Menu:
Tips for Creating a Successful Dossier
by Shelly McCoy
| Step 1: Realize that you are eligible for promotion this coming
year
Step 2: Panic Step 3: Attend a dossier writing workshop where former "promotees" tell you that you should have been working on it already Step 4: Panic |
Every institution has different promotion criteria and different promotion processes to follow. Whatever the case, however, you will probably need to compile a dossier. There are several steps to putting together a professional dossier of your achievements.
Step 1: Soak Up Information
You most likely originally discussed the promotion process at your interview or point of hire, and you may have been given a copy of the promotion system document. (If not, get a copy quickly!) Use the promotion system document to set goals in terms of professional development and job skills. Read over the document several times and make sure you understand it. If you have any questions, there should be a library administrator that you can talk to confidentially. If there are any dossier writing workshops offered by your employer or library organization, it is a good idea to attend them. You can learn from past promotees and from past promotion committee members, especially if your committee is a peer committee.
Step 2: Gather and Divide
If you haven't learned by now, remember to save everything! Keep information on every workshop attended, class taught, article wrote, and conference paper presented. Thank-you notes are very important and should be kept, as well as old calendars (which log much of this information). If this is contained in e-mail, print out a copy and save a copy to a special promotion folder. All of these areas will help you compose your dossier, and some, such as thank-you notes, will actually be included as evidence to bolster particular criteria.
Since you hypothetically have these items already saved, you can pull out the folder and start dividing the mass into each criterion stated in the promotion system document. This part takes the most time. Because some items can fall under more than one criterion, you will need to place each item under the one that best benefits you, to either showcase what you did or to balance out the other material included. These criteria folders are something I also recommend doing ahead of time.
Step 3: Appeal To Others
Be on the lookout for appropriate references. If you've done a good deal of committee work with one person, pick that person to talk about your teamwork/committee skills. If you've worked on a special project, ask the project coordinator to be a reference. If you did liaison work with other library departments, ask someone from another department to be a reference. Try to pick references that, taken together, showcase your diversity of talents.
Step 4: Start Explaining
Once you have made the initial divisions of your material into criteria groups, you can start writing the content of your dossier based on the promotion system document. Borrow other colleagues' dossiers as examples, and jog your mind by looking at your past evaluations.
Detail your content as if you are explaining your job to someone who has no idea what you do. Word everything with confidence, and, yes, even gloat if you've done something out of the norm! If you're having trouble explaining something or using the right words, refer to the promotion system document and use the same wording contained within it. Do not duplicate; if you have given a detailed account of a project under one criterion, do not cover it in the next. Something important that was said to me is: "Every member of the promotion committee is supposed to read every page of your dossier, so use their time wisely!"
Step 5: Present the Evidence
The next step is to pick items from your folders as evidence of each criterion. Thank-you letters are an obvious choice, but you are going to want to pick notes that have more content than, "Thank you for your help! I appreciate it!" Go back to your past committee chairs or directors if you haven't gotten a note from them and politely ask for one (sometimes it helps if you tell them why). If you work on a project and someone compliments you, ask him or her to put it in a little note. If you work at a public service desk and have helped specific users with complex projects, ask them for notes as well. Other evidence includes copies of articles you have written, copies of presentations you have given, or the first page of a web site you created.
Step 6: Bind it
Next, print out what you have and put it in a binder. Something plain (our unofficial standard is blue) that cannot be identified on the outside as belonging to you works well. A binder helps you visually examine the amount written for each criterion, move evidence around, and edit the whole document. Binder pockets make it easier for committee members to find certain things in your dossier and allow you to include all of an article or other material in one place, instead of punching holes through each sheet.
Step 7: Spice It Up
You want the promotion committee to be able to refer to certain parts of your dossier in meetings, so put it in order according to the promotion system document. Include a title page, a curriculum vitae, a list of references, criteria, and evidence. Decide if you will include a table of contents, color tab dividers for each part of your dossier, hole protectors, and/or an appendix. As small as it sounds, deciding between numbering the pages consecutively or within each section is also tricky. I also went the extra step of color coding a heading for each section with the section name and page number. You may not be competing with others for the promotion, if it is a rank and file promotion, but it does help to make your dossier stand out and project the hard work you put into it.
Step 8: Edit, Edit, Edit
I recommend setting the dossier aside for a few days and then coming back to it to edit it. Find someone you trust and who doesn't know your job too well and have him or her read your dossier. Some institutions have mentoring programs set up specifically for dossier writing. Another perspective and set of eyes certainly helps! It also helps if this person has already gone through the promotion process, so that he/she can give you relevant tips.
Step 9: Hand It In
If you're as nervous as I was about the promotion, you will continue to scrutinize your dossier until it is almost due. Many promotion system documents allow you to add more information to your dossier up to a certain date -- do not forget about this. In fact, remember to maintain the habit of putting items in folders in preparation for future promotions. The promotion process is out of your hands now, and, if you follow my tips, you will be surely be promoted!
Each person spends different amounts of time on the dossier; a few colleagues compiled their dossier in one weekend, while others say, "If you didn't start it six months ago, you're in trouble!" It took me about two months of on and off work to compile mine. I also encourage you to go up for promotion earlier than required. Even if you do not get promoted the first time, the committee's response to your dossier will let you know what areas you will need to improve.
Shelly McCoy is Senior Assistant Librarian at the University of Delaware Library in Newark, DE. Her title is Coordinator, Microforms and Digital Mapping, meaning she supervises the unit in charge of Microforms, CD-ROMs, GIS, and the Map Room. She can be reached at smccoy@udel.edu.