of the paper isn't actually there and they, oh, I don't know that I want to bother this person or that I need to email them.
00:41:07
Speaker
And I would just say, don't be afraid to do that. Academics write things so that other people will read them and use them. So usually pretty excited when somebody wants to read your stuff. I have emailed more people than I could name.
00:41:26
Speaker
at this point. And realistically, the worst thing that's ever happened is that they didn't reply. And that's happened once or twice. And sometimes you get a thanks for your interest, here's the PDF, quick reply. And sometimes you get
00:41:44
Speaker
Here's the PDF you requested and a 6 or a 10 paragraph email if you had a particular question that they wanted to address or contextualize or they've done some additional work on this subject or they want to suggest additional reading materials. People are generally pretty interested in
00:42:05
Speaker
being nice and helping you out. And that's also another way of building a connection, right? And the shared interest. Exactly. I mean, that's like you're saying, everyone, I mean, the reason why any of us are in this is so that we can totally nerd out with other people who are interested in the same thing. And if you are in a niche subject,
00:42:27
Speaker
kind of like, you know, in some ways that I am. It's neat to run into people either online or at conferences or both and be like, oh my God, you're doing something that's related to mine. This is what I'm trying to do. What are your thoughts? Or like, I hadn't thought of this before. This is really cool. And I have also emailed and had amazing luck with people that I, you know, I've read everything that they've written on the subject. And I like, you know, mouse elite,
00:42:56
Speaker
email a question and they get really excited because it's something that, especially in a kind of a niche topic, there aren't a lot of people giving like sending them emails, I'm sure. And so because in, you know, academia, we're all in some way or another in a sort of a niche topic.
00:43:18
Speaker
We try and make a living by being excited about these things. And I think if we can keep each other excited, at least this is the way that I look at it. I get excited when people ask me questions because I don't feel like I'm there yet. I'm not quite sure, but I'm getting there. And it's neat to get the excitement from other people when I
00:43:43
Speaker
talk a little bit about what I'm trying to do my research on and it's one of those things it's like we can kind of keep feeding each other excitement and positivity then then that's you know not just you know the
00:43:58
Speaker
It's also easier to get a hold of someone I think on academia or research gate than it might be at a conference, depending on how popular their talk was.
Maximizing Conference Interactions
00:44:09
Speaker
If you try and stay after the end, there have been a couple to where there's like 30 people like crowding around this poor person. And I'm like, you know, I think I might just email them later. So for sure.
00:44:24
Speaker
So I think that's a good point to maybe cut off our second 20-minute segment because we have gone a little bit over. I know it's a really fascinating conversation, so it's so easy to do. But we'll be right back after the break.
00:44:40
Speaker
Interested in archaeology? Want to hear from experts in the field about the latest discoveries and interpretations? Check out The Archaeology Show every other Saturday and let hosts Chris Webster and April Camp Whitaker take you deeper into the story. Check out The Archaeology Show at www.archpodnet.com forward slash archaeology and subscribe, rate, and comment on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, and the Google Music Store. That's www.archpodnet.com forward slash archaeology. Now back to the show.
00:45:08
Speaker
Hi, and welcome back to the Women in Archaeology podcast. So far on this episode, we have been discussing ways of marketing yourself as an archaeologist. We touched a little bit in the last segment and the segment before about showing up and the importance of being aware of the opportunities that are around you. And I think that that's something worse
00:45:35
Speaker
collaborating on a bit. I know oftentimes when people have a goal that they want to accomplish, they can become a kind of tunnel vision on that goal and they miss some of the opportunities that are around them that may end up really helping them in the long run.
00:45:57
Speaker
I mean, April or Kirsten, do you have any examples of that? I do, but I don't want to dominate the beginning of the show or the section of the show. Well, my big example for that sort of thing is that I often get asked to either be part of a conference session or to
00:46:15
Speaker
I do funnel consulting to analyze a set of bones and sometimes I'm very busy at the time and I could easily say no. And almost every time I say yes, it opens up new areas of research interest for me and new connections
00:46:32
Speaker
with people and my current research is heavily shaped by the conferences that people have invited me to participate in that just got me reading more things and getting on different ideas. So I have had in my career, I don't turn anything down and that's possibly why my career has gone in 12 different directions at once.
00:46:56
Speaker
And it's hard to know exactly what I'm known for other than I'm known for several different things. But I say, say yes to everything until you have a real reason to say no. And just being kind of busy isn't a real reason if you're looking to move up. Agreed.
00:47:11
Speaker
Um, so many examples. Um, let's do, so there are two that come to mind. One that's a little more distant. When I first, uh, finished my bachelor's, I had everything set up. I was accepted to do my master's in, uh, abroad. So I was going abroad to do my master's as a single parent. I was bringing my, my daughter with me.
