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How To Find a Job: Step One

How To Find a Job: Step One. Crafting your CV and Cover Letter. Prior to Step One…. . When do you start crafting your CV? At least three years before you start applying What are you doing during this time? Looking at job ads Presenting at conferences

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How To Find a Job: Step One

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  1. How To Find a Job: Step One Crafting your CV and Cover Letter

  2. Prior to Step One…. • When do you start crafting your CV? • At least three years before you start applying • What are you doing during this time? • Looking at job ads • Presenting at conferences • Attempting to get one or two high quality publications • Applying for internal and external fellowships • Getting limited teaching experience • Preparing Future Faculty • E-learning Certificate • Taking advantage of every free or low-cost program at MU • Pursuing career-related or interest-related graduate student activities • YOU HAVE TO HAVE STUFF TO PUT ON YOUR CV AND TO MAKE IT INTERESTING!

  3. Job Ads? • Chronicle of Higher Education (free) • AAR website (not free but pay up!) • SBL website (free) • Other discipline specific websites (e.g., SCE) • Jobs at MU (free)

  4. What kinds of jobs? • Everything for which you are even a slight fit! • Now is not the time to be picky or snooty • There is no job that is “beneath you” • There is no job that is “above you” • Why? • Good practice • You never know • It’s easier to get a job when you have a job

  5. What kinds of jobs? • Be open to novel possibilities • Non-academic • Non-US • Post docs • One, two, or three year positions? • Academics are itinerants • DO NOT PREMATURELY FORECLOSE OPTIONS. CAST THE NET WIDE!

  6. Set Up Your Credential File • Cynthia Howard • $4.00/dossier (plus $5.00 for transcripts from registrar) • Three to five letters of recommendation • Anything else?

  7. Crafting your CV • Good white space • Not too many words • Clean horizontal lines • Clean vertical lines • Consistent intelligent font usage • MAKE IT EASY FOR THE READER TO FIND YOUR KEY INFORMATION • LEAVE THE EXPLAINING FOR THE COVER LETTER

  8. Crafting your Cover Letter • Create a template • “Five paragraph essay” • Intro: why I want to work at your college/university: end with a ‘thesis statement’ if possible • P2: my academic/career path • P3: me and research/presentations/pubs • P4: me and my dissertation • P5: my teaching experience and philosophy (in brief) • P6: anything else cool/relevant that I have done • P7: conclusion: why I would be a great fit for your university (based on the foregoing)

  9. Crafting your Cover Letter • Yes, it’s longer than one page • You are too interesting to fit on one page • You are not interesting enough to spill onto page 3 • This is a persuasive essay – you are making an argument • Fit in key details where you can, without too much elaboration • Have other people read it for typos, grammar, syntax, style • Tailor your template for each job • Make sure you take out all references to other job applications

  10. Additional Items • Writing sample • Published article is best • Interesting conference presentation • Dissertation chapter • Teaching philosophy • Ugh • Consult with Center for Teaching and Learning • What you try to achieve in class and why • How you try to achieve it and why • Techniques that have worked for you and why

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