That time of the year is looming once again, and I'm not talking about Induction Week. Rather, September, like March contains the deadline for completed applications for promotion (see below for key dates).
It is commonly cited that women don't apply for jobs (or promotions) unless they're 100% qualified. Typically, the reason given for this is women's low self-confidence. Yet elsewhere it has been argued that women are fully aware of their capabilities and often feel that they could do the job. Instead, mistaken perceptions about the hiring or promotion process is what deters them from applying. This is important.
Women don’t need to try and find that elusive quality, “confidence,” they just need better information about how hiring processes really work.
But hey, wait! Before those identifying as male close the browser thinking this blog isn't for you; thinking that it's shaping up to be nothing more than an Athena SWAN related rant about gender inequality in the workplace, stay tuned. Understanding the promotion process is something that can help all of us, right? Including you. And I'm coming to that. I'm not going to go on, and on, telling you about the gender imbalance within the Department for Health when it comes to promotion. Nope. I'm just going to show you!👇🏻 (and then we'll move on).
Table 1: Promotions within the Department for Health from 2012 - 2017 (NB: recent data from the 2018 round, has not been made available yet - although it was great to see a better balance).
So, onwards and upwards so to speak. Let's turn now to the issue of understanding the process.
Ahead of our final staff meeting, the Department E&D committee arranged for a Promotions Workshop to take place, with the aim of demystifying - for all academic and research staff - the process of applying for promotion.
My own notes from this promotions workshop are available here.
In addition, the recent Senior Women in Academia Network meeting (contact Simon Inger for further info about this group) focused on professorial promotion by a teaching pathway, as part of the ongoing theme about successful academic careers with non-standard profiles. You can read Simon's notes from the session here.
Please be aware that for both sets of notes, these are personal recordings (by myself and Simon) of informal conversations and not necessarily University policy!
If you're thinking of applying for promotion in this round, the departmental deadlines are shown below. Note these differ from the deadlines posted on the HR website:
GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR APPLICATIONS!
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