00:47:38
Speaker
So I had all of the paperwork and everything in order. I saved up and invested a heavy amount in getting a visa and the living amount that you have to have saved up for this particular country. And long story short, complications arose to where that didn't work out super last minute, like three weeks before it was supposed to go. So.
00:48:04
Speaker
Here I am, sort of at the end of summer, the worst time to look for CRM work. And I just did, you know, panic, email blast. I had sort of this goal of what I was going to do and had this one thing set in my mind. And after I got my first CRM job and kind of went down that road, just
00:48:28
Speaker
new and different insights kind of opened up and I became very passionate about, through working with CRM as a technician and just being in that world, I became fairly passionate about Native rights and it's something that I enjoy being involved in because I think CRM is a worthy thing. It can be
00:48:52
Speaker
bureaucratically annoying at times, but it's one of those you are the third person that can help negotiate for everyone as the neutral party. So that's sort of the really exciting thing that I like about Serum.
00:49:08
Speaker
Now, fast forward to working on my master's thesis research. I run into an old friend from my bachelor's work. She gives me a couple of references during a pub crawl after an archaeology event. I send emails a couple weeks later and then end up becoming
00:49:36
Speaker
going out to lunch with a well-known person involved in the
00:49:48
Speaker
I don't know, without getting technical, basically in some of the specifics of sort of the background to my thesis work. So that was really exciting. And then also, you know, a whole other like source person. So it's one of those things you just kind of have to show up, as I mentioned before, you know, going to this random archaeology event that I didn't think was going to really amount to anything, you know, you get
00:50:17
Speaker
references, you get recommendations
Unexpected Benefits of Podcast Participation
00:50:20
Speaker
for who to contact, who to talk to, what to read, and those can turn into some really amazing opportunities that will further your research as you know it now or put you in a completely different path. Yeah, definitely. And I would actually say that this podcast can also be one of those opportunities. I know when I
00:50:40
Speaker
was first invited to kind of help set this up. And I thought, oh, that's like a really interesting idea. And I think it's important. I've just started my PhD program. I also work. Do I have time? And then I said, you know, what the hell?
00:51:00
Speaker
It's important. It sounds interesting. I think it's very valuable for women to have a voice in the field. And from that, I have met some of the most amazing women I've ever met in my entire life. Some of them in real life, some of them only virtually, although I hope to meet all of you in real life. But I've met people at conferences. I've had people at conferences come up to me and be like, oh, I know you're from the Women in Archaeology podcast. Can we talk about X and made connections that way?
00:51:29
Speaker
there, you know, as an undergrad student who invited me to be a member of her honors thesis advisory committee, because she was doing something with the perception of women archeologists in the media. So, you know, these doors, I walked through one door and a whole bunch of other ones opened up that I wasn't necessarily expecting and that's been really great. So that's,
00:51:59
Speaker
Super positive. And if anyone else would like to take advantage of our platform, we absolutely adore having guests on. We love, as a person said earlier, nerding out with people about the things that people like to nerd out with. So if you are interested in coming on our show and talking about what it is you love and helping market yourself as the person who does X,
00:52:24
Speaker
You can always, always get in touch with us either by email at womeninarchaeologyatgmail.com or through our blog, the link of which will be under the contact section for this podcast. So let us help you.
00:52:41
Speaker
Yes. And on that note, actually, I believe April has some amazing information about how to make sure that we are present online when people are like, oh, yeah, that one girl or that one person that I met. I think I remember her name and they Google us and.
Building a Personal Online Presence
00:52:58
Speaker
Now, we talked a little bit earlier about LinkedIn being something that will pop up first. But an important link in your LinkedIn might be your personal website, as was mentioned earlier. So how do we go about this, April? I myself do not have a personal website outside of social media. How would we go about setting that up and when's the best time to do that?
00:53:23
Speaker
I think once you have content to put on it, as long as you have some content, then you're ready to go. And in today's world, it seems like one page web pages is perfectly acceptable where in the past you had to have links to 20 different things to make it seem like it was like a website. So I think you just need a page and that page could talk about what you're interested in.
00:53:47
Speaker
what you hope to do, what you've done before, just tell a little story about yourself. So if I meet you somewhere, whether it be Twitter, whether I read a piece that you've written, whether I've run to you into conference, whether I've met you just wandering around a museum and we started talking, can I find you then? So if I just remember like your first name is Steven and you're an osteologist,
00:54:11
Speaker
How am I going to figure out who you really are? So if I am googling osteologists, can I find somebody that has that sort of name that could kind of narrow it down, that there's other information
00:54:24
Speaker
on that page that will help me feel confident about who that person is. And that's why I'm a big advocate of not having very different profile pictures in all your different online accounts, so that if I, you know, there's how many Kirsten Lopez is in the world, right? If I find you, do I know that that's you and do you look like you looked when I met you?
