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[satanicmechanic]

Two months into my first t-t gig at a place in dire financial troubles, I've taken the forum's advice and am applying for another job.

My question to the forum is whether I should indicate in my letters that I am applying to a particular school because I have roots in the area. I thought it might be useful to do so in order to let readers know that the are high on my list of places to work. Has anyone done this or read applications with this type of personel info.

the mechanic who's satanic

[malvolio]

When I applied for my current position, I wrote a paragraph in my cover letter explaining that I was very attached to the area and that was one of the many reasons I wanted this specific job. I got the job and hopefully this year I'll get tenure.

I think the key to this tactic is first to make this one of a number of reasons you want the job. Don't make it a primary reason, or you'll seem like you don't care about the actual position!

Second, this will be much more effective if either the location is not very attractive to many or the school is small and/or not very selective. Obviously, telling Princeton, or a school in NYC or Chicago or San Francisco that you want to work there because of the location won't mean much!

Good luck.

[chaud]

I would provide only professional info, not personal. You can mention the personal ties in the interview (if you get one). I just get annoyed when folks mention personal things in applications or on CVs. If you don't have the qualifications, I won't look at you twice, if you are highly qualified, you'll get invited for an interview, whether or not you ahve connections here.

[samiam]

The general advice I’ve heard (here and elsewhere) is to include that information in your last paragraph and keep it to one sentence.

[finallyfullprof]

I used this as one of several points in job application letters, and it landed me two interviews as a finalist. I did not get either job, but I was the first runner-up for one of them.  The key is to use it as a small part of the package rather than the focus.  Both places I interviewed had committee members tell me that the inclusion of that point was part of what got me the interviews.

[avaya]

I agree that if you do it right, mentioning personal reasons for wanting to relocate to a specific area can be extremely helpful.  I agree - put it in the last paragraph and mention it briefly.  If you get an interview, be ready to talk about all the great reasons you love this position and don't mention the personal reason. Then you can add, "On top of all of this, it also fits in with my personal preferences because...."

This was extremely successful for me.

[seventhyear]

Include it.  Where I am it gives us an answer to "why would this great person want to come HERE?"

[satanicmechanic]

I'm loving the advice.

[drenny]

Yes, I have. For my current position in a much nicer location than I was last year, I added a sentence as justification for my wanting to leave my current position that was something to the effect that I would like to be closer to family, which is true. There were many reasons I wanted out of the previous job, but when asked, this is the main thing I said so that it wouldn't seem like I was griping about the job I had. I think it's perfectly fine to mention something in that regard, because they'll be wondering. It's better than saying the place you're at sucks!

[offthemarket]

In your sentence in the last paragraph, if you do it subtly enough in a way related to your field, you could specifically mention a detail or two about your familiarity with the area and why you like it.

This is easy to do for a field biologist (I want to work in the scenic Muddy Swamps where I grew up), and I'm sure it could work for historians (site of historic interest), sociologists (composition of the community), or literature folks (if there's a great bookstore in town for instance).  If done well, it's a great sell, if not, it's just ingratiating.