Professor X loves traveling almost as much as she loves being a brilliant academic. Here's how she smooshed the two together, AND got her trip partially comped, all via asking:
Direct from Professor X:
"In academia, it's common to give talks about your research at other universities. But with the current economic crisis, budgets for travel have been one of the first things to go. As a result, departments often invite fewer or more local speakers for their talk series. This prompted me to do a bit of asking. It's common to contact someone you know in a department to say you'll be in town and ask if you can give a talk. This saves them from paying your travel costs, so often places are happy to accommodate. It's always struck me as rather aggressive and strategic, though, so I'd never done it...until now. Your blog has made me realize that many of my assumptions about what kinds of asking are reasonable or unreasonable is, well, unreasonable, and it's paid off! I'm already scheduled to give a talk in a few weeks, and may have more coming soon."
Fantastic!
Send us a postcard.
