Academic business cards?

May 22, 2005 12:05 AM

I am a M.A. student at a small university in Canada. Next week I will be heading to a large academic conference and I want to have some business cards for shmoozing networking purposes.

I'm looking to make a good impression on professors who may be good contacts to help me get into a good PhD program in Media (television) Studies, Cultural Studies, or even plain old English (I have a good idea of what I want to work on, but as Media Studies programs are sometimes incorporated into English programs for now, I am keeping that option open).

I'm designing the cards myself, and the print shop on campus is going to print them up for me. Full colour is okay. Any ideas of what I should put on them, aside from the obligatory name and contact info?

posted by synecdoche to education (22 comments total)

Joe Bloggs: Wandering M.A. & Freelance Adventurer. :)

Personally, I like gimicks, which might not be appropriate for a card, but I like gimicks :) Stuff like having a paper model printed on the back, so if someone assembles it, your contact info will be on display as a model instead of unseen in a wallet.

Have you considered instead of (or as well as) a card, having your details printed on a pen? If it's a nice pen, it won't get thrown away. If it's a cheap biro, then probably not so effective.
posted by -harlequin- at 1:54 AM on May 22, 2005

Personally, I think this is maybe a little over the top. If you're looking to impress people at conferences, just talk intelligently. Ask thoughtful questions after panels; it makes for a good conversation starter during the ensuing schmoozing bits.

People are going to know who you are from your nametag, anyway; if you want to keep in touch after the conference finishes, just swap email addresses.

Then again, I'm in English, not in Cult. Stud., and maybe you guys do things differently over your way...
posted by Sonny Jim at 2:22 AM on May 22, 2005

I am an undergraduate, so perhaps my opinion is of little value to you. Nevertheless, I must say that a business card would be, it seems to me, in bad taste. Talk; introduce yourself; try and be memorable; mention any papers you've written, especially if they relate to their field; ask if you could meet them sometime if you visit their home campus. I don't, to be perfectly honest, see any reason why a professor would want to keep your business card. I think an earnest business gesture would be met with bemusement, if not scorn, especially by English and Cultural Studies types. Not that their world is free of bureaucratic gesturing and manuevering -- on the contrary -- but the academic safari plays by different rules. But again, que sais-je?

(On preview: what Sonny Jim said.)
posted by ori at 2:41 AM on May 22, 2005

I'm with ori. Do it by the book. If you have something written you'd like to direct people to, ask if it'd be OK to email it to them for comments or suggestions. If they like you and/or your work, they'll remember you.
posted by Wolof at 4:25 AM on May 22, 2005

I don't think you need your own cards, but definitely ask for their cards and write brief "nice to meet you" emails when you return.

At the conference, watch the line between networking and being a pest - ditto for the follow-up. My boss (a b-school dean) was hounded by a job applicant at a conference in the fall and, while we did invite the guy to campus for an interview, he didn't have a chance in hell of getting the job because he was so annoying.
posted by SashaPT at 5:26 AM on May 22, 2005

Another point: if the purpose of giving out business cards is to get the contacts to e-mail/phone you after the conference, a business card is not going to make this happen. The onus is on you to e-mail any people you've met at conferences to form a solid contact. The only conference where I handed out business cards was when I was selling things, and even then I had to contact people myself.
Instead of spending time on a gimmick go through the program for the conference, find the abstracts that interest you and read the other papers that those people have written. That way when you talk to them you'll have something intelligent to say.
posted by nprigoda at 5:28 AM on May 22, 2005

(after posting: what SashaPT said)
posted by nprigoda at 5:28 AM on May 22, 2005

Have some cards handy with contact info, just in case someone asks for it, but don't offer first. Then if anyone asks, you don't have to write it on something hard to find later.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 5:50 AM on May 22, 2005

I was a graduate student for five years, and attended several academic conference; in my experience, this would be over the top and foreign to academic culture, so I'm in agreement with the other posters advising against it. Schmoozing and handing out cards would not be a good way to make an impression on a prof. It would backfire: you'd look like you were on the make, professionally, and that would rub many professors the wrong way. Hell, most of them wouldn't be handing out business cards.

