What It Means To Create a Professional Identity

By Cathy Davidson. I was recently at a meeting of academics and alt-academics who run professional organizations and professional meetings and heard two people from two different professional associations, one in the humanities and one in a social science area, note that, in their informal polling of job interviewers who come to their national conventions, something on the order of 75% say that the first thing they do when they see the name of a potential job candidate is Google the person.   Well, of course.  When you think about it, don't we all do that?   But how many graduate programs today advise students to pay attention to what appears when their name is Googled? 
The same career or professional development advisors in departments who worry over job letters, vita, job talks, and other aspects of professionalism (if you are lucky enough to be in a department that cares about such things) is likely not to have said to candidates, "Google yourself and see what comes up.  Is that the professional self you want to present to the world?". More...