sci.research.careers

Over the weekend, I concocted the plan to gain a promotion. Today, I
approached my supervisor and shared it. My plan was to put forward a
research proposal on the topic everyone in the department was abuzz in
the past week, and have the management include it into the formal plan
of work (and, thus, fund it). I made a plan so that to give my
supervisor a leading role in it (I remembered your advice, Straydog,
about making a pact with him). My supersvisor got excited. This
project would involve both of us. He told me he would talk to the
management, although he is not privy to them, and the appointment of
the project into the program is highly political.

My plan of recent was to keep low profile, and do not show to the
management that I have initiative. Thus, they would not perceive me as
trying to clamor power out of their hands, they would get a relaxing
attitude towards me, and even give me some project to manage, because,
after all, they are short on people.

But this plan did not yield anything over the past half a year, and I
found it increasingly unquieting to feel left out. After all, I am on
a permament employment, and they cannot put me in a worse situation
than I am in now. So that I decided to raise my head a little (or was
it a lot ?), and come out with an initiative to the management. Only
this time, I am doing it via a medium (which is my supervisor). I hope
that the intermediated approach will make the management less alert
about me, because now it will be like this was the idea of my
supervisor, and not mine. (Anyone, from your experience -- is this
true ?)

I shared my considerations about what kind of program/funding should
we be pitching our proposal at, so that to have the management less
disturbed, and more agreeable. This all sounded like a revelation to
him, although he is not new to politicking (being mostly on the
receiving end of the stick).

He told me he would talk to the management. I will see what will
happen.