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Ultimately, self-promotion works best if you are a good communicator and you have something of value to communicate.
I was recently invited to speak at a School of Library and Information Studies about my personal experiences working in special libraries and, in particular, about my thoughts on how to effectively use self-promotion to develop one's career. I did write a column, a couple of years ago, about self-promotion for the information professional and the importance of developing skills in this area.
The essential nature of self-promotion has become evident to almost all in the library world by now. And in a world full of open access to personal information on most people, the quality of the information becomes even more important. As we have heard from many news articles, the information that we make public about ourselves on the Internet is searched and viewed, and forms part of the assessment of us as professionals as well as private individuals. The impact that negative impressions can have on your professional reputation, or on your ability to build your professional role, is significant. How we begin our networking and self-promotion in the early stages in our career is an important concern for all new professionals.
As part of my talk, I thought back to my career path to date. At first I thought only of the progression of positions, and the formal way that I went about fitting in, developing practical skills and following a traditional job application process. I didn't really see that self-promotion came into the picture until I realized that I was missing the obvious. Almost everything we do is about people - how we interact with, how we help or support, how we challenge or bump up against other people. Most of us also have people rooting for us on the sidelines, whether they are personal or professional contacts. And many of the relationships that we develop over our careers form part of this extended circle of support. How we promote ourselves to our colleagues and develop the professional image that we want to project is part of what we must do as we seek to become established in the profession.
On reflection, I realized that many people whom I had met...