00:54:47
Speaker
So if your photo is 10 years out of date because it's that great photo from somebody's wedding that you were all dolled up and you looked great, but that's not what you looked like when I met you that I might be, oh, well, that's probably not who I was looking for. That's somebody else. So having something like a free WordPress site, right? Any of these free sites or even some of these very low cost sites that you could have somebody hosting for you.
00:55:14
Speaker
It could be associated with, like, you know, you guys have this Women in Archaeology blog, you have the podcast page, like those could be, just have a tab on there for the people who are hosts on the show, that until you have more information, then you need the next, you know, the actual webpage for yourself, but make sure those links are there. So I would say you get on that webpage, you know, a photo of you that
00:55:41
Speaker
isn't necessarily something that is overly sexual or overly relaxed, like you shouldn't be holding a beer or wearing a wedding dress. It should be something that is what you would look like in an average day in your profession. The things you want to be doing, some key words. Everything in searching online is key words. What are the topics you're interested in? What are the topics you're the expert on? Conference papers that you've written?
00:56:10
Speaker
You know, if you haven't written any conference papers, list the conferences you attended, and then at least that I know that, oh yeah, she was also at the AAAs in 2017, so that's probably her. So anything that you have up there that could be professional, and if you don't have a lot of stuff, list your favorite podcasts with links to them that shows that you consume that media. List your favorite blogs.
00:56:36
Speaker
link into your Twitter feed something so that you actually have that online presence so that people know who you are and tell me who you want me to think you are. That's some great advice. I actually just had a thought pop into my head about Twitter that I'm going to ask your opinion on. I know, hands down, when you're emailing someone professionally,
00:57:02
Speaker
you know, do not use the Hotmail account that you had when you were 12 that, you know, Chelsea loves ponies, 99, you know, whatever. Because that's not professional. But oftentimes when you transfer into the Twitter realm,
00:57:23
Speaker
Do you want to have your name as your total handle? Is it taken? What else can you do? I know personally my Twitter handle is at osteoarcheo because I'm an osteoarcheologist, which may not be the most professional Twitter handle rule, but it also describes what I do and what I want to be known for. So do you have any thoughts on Twitter handles?
00:57:46
Speaker
I think that if it can be as close to your name as possible, or that the description after your handle then has your name, that helps a lot for making those associations. So having Ostio as a main focus of your Twitter handle is great as long as that's the one thing that you want to be known for.
00:58:07
Speaker
So that doesn't say that you're a podcaster, that you care about the representation of women in archaeology and things like that. So that's where it starts to get a little dangerous that you branded yourself. And as long as you're okay with that brand, then go with it.
00:58:22
Speaker
But if you have just your name in a way, and there aren't that many April Vsauce in the world, so I kind of have it easy in that way, if it's just your name, then you could reinvent yourself 10 times and people still have your name as that anchor. So if you are reinventing yourself and your handle is not your name, you have to make sure that the people who follow you could come along with that reinvention of yourself.
00:58:50
Speaker
Sure. That's good advice. And I will say, I mean, my, my full name is attached to that handle. And I do mentioned, you know, podcasts and museum, um, work in my, in my bio. Yeah. Some people just have their blog name as their Twitter name and then their Twitter handle and everyone's like, so who is behind that blog? I don't know. Yeah. So we're all behind the, the women in archeology, uh, Twitter handle.
00:59:19
Speaker
Yeah. It may seem somewhat, I mean, it's been somewhat consistent recently, but there was a bit there, I think it may have seemed a little schizophrenic. With three of us that were fairly active on posting on that, I think there was a couple months. We're trying to figure that out. Very different lives. But that's good because you can do it for us, you know? Yeah.
00:59:51
Speaker
We're all doing different things in many different places all at once. So that's kind of fun. Yeah, for sure. That would be great if the description for that Twitter account had everybody's Twitter, individual Twitter handle and said, you know, women in archaeology is the three of us and then had those links. I think it does have that. Yeah. Well, then there you go. You get an apron. Yay.
