How communication works on Proffing

Being findable and being contactable aren't the same thing, so they're controlled separately.

• Profile visibility. Public profiles appear in search. Private ones don't appear anywhere.
• Open to messages. Whether schools and faculty can write to you at all. You can be listed without opening an inbox.

If your profile is public, anyone can read it — schools, faculty, other instructors, and people who aren't signed in at all. That's what makes you findable, and it's the point.

Your CV is treated differently. Only schools and faculty can download it, along with you and Proffing staff. Other instructors can't, and neither can anonymous visitors.

The distinction is deliberate: a profile is something you wrote in order to be seen, while a CV usually carries your home address and phone number. Being discoverable shouldn't mean handing those to anyone who finds the page.

Choose how many messages can reach you each week — one, two, three, five, ten or twenty. Once you've hit it, nobody else can reach you until the following week.

It's a hard limit, not a guideline. So “I'll only ever get a handful of these” is something we can actually promise rather than merely intend.

Choose whether you'd appear in person, remotely, or either — and if travel is a possibility, add a note about what you'd consider. Something like “anywhere in the Northeast, or further afield if travel is covered” saves everyone a conversation.

You'll see who they are, what institution they're from, what it's about, the format, and roughly when. Enough to judge whether it's worth your time in a few seconds. You can then:

• Accept — you swap email addresses and carry on directly.
• Decline — they're told you're not available. You can add a note; you don't have to.
• Ignore it — no reply, and they're not told. Silence is a perfectly good answer.
• Block — they can never contact you again, and they're not informed.

Nobody can nag you. If you don't respond, that person can't write to you again for 30 days.

The listing tells you upfront whether the poster responds to every applicant or only to those they shortlist — so you know in advance whether silence means “no” or “still deciding.”

You're notified when your application is reviewed, accepted or declined, according to that policy.

Search speaker profiles and message anyone directly, or post a speaking opportunity and let people come to you. Many people do both.

Faculty postings are for guest speakers — a one-time talk, lecture or visit. Hiring an instructor to teach a course is an institutional posting, which is the school account below.

They see your name and institution along with your message. Your email address is shared only if they accept.

If they don't reply, that's their answer — and you can reach out again after 30 days.

You choose upfront how you'll handle applicants:

• Respond to everyone — applicants hear back whether you accept or decline.
• Only contact shortlisted applicants — you're not obliged to write forty individual rejections.

Whichever you pick is shown on your listing, so applicants know what to expect before applying. You're notified by email and on the site whenever someone applies.

We check new schools by hand, usually within a day or two, and email you when it's done. Until then you can set up your profile but not post.

This is deliberate, and it's for your benefit as much as anyone's: verification is what makes instructors willing to apply to a listing from an institution they may not be familiar with. An unverified listing would be worth very little.

Everything else works as it does for faculty — search and message people directly, post opportunities, choose your response policy per listing, and get notified when someone applies. Schools can post both teaching positions and speaking slots.

Three switches in Account Settings — applications, direct messages and account updates. Turn off any of them and you'll still see everything on Proffing; you just won't get the email.

We tell you who got in touch and what about, then link you to the message. The substance lives on Proffing rather than piling up in your inbox.

Once two people connect, they're talking directly by email.