Just chat them up. Ask questions at panels. If one or more of your professors is attending the conference, they may well introduce you to some of the other profs they know. But try not to have too much of the lean and hungry look, and don't be sycophantic.
posted by mcwetboy at 6:03 AM on May 22, 2005

hmmm. the only time i've been given a card at a conference was last year (last conference i went to). maybe things are changing? anyway, i was talking to someone, wanted their email address, and they gave me their card. it was really useful. so i'd go with unrepentanthippie and take some, but only had them out when "appropriate".

and, to answer your question, his just had his institution's logo and contact details. i made my own card design (but never used it - i couldn't find nice enough card here to be bothered to get them printed) and included just my email, url and a silly slogan (here). if you can make the design attractive, i think that's all you need (and name, probably, but in my case that's pretty obvious from the email/url).
posted by andrew cooke at 6:31 AM on May 22, 2005

if you want ideas, look here - it's amazing how bad they are, generally.
posted by andrew cooke at 6:34 AM on May 22, 2005

My university has a standard business card layout available to its graduate students and professors--but they aren't 'standard issue' in that no one, as far as I know, actually uses them.

Just make sure you have something in your wallet to note down their names--as always in academia, their contact info will be available from their department.
posted by josh at 6:54 AM on May 22, 2005

The only people I get business cards from are annoying book reps. The advice here is pretty good. Ask yourself, "what would make me keep and use a business card at an academic conference?"

If you had a web page of frequently updated resources connected to different sessions, you could hand the card to a presenter and say, "I've got some good research on x here" or what have you. But having read abstracts and papers by the presenters is good. And sometimes you can email someone with related information to their presentation, or discuss a session on a national listserv and get a conversation going after the conference.

I wrote up a summary of a session I attended at a conference in SF, posted it quickly to an email list, and suggested a "cage match" between two disagreeing scholars and their definitions of information architecture. They invited me to chair a session with both of them next year, so that was cool.
posted by mecran01 at 7:05 AM on May 22, 2005

It is interesting that so many of you are saying to not do the business card thing, as it is on the recommendation of my thesis supervisor that I have them, though it does run counter to my instinct (in that I can't see a situation where I would have an opportunity to hand one out without looking like some kind of salesman).

Maybe I'll take some basic ones just in case someone asks me. Thanks.
posted by synecdoche at 10:17 AM on May 22, 2005

They're called "business cards" for a reason: because they are for businessPEOPLE. I agree with the others who think it's in bad taste to hand them out at a conference. I know some business principles work in academia, but this is a little much.
posted by elisabeth r at 11:36 AM on May 22, 2005

I'll echo a lot of people here - academics (esp. students) with cards come across as wankers, especially in the sciences.

You're in media, though, so it might be different.

I carry around a small notebook that I can write my contact info on and rip out or I take down an email address. A lot of people are starting to carry around digital cameras to take pictures of posters that they find interesting - so you might not even have to give them a physical bit of paper.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 11:42 AM on May 22, 2005

I've been to a variety of academic conferences from small to quite large in both computer science and linguistics, and I've basically never seen academics (students or professors) giving out business cards. So, like others, I recommend against it. It is far too slick for the typical academic culture, and I expect this would be especially true in a field like English. The way to make a good impression at an academic conference is to give a really excellent presentation/poster, or failing that, come off as smart or interesting in conversations with the relevant people.
posted by advil at 2:46 PM on May 22, 2005

My fiance is a Ph.D. student and has found his business cards invaluable at meetings and conferences; I'm getting some, but only after advance to full Ph.D. candidacy. One Ph.D. I knew who had them had a very hard to spell name, and found it so much easier than trying to spell her name all the time. Personally, I always loose business cards when people give them to me, and try to have a notebook instead, but not everyone will and they are much better than little slips of paper.

The academic world is perhaps still a little bohemian for business cards, but they are useful, and I think will become more common. The advice given above is good: have a few, but only offer if you are asked for your contact details.

