Reader suggestion: make sure your contact info is readily available

An anonymous reader wrote in yesterday:

I look up a lot of younger philosophers on the internet...and SO OFTEN it is really hard to find their contact information (email, etc.). I'm sure that cannot help their job searches, etc. so I wonder if it would do a tiny bit of good to post a little something on the Cacoon blog along the lines of "Make your contact information really obvious.. since people might want to contact you about a job, collaborations, invitations, etc.!"

Funny, I have had exactly the same problem! I go to look up an early-career philosopher, and their contact info seems nearly impossible to find. I agree with your reader: this generally isn't good, especially if you are on the job market. People on search committees may be interested in finding out more about you, and may be disappointed if they cannot find much. Indeed, I would even go so far as to suggest it could make a difference in whether you are interviewed. If a search committee member is "on the fence" (i.e. unsure) about you, additional information--such as info on your website--could well make a difference.

In short: unless you have some special reason to hide your identity or info online (which in some cases may exist), make sure you have a professional website with your info readily available. Don't make people go hunting through your department's webpage for info (where there is usually very little about you). A good website can very much make a positive impression--and in any case it can be very important to make it easy for people to get into contact with you! 

Comments

[Brad]

Marcus,
I want to emphasize that I have had the same experience. I am one of the editors for the Springer/Nature journal Metascience, which publishes book reviews of books in the History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science. I have often found a young scholar who has published a recent paper on some topic related to a book I want reviewed by searching PhilPapers. Then I look for the person's contact information. I am only going to look so hard. At one point I give up. These are lost opportunities.

[Amanda]

I am curious - don't almost all people have a page at their institution with their email? I guess not? All the places I have worked at do this automatically, whether I wanted them to or not.

[Brad]

Amanda,
You would think so. But it is not so. You should go to PhilPapers, pick a few names of people who have published recent work, and then see how long it takes to find their e-mail address. I commission 60+ reviews a year. I do not have time to hunt for people. So as soon as I hit a wall I move on and look for another person.

[Sebastian Lutz]

I guess this is as good a point as any to recommend using philpeople.org: If someone is already looking up your papers on philpapers, it's just one click to your philpeople profile.

[Marcus Arvan]

Sebastian: alas, it is also surprising how many people do not have philpapers profiles--and, of those who do, how many people do not have a CV or contact information on their page!

[Michel]

As someone who also looks people up quite frequently, I have to say that this is really true! I've also found that it's sometimes true of senior people who rose to seniority before the dominance of the internet (finding their CVs is often especially difficult, and their PhilPapers archive is often incomplete, so tracking down the papers I'm after can be a real pain).