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[Johan]

I often read the advice to job seekers that says they should tailor their cover letters to particular jobs.

1. How does one do that -- in practice? How does one divine what the committee is after (when perhaps they aren't in agreement, when their Web sites are inadequate or out of date)?

2. How does one do that -- in tone? I don't think desperation sells.

[Search Committee Member]

For the real basics:

(1) In the first paragraph, use the same buzzwords we've used in our ad: Mention the field, the courses, the subfield, whatever it is we've advertised for. In particular, when we have several positions advertised, tell us which one you're applying for. Do not say you could fill any of them: We're looking for people qualified in certain specialties, not (unless we say so) generalists who figure they can teach anything, as long as they have a six-week lead time on the students.

(2) When you're applying to a research university, or a department with a strong master's program, and for a tenure-track position, talk about your research strengths and publications in the second paragraph and get to your teaching in the one after that.

(3) If you're applying for a non-tenure-track job, or to a community college, or to a department that has specified particular kinds of undergraduate teaching, talk about teaching in your second paragraph. We don't want to know about the sophistication of your research protocol; we want to know if you can fill our teaching needs, and how you can show that (through experience with students like ours, or teaching awards, or whatever).

(4) Do at least enough research to find out something about our program, our student body, our location, etc. You don't need to say you've always looked forward to teaching at a small college in a town 200 miles from the nearest good library, but you want to make sure your letter doesn't say anything stupid and insulting to those of us who teach at such a place.

(5) If you do have something legitimately special to offer to a particular school because of its student body, its programs, etc., do make sure to mention it. But don't go overboard about what an honor it would be to teach in the same department as Professor Famous -- it may be that we're advertising this job in your field because Professor Famous has just left (leaving bad feelings behind) to go elsewhere.

So far this year, I've seen letters applying for a field we didn't advertise, a letter explaining that this senior person is applying for a junior job because state funding is so poor the person would rather be at a private university (it happens that we're a public university), and a condescending letter saying the candidate would not move to our location but would be willing to come here two days a week if that schedule could be arranged.

All of those letters are already in the round file, and the search committee has not yet had its first meeting.

[B.F.]

When I applied for jobs at community colleges, I looked at each school's Web site for ideas about what to include in the cover letter. I looked at the courses offered in my discipline at the college, the college's mission statement, and other things about the college that made it distinctive.

In the cover letter, I would mention my experience teaching those courses. If the college primarily served a minority population, I would mention my previous experience teaching that population. Sometimes I would mention an aspect of their mission statement that matched my teaching philosophy.

While I was searching for this information, I would go to the human-resources site to see if there was a more thorough description of the position than the description in The Chronicle[/i}. There may have been something else there that I could have included in the letter.

[Spork]

The Academic Job Search Handbook has excellent advice on how to write a cover letter. As a general rule, you need to grab the attention of the reader quickly -- if search-committee members have to wade through your letter to the second page to find out 1) what position you're applying for, and 2) whether your credentials, experience, and interests match the position/institution, then your application will probably be put at the bottom of the pile.

[Helpful]

In response to question #1, research, research, research. Become familiar with the department by asking around, going to conferences, and talking to people at the university or in your field (don't wait until after you see the job posting; you should do this continuously throughout your graduate career).

Talk to your advisers; talk to students at the university and department in question. Talk to people at your university about that university. Network, network, network.