01:00:21
Speaker
doing something right sure yeah let's uh let's actually pull that up right now got it on the phone yep we are all listed as contributors you're doing the work you want to be known for it
01:00:36
Speaker
Yes. That is something in making sure that you want to be known for that before you start putting it everywhere. Yes. As much as I love this podcast, it took me a few months to be like, okay, I think I can actually put this on all of my professional things. Not that I don't love you, but
01:00:59
Speaker
Just because, you know, it's one of those when it first when we first started playing with this idea was two years ago, actually last month. And, you know, it
01:01:13
Speaker
had a little bit of fumbling before we got it on its feet. So that was, I'm glad I didn't really forge forward. And that might be something, too, is if you're starting a podcast or a blog, get your feet under you in knowing how you want to orient that blog. Do a couple of articles or test runs before you make it either go live or start advertising it heavily with your name attached to it. Because if you completely change the direction,
01:01:42
Speaker
that might affect things later or if there's a blunder, you know, that's one of those things I think just like trying to keep your name, you know, your behavior positive. As we mentioned at the beginning of the podcast, kind of getting
01:01:59
Speaker
know kind of where, not necessarily where you're going, but know where you're at, I guess is the best way to put it. It's like, you know, I hate using this trope, but having that elevator speech figured out, I've always been horrible at this.
Consistency in Professional Branding
01:02:15
Speaker
And I finally was able to the other day, like,
01:02:18
Speaker
how's that an event and rattled off my thesis topic in maybe a sentence. And they were like, wow, you're really good at that. And I'm like, well, you know, I've been saying it for a year. Um, it only has taken me that long. Um, but it's one of those things that, you know, with practice, it can get oriented, but try not to put yourself out there as like your Twitter handle and your, you know,
01:02:45
Speaker
Facebook presence or Instagram handle as the same one thing that you end up changing your mind about six months down to the road and then you have to change everything. Um, so like you're saying April, like having what you want to be known as and making sure that's kind of where you want to go with it, I guess is where that rambling was going. It was clear to me. Sometimes I wonder. Hey.
01:03:16
Speaker
Well, we are approaching the end of our episode. So if either of you have any final thoughts on marketing yourselves as an archeologist, now would be the time to get them off your chest.
01:03:31
Speaker
I think somebody wanted to talk a little bit about maximizing conference attendance, and I just want to reiterate something that people don't really think about is when you go into that room to hear that talk, everybody's focused on the person giving the talk, but everybody else in that room are people that are interested in the same thing as you.
01:03:53
Speaker
So strike up a conversation with the person sitting next to you, especially in that awkward like, oh, the next paper, the person didn't show up. Don't like jump on your phone and start trying to find your friends, you know, leave, like start talking to the other people who are sitting in that room because they're all in the same situation of you. They're all disappointed that that paper is not there, but you guys could start having a conversation. Yeah, that's a that's a really good note. I like that.
01:04:21
Speaker
Because there's so many people, especially at conferences like the SAA, it's hard to pin down people, even if you know they're there, you know, and take advantage of the people that are there that are around you. Yeah. Yeah. I would just say also, you know, as a big thing is.
01:04:40
Speaker
Don't be afraid. I know that's probably been said a couple of times today, but, you know, as I like to tell my daughter, if you're uncomfortable, that's a good thing, because that means you're on the right, go in the right direction. Getting out of your comfort zone is something that you should practice regularly as a professional. If you are hoping to do something different than what you're doing right at this moment. So that's something to contemplate.
01:05:09
Speaker
Yeah. And I mean, I think a lot of what we've said today has really boiled down to don't be afraid to put yourself out there and you need to be proactive about getting the career you want to have leading the life you want to leave, lead opportunities. Opportunity will not knock if no one can find the door. Yes. And stay on top of your shit.
01:05:37
Speaker
Yeah, you know, be aware of, you know, your social media presence and what that that says about you. But nobody, nobody's going to make it happen for you. You have to be the engineer of your own, your own life, your career.
01:05:59
Speaker
And I think unless anyone else has anything they're dying to say, I will say, ladies, as always, it is wonderful to talk to you. I always feel like I get the most out of these, these recording sessions. And I know I say it every week and our listeners may be tired of hearing it, but it's so true. Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedules to join me.
01:06:25
Speaker
You too. It was fun. Yeah, definitely. Excellent. Until next time. Bye. Bye.
01:06:37
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the Women in Archaeology podcast on the Archaeology Podcast Network. Please like, share, rate, and subscribe to the show wherever you found it. If you have questions, leave them in the show notes page at www.arcpodnet.com slash WIA, or email them to womeninarchaeologypodcast at gmail.com. The music is retro-futured by Kevin MacLeod and his royalty-free music. To support the network and become a member, go to www.arcpodnet.com slash members. This show is produced at the Reno Collective in Reno, Nevada.
01:07:09
Speaker
This show is produced by Chris Webster and Tristan Boyle, and was edited by Chris Webster. This has been a presentation of the Archaeology Podcast Network. Visit us on the web for show notes and other podcasts at www.archpodnet.com. Contact us at chris at archaeologypodcastnetwork.com.