Synopsis of the event

We were very fortunate to have attendees who gave us a lot of advice and mentorship and are very thankful to these amazing professionals who were willing to share some of their wisdom with us, namely, Yolanda Gil, Maria Gini, Barbra Grozs, and Sheila McIlraith. Here’s a summary of the day.

We sat around two large round tables. Although there were still some vacant chairs around the tables, there were also more chairs around the room. Attendees started arriving and some chose to sit on the chairs that were not immediately next to the table, but on those in a second row. The first lesson given to us was, “Always sit at the table, not in the second row”.

Somehow related to sitting at the table was the lesson, “Don’t be shy”. We may be shy, but we have to pretend we are not and behave assertively.

With respect to mentors, the lesson is, “Find multiple mentors”. Talk to mentors and ask them to promote you. Promote yourself and find people who will promote you. The idea that I gathered is that if we do not promote ourselves, then others won’t. Again, “don’t be shy, ask others to promote you!” You can find mentors in people with work related to yours. You can check related citations to find people. Elsevier has tools to help you build your network. Invite yourself and self-nominate yourself to positions, awards, and invited talks. Tell people you are ready for this award. Contact colleagues and offer to visit and give a talk. For this reason, we shall, in this group, always try to invite one another to give talks. We shall keep a list of talk abstracts and even slides so others know on what topics we are willing and prepared to give talks. An important statement is, “Everyone self-nominates for everything”. Don’t wait for others to nominate you or invite you. Tell people about talks you can give, apply to give tutorials in your areas at conferences. Then people will know what your main expertise is. Other advice is, “Don’t do things that do not count.” Of course, how do we know for sure they don’t? Yes, another reason to have multiple mentors and ask.

The issue of too much service has been brought up. But I did not take notes of any advice in this respect (☹).

Some people will take advantage of you. The advice is to steer away from those people and do not give them the opportunity to do it again. The statement was, “It is very hard to change people – how they behave – but you can change yourself. Exclude people who are demeaning and behave badly towards to you. Search for mentors everywhere. Find people to mentor you in the community, in your department, and stay away from people who may not appreciate your work or mention your work without acknowledging you. When participating in a conference, provide feedback and help educate organizers.

Fact: Men get about 10% more citations than women.

Sharing is everything. Share your thoughts and we will learn to be more attentive. Undergraduate women have problems with their colleagues.

More suggestions:

For every talk you go to, ask a question, mainly the first question.

Volunteer.

Ask organizers about their events and ask questions about them.

Start addressing people by saying you wanted to ask something about their work.

Don’t let them ask you about mundane, personal things, talk about your work.

The best way to get anyone's attention is to talk about their own work.

Issues faced by women are also faced by minority men and people with disabilities. There are multiple groups that offer helpful workshops. Examples are this group at CRA https://cra.org/cra-wp check it out! I also found this one in Philly: https://awisphl.org

Topics

Issues at mid-career levels are seldom openly discussed. The AI community has become exposed to the world and this poses new questions. Issues related to being a member of an underrepresented group are relevant at all career levels. These are some examples:

  • Should I stay in academia?
  • How can I work at a company and keep my academic title?
  • What do I need to know to move to a different institution?
  • How can I make more money?
  • Is it time to apply to become full professor?
  • I was victim of gender/ethnicity-based harrassment. What are the consequences of reporting it?
  • How can I avoid being given more service than my (male) colleagues?

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