On design: My fiance's design was very traditional a refined: small crest of his university, his name and contact details (including webpage) - monochromatic, printed on card on his own lazer printer. I think they look as classy as most professionally produced I have seen. If you are worried about looking too slick, simpler cards are better. Then you look like you are trying to be practical, rather than trying to impress.

But for applying for Ph.D. programs: don't look on professors as contacts to get you into a program, look on them as potential supervisors, that is, tell them about yourself, and ask if they are currently accepting new students (probably better in a later email than in chat at the conference, though by all means mention that you are applying). When I was applying, I wrote to the people whose work was closest to my interests, explained that I was applying to the program and what my interests were, and I think I asked (as humbly as possible) whether they might be interested in supervising me - or maybe just whether they were accepting students. That sounds arrogant, now that I remember, but it seemed to work - and it had the added benefit that when someone knew they were not accepting students, they told me, and I didn't end going to a program only to find the person I wanted to work with was leaving. My current advisor warned me that it would be very hard to get in and, of course, made no committments, but gave me some advice on my application which really helped. I don't know if he had any say in the acceptance process, but that initial contact certainly helped me.

It might be different for you (I am in a very narrow fieldin History and only had one potential advisor most places I applied). But in sending an enquiry letter, you indicate that you know something about the program and that you aren't applying there just because it is well-known, but because you are interested in working with this person. Okay, maybe you fib a bit - not everywhere are you going to know people (I really struggled to find out who worked where in what - now I have a much better sense, but it was partly luck that I ended up with an advisor whose interests (and those of his former students) mesh with mine as well as they do). But hopefully you can find little bios on the web, etc.
posted by jb at 10:02 PM on May 22, 2005

I agree with everyone else that the prime goals of being smart, asking good questions, and asking if any of your advisors/profs at the conference can introduce you to others at the conference are far more useful than business cards. I'd feel totally out of place whipping them out, and I am a Ph.D. student in the English/Media/Cultural Studies/Literature field. Make note of the names you need to know (if you don't recognize them already) in your notebook along with notes from their talk, institution, and department/affiliation and a question or two that you'd like to ask at some point. After the conference, it's fine to send "nice to meet you" emails to a few of them, and if you have a follow-up question, or a suggestion of another paper that may be of relevance to them, include that. I've done that even at conferences where I saw the person speak, but didn't meet them specifically, and I've had mostly positive, friendly responses. Have a few on hand if you're asked or if you have a nice conversation with someone, but otherwise follow the advice in this thread.
posted by fionab at 10:08 PM on May 22, 2005

At history conferences we frequently hand business cards back and forth. But this only happens after a conversation that seems unfinished--"Send me that citation, will you?" In other words, there has to be a practical reason.

A better strategy for schmoozing is to ask professors about their presentations, research, or institution, ask them for a card after, then follow up with an email as Fionab says.
posted by LarryC at 11:50 PM on May 22, 2005

Well, I think it boils down to what is common in your field. I never thought about it when I was waltzing around the classics-department. But when I got a job at the dept. of botany suddenly everybody asked me for -and handed me- a card, so I had to get one.

Personally I like to keep them simple, mine has just my name, title and email address. Which gives me lots of room to write things on it (what my interests are etc).

Also, as many has said before me; You are the one doing the networking; do your homework and check out their fields and ask relevant question and if it's approprite ask for an address, and send them an follow-up email, reintroducing yourself and asking questions.

And if you get a list of persons attending, please, please don't walk around in public making notes beside each name on the list after talking to them.
posted by mummimamma at 7:25 AM on May 23, 2005

Perhaps you should design the cards so they look like they're a standard-issue university thing rather than your own idea. (very basic template, crest and name and department, etc).

Have you done any tutoring? A card that looks like it's purpose is to give your students a way to contact you with questions, and you just happen to find them convenient to use them at conferences as well, might appear more impressive than a card made for conferences. Even if you only use it for conferences :-)
posted by -harlequin- at 12:20 PM on May 24, 2005