Networking as a Tool for Career Advancement among Academic Psychologists

Abstract

The central thesis of this article is that a successful academic career, which is based largely on the quality or importance of one's scholarly work and teaching skill, can be enhanced by effective networking. Networking is defined as the set of strategies academic psychologists use to increase their visibility among and interactions with other professionals. We point to the recent focus on networking skills in the fields of business and career development and argue that little attention is given to such skills in the graduate training of psychologists. To remedy this, we describe several networking strategies that may be helpful for the budding academic psychologist.