Put Yourself out There! A Strategy for Effective Self-Promotion in Academic Medicine

Area of Science:

• Academic Medicine
• Professional Development
• Career Advancement

Background:

• Self-promotion is a challenge for many in academic medicine, particularly for underrepresented groups.
• Effective self-promotion relies on articulating personal strengths through experience-based stories.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a workshop teaching the problem-action-result (PAR) story framework for self-promotion.
• To enhance participants' confidence and efficacy in self-promotion for interviews and applications.

Main Methods:

• A 90- to 120-minute workshop incorporating iterative journaling and peer discussion.
• Participants learned to structure experience-based stories using the PAR (problem-action-result) model.
• Workshop effectiveness was assessed via Likert-scale and free-response evaluations.

Main Results:

• High participant satisfaction with workshop format (M=4.7) and content (M=4.7).
• Participants reported strong intention to use learned skills (M=4.7).
• Key strengths included the PAR format, interactivity, and reflection opportunities.

Conclusions:

• The workshop effectively equipped participants with strategies for self-promotion using the PAR framework.
• Learners can leverage these skills to overcome self-promotion barriers and enhance career progression.
• Recommendations include earlier workshop scheduling and more written examples.