[pinot]

> You get extra credit points if you're active in visiting other universities and giving talks on the annual job circuit. You tend to do well if you advisors are well-connected. You have to sprinkle a bit of fad-ish topics into your research if even if it's a stretch to do so.

Sounds a bit like any job:

* Cross train in other departments

* Demonstrate your functionality/team’s functionality to other groups through talks, white papers, ‘internal consulting

* You do well when your boss does well, make your boss look good

* Buzzwords and trends make the world go round

[urthor]

Instead of buzzwords and trends, more accurate to say:

"Communicate all your ideas using narrative form. Embed your ideas in motifs, illustrate them with visual icons. Explain their worth by using existing context."

The reason buzzwords and zeitgeist terminology works is because they're a shorthand to understanding a topic, and a linker to existing context.

It's important to consciously understand how that works though.