next »

[untenured]

On this you should bow.

What's the gain?  Nothing.  No search committee is going to invite you to campus solely because you made them laugh in a cover letter.

What's the loss?  Possibly everything.  You offend one reader, you are gone.  You give the impression you are not professional, you are gone.

Nothing to gain.  Much to lose.  Save your comedy for your cat.

Untenured

[paul_robeson]

Risk/reward is tilted heavily toward the former.  Not worth it.

[grasshopper]

So, I'm hearing "Make an interesting letter with a strong case for hiring me, but figure out a way to do it without humor, in part because I'm not as funny as I think I am".

Pretty much.

Funny relies on a lot of visual clues, or lacking that, a shared perspective on the topic. You can't have the former, and you don't have time in a cover letter to build the latter.

[forcryingoutloud]

It is a fine line between being the cl*ss cl*wn and being an ass klown.

I used to bring my ass klown finger puppets to all interviews.  Back then I never got a job.  The interview process, which begins with your cover letter, is in part a means for the committee figure how well you negotiate public and private roles.  Can the department trust you to meet with the college president and not break out the whoopee cushion?  Or, if the college president is a fan of fake flatulence, will you remember to bring one along? 

The first step, though, is professional cover letter.  You don't know them, they don't know you.  If you send snarky mail, the relationship will never progress.....     

[the_honey_badger]

One of the nicest and most genuinely funny men I know blew it big time this way with an SC a mutual friend was on. His aside was milder than yours but some members of the SC thought it odd or even too familiar. As others have said, you don't know if an SC has a humorless guy, someone who reads it differently than you intended, or someone who just has a certain sense of what he likes to see in a cover letter (content and tone).

You never fail in an interview situation by being a *little* too formal in dress or demeanor. Once you are in a face-to-face interview, you can read the room and surprise them with your wit. It will do you more good then than in late October when they are sorting files---if nothing else, you'll see if they are a "fit" for you. With a letter? You'll never know if they are too humorless for you or if your sub-fields were just over represented in the pool and you were out classed.

[tenured_feminist]

Run the natural experiment with half of your applications and report back to us.

[testingthewaters]

Do I doom myself if I let some humor slip into my cover letter?

Yes.

Next question.

[mended_drum]

Avoid humor in the letter.  In interviews, the only safe humor is that which pokes fun at yourself (and go easy on that).  Sarcasm may amuse colleagues (and forumites), but the fear will be that you'll use it when you teach.  If it you would (and do) that is not something you want to advertise.

[infopri]

I particularly like to teach introductory classes in chicken studies to nonmajors.  I make a conscious effort to demonstrate how chickens affect our daily life and why this is not an esoteric topic only for specialists.  If, after discovering the joys of chickens, some students change majors to chicken studies, I can live with the guilt of poaching from other departments.

If that's your idea of funny, don't do it.

Exactly.  No offense, but I didn't find this all that funny, either; I think I have a decent sense of humor, but if I saw this paragraph in a cover letter, I'd have read it straight up--because I expect "straight up" in a cover letter.  Moreover, if I had indeed recognized that this was your idea of funny, it would have been a turn-off, and for two reasons:  Not only aren't you funny (no offense), but you don't have the sense to keep it out of your cover letter.  And that's why you shouldn't try to be funny in a cover letter (or in a variety of other situations, either): because you never know when it will backfire, and you'll look like an idiot.  There's nothing worse than an attempt at humor that falls flat.

So, I'm hearing "Make an interesting letter with a strong case for hiring me, but figure out a way to do it without humor, in part because I'm not as funny as I think I am".

I bow to the wisdom of the fora.

Yes.  Save the humor for the interview--and even then, I'd use it judiciously, depending on the chemistry that develops between you and the SC.

Good luck to you!

[sugaree]

There is a fine line between memorable and interesting vs. memorable and a joke. Humor falls on the wrong side of that line and belongs nowhere near a cover letter.

[zombie]

Depends.  If you're applying for the same job as me, then put all kinds of crazy, sarcastic humor in there.  ::mwah hahahahahahaha::

but if you're applying for jobs away from the ones I want and NEED, then I'd go for conservative & boring.  ;)