Last week I helped deliver a Tenure and Promotion workshop for Center for Faculty Excellence designed to help faculty think about what to put in their dossiers. One of the faculty members, who was invited because she had recently (and successfully) gone through the process, said “One of the hardest things for me was tooting my own horn in my statements.” Many present nodded in agreement.
In the typical file pre-tenure faculty must submit when they come up for promotion and tenure, they are asked to write a narrative of their academic accomplishments. But in a profession in which so many suffer from some variety of imposter syndrome — in particular among pre-tenure faculty — it can seem awkward and unnatural to write about oneself in the exulting tone characteristic of the genre.
Moreover, our CVs can grow to be quite extensive, and imposing a narrative on it all can seem daunting. We tend to get lost itemizing every publication, grant, and conference presentation without stepping back to connect the dots. This challenge can be compounded by the aforementioned imposter syndrome, which can lead us to not do our accomplishments the justice they deserve.
In thinking about this dilemma, I remembered that Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT and Claude, can be quite good at synthesizing atomistic lists, such as those found on a CV, into more holistic statements. I thus uploaded my 8-page CV into Claude (which I personally prefer over ChatGPT) and simply asked, “Based on the CV (attached), what is, or what are, my main contribution(s) to my field?” Within seconds, Claude spouted out not one but five contributions.
Seeing my academic life through Claude’s eyes simultaneously made me blush out of pride and also out of shame for not being to see that for myself. Each plaudit, from “Advancing research on vocabulary teaching and learning...” to “Pioneering writing center models and writing support programs” and so on were all so impressive-sounding. Who was this great scholar who had “significantly forwarded English language pedagogy and applied linguistics research around the world?”
When I talk to faculty about their work, I guess I kind of am like “Claude.” I read their CVs, and then help them craft their statements. I am invariably impressed by their body of work, but am often struck by how self-effacing they are when they write about it. But even though I specialize in helping faculty see the merits of their achievements, I wasn’t so great at doing that for myself. I realized that I, too, needed the insight of an ally to help retrieve and relate the narratives already evident in my CV.
I encourage you to talk to me about your CV when you want to craft a tenure and dossier statement. I promise to be as blush-inducing as Claude was for me in my assessment of your work. But I also encourage you to use a tool like Claude, if not for your dossier, as a way to stave off undeserved imposterhood.
