Res. Life and the City #10- Fabulousness

Believe me, your fabulousness would translate. ~Samantha Jones


So last week I sat down with my supervisor to have a little chat about my performance so far this semester. I wasn't expecting too many surprises, since my supervisor has been great about giving me continual feedback throughout the past few months. She told me that I was still impressing people and doing a great job and how happy she was that I was succeeding. However, she then said something that I've been thinking about ever since.

She told me that while she knows how well I am doing, she's not sure if anyone else on campus or in the department is aware of (in her words) my "fabulousness." First, dear reader, please don't view this as a chance for me to brag about my meager accomplishments this semester. Second, I was a little dumbfounded by what to say to this admission by my supervisor. Did this mean that my accomplishments weren't worthy of mention to "higher-ups" or does it mean that I'm just not accomplishing things that higher-ups would ever notice in the first place?

I asked my supervisor to expand on this thought and God bless her, she was great. She told me that she had had lunch with the Associate VP of Student Life and was talking about the people that she supervised and when she mentioned my name, the AVP said that he really didn't see me all that much (which is not good because we work out of the same physical office) and that he didn't know much about me (which is even worse because we have a lot of common interests and even graduated from the same University). When I interviewed here, all of the mid-level managers told me that their main job was to find opportunities for me to grow as a professional and also to brag about me to people who could find opportunities for me in the future. My supervisor reiterated her main goal in her job was to promote her supervisees to others in the department and at the University, so she said she did this during the conversation.

While it's great to know that my supervisor has my back, she brought up a great point. She said that it is very easy for new professionals to get tunnel-vision when it comes to the politics of student affairs. She said that she knows I am doing amazing things in my building and with my students and staff members, but she also said that she sometimes worried that I am so focused about being proficient at my job, that I'm not looking for opportunities to further my network of colleagues. She continued to say that since I am doing my job well, my goal for the next semester should be to start branching out into the University community and start letting people know about the things that I'm doing and that I'm interested in pursuing.

Although I am all for networking, I've decided that I have a big problem with self-promotion. There is nothing less comfortable to me than telling people about what things I've been doing. Maybe it's the good Midwestern girl in me that makes me think that I am being boastful or prideful, but it just doesn't sit right with me. I suppose I've been laboring under the assumption that if I do my job and do it well, people will naturally notice these things. I have soon discovered through my conversation with my supervisor and also as I've been reading the book Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office: 101 Unconscious Mistakes Women Make that Sabotage Their Career maybe women are less prone self-promote and let people know about their fabulousness.

The feminist in me is screaming out that it isn't fair and that women shouldn't have to adapt to men's way of maneuvering in the world of work, but the pragmatist in me is saying that I should just bite the bullet and model my behavior after the men in my department. While I feel blessed to be in a profession that is overwhelming female-oriented, the people in positions of power above mid-level managers are still for the most part male. This means that while my methods of self-promotion (or lack thereof) will theoretically only get me to a certain level and I will inevitably hit the glass ceiling. Although I know that it's good that I'm thinking about this stuff during the first few months of my professional career, it is a little disheartening to think about the strategy and basically game I'll have to play to advance in my career. So what do you think dear reader? Should I shout about my fabulousness from the rooftops or continue to do my job and do it well without the seemingly political self-promotion?