Entry-level applicants: post your work publicly!

I've said before that entry-level applicants should post their work publicly as much as possible. At times I will take advantage of one-click access (SSRN, BePress, personal site) to something listed on the FAR form to read it, when I might not go through the rigamarole of HeinOnline, given that I have ~600 forms to get through. I'll go through logins and search forms once I've had at least one of my colleagues agree you're interesting based on the FAR form, but wouldn't you rather have me say I read your piece when I bring you up in the meeting? And I'm highly unlikely to email you to ask you for your draft, even if you tell me to do so on the FAR form--it's awkward in a variety of ways unless we've already decided we want to meet you.

I was therefore interested to see that the advice from a former Chicago articles editor was the same: putting the piece out there is only to your benefit in terms of getting published.

I will admit that I don't do the same for my early drafts--but I do try to summarize my talks, and I am also not trying to stand out of a stack of applications.