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Originally Posted by graciegirl
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I come from the academic community. It is important to "climbing" the promotion ladder (asst. prof, associate prof., etc. to make your mark by fulfilling certain research, community, etc. goals). More and more, those who are extremely focused on careers, are not content with allowing a "natural" process of recognition of their work in a particular area of research. It is now not unheard of to have professionals, like agents for sports and entertainment people, guide a career and arrange speaking opportunities, news outlet attention, etc. where once the mentors of a new PhD. recipient came primarily from the faculty and especially from the grad student's dissertation committee (who were better equipped to recognize truly ground breaking research discoveries, etc.), that is now not the only way to recognition. While this more traditional way is still the practice at many institutions, this kind of self promotion happens all the time. Not sure that kind of change is in the best interest of academia, or for that matter, our world in general.... more who is the best self promoter, or who can hire the best publicists, rather than genuine talent for research coming to the top naturally.