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[octoprof]

Dear Applicant,

Please provide a vita that actually shows your journal articles separate from your proceedings (or other non-journal articles).  We are losing our eyesight trying to figure out what exactly your peer-reviewed journal articles really are.

If we can't easy see your peer-reviewed journal publications over time and if we can't see  your academic employment over time, we wonder why you actually applied for our opening. Really.  Paging through dozens of sheets of CV to hunt down these important details is a waste of our time.

Honestly, we've seen very few vitas that are easy to read and comprehend. They have been astoundingly badly designed and organized.  Even otherwise strong candidates seem unable to create a clear and organized CV! Do try to be different and get this right.

Also, while we are at it, before your phone interviews, you might want to prepare in advance (i.e. do your homework). May I respectfully suggest looking at the college website and the university website for things like the strategic plan (easy to find on some websites) and mission.   Having a passing knowledge of these will be helpful to you.  You might want to look over the credentials of the faculty in your field or the courses or majors offered in your field, as well.

Also, you might want to do a little research on our city. For example, calling it a small town if in fact it is the largest city in the state, is not a good sign.

I'm sure others may suggest even more ways to do the application right.

Good luck.

Sincerely,

Tired SC member

[canuckois]

Please also understand that, while the requests we make in asking for applications may seem onerous, they are often intended to help you as much as us.  We ask for letters up-front so we don't have to delay the search by another six weeks when we do -- eventually, inevitably -- have to request letters from applicants.  We ask for teaching portfolios to spare you the indignity of trying to encapsulate your entire teaching experience to-date in a 5-minute rambling monologue over the phone to a room full of strangers.  We demand well-phrased letters and well-organized CVs because, if we hold our students to such standards in their own work, you can be d@mn sure we're going to do the same for anyone who wants to be our colleague.

We want you to put your best foot forward.  We really do.  But if you can't, won't, or don't know how to do so, please don't accuse us of behaving unprofessionally. 

[minorleaguer]

As a job applicant, I find the threads written from the perspectives of the SC to be extremely informative. 

[octoprof]

As a job applicant, I find the threads written from the perspectives of the SC to be extremely informative. 

Hallelujah!

My job here is done.

:o)

Seriously. Reading through the CVs of applicants for a senior academic position was exhausting. How can senior academics not know how to structure a CV so that it can be understood?

[tuxedo_cat]

I have to say, octo, I find these problems are even worse when you move up the food chain:  I've seen materials for a senior faculty position and a major administrator during the past year, and those materials are even more unpredictable and inexplicable than stuff from the newbies right out of grad school. 

Hasn't anyone told them about the fora??

[embitteredhistorian]

I enjoy these threads, because they usually point out mistakes that I never made (nor would ever think of making).

[taxidea]

As a job applicant, I find the threads written from the perspectives of the SC to be extremely informative. 

Ditto.  I reread the materials I submitted today to make sure I had incorporated the most recent advice I read here.  I hope my neatly organized CV impresses.  

[merinoblue]

As a job applicant, I find the threads written from the perspectives of the SC to be extremely informative. 

Ditto.  I reread the materials I submitted today to make sure I had incorporated the most recent advice I read here.  I hope my neatly organized CV impresses.  

Me three. Go, SC members, go!

[mountainguy]

As long as we're on the topic, do SCs expect candidates to mention geographic considerations?? The phrase "small town" would never come up in my cover letters because it's not something I would normally comment on. But in one of my phone interviews last cycle (SLAC in economically-depressed rural area), the SC spent 10-15 minutes on a series of questions about why I'd want to live in their area.

[voxprincipalis]

I have to say, octo, I find these problems are even worse when you move up the food chain:  I've seen materials for a senior faculty position and a major administrator during the past year, and those materials are even more unpredictable and inexplicable than stuff from the newbies right out of grad school. 

Agreed. OMG, the things I read... yikes.

VP

[zharkov]

As long as we're on the topic, do SCs expect candidates to mention geographic considerations?? The phrase "small town" would never come up in my cover letters because it's not something I would normally comment on. But in one of my phone interviews last cycle (SLAC in economically-depressed rural area), the SC spent 10-15 minutes on a series of questions about why I'd want to live in their area.

Wild guess, they have a hard time keeping faculty.  On the other hand, I know of a school where the SCs are told to tell applicants about the cost of living and especially of housing.  As in an assistant professor's salary at that middle of the pack school would not enable the person by buy a house in that city.

To mention a couple of other things.....

When you applicants do your research, make double sure which exact division or campus or school is advertising the job.  If you applied for a job at State University - North, telling the SC you'd love to be able to work with the medical school faculty won't go over well when the medical school is part of State University - South.  (Although I've changed the details, I have run into that kind of confusion at least a couple of times.)

If you have been in the military, explain that in civilian terms.  As in rank, branch of service, work done while stationed in country X, and so on.  Don't use abbreviations, particularly only those that other military people know.  

[scratch32]

Dear Applicant,

Please provide a vita that actually shows your journal articles separate from your proceedings (or other non-journal articles).  We are losing our eyesight trying to figure out what exactly your peer-reviewed journal articles really are.

If we can't easy see your peer-reviewed journal publications over time and if we can't see  your academic employment over time, we wonder why you actually applied for our opening. Really.  Paging through dozens of sheets of CV to hunt down these important details is a waste of our time.

Tired SC member

+1!!!

Having just read through about 40 letters and cv's for a position, I am astounded at the amount of applicants who do not clearly state their employment history. I don't care if you've adjuncted, are a lecturer, or teaching one class at the local cc. Just tell me where you have worked and are working in the cover letter and cv. Out of the 25 non-grad students in the pile, I think maybe 10 did this clearly.

[occhiazzurri]

As a job applicant, I find the threads written from the perspectives of the SC to be extremely informative. 

Agreed. 

Having helped with searches and talking with SC members in my grad department, I have heard a lot of stories about crazy (or annoying) applicants.  Now that I'm on the other side of the coin, I try to put myself in the shoes of someone who has slogged through dozens of applications.  My vita is clean, clear, and informative. My research and teaching statements are succinct but thorough.  My cover letter outlines my credentials without rehashing every line of my vita.  I ran my materials by a few people before ever sending anything out.  I proofread everything before I send, and I tailor each document to the individual jobs.   I may or may not get a job, but at least I haven't p*ssed off a few hundred people in process!

Keep the advice coming, please! I'd rather find out now rather than later, after I fail to get a job.

[octoprof]

As long as we're on the topic, do SCs expect candidates to mention geographic considerations?? The phrase "small town" would never come up in my cover letters because it's not something I would normally comment on. But in one of my phone interviews last cycle (SLAC in economically-depressed rural area), the SC spent 10-15 minutes on a series of questions about why I'd want to live in their area.

We always ask in a phone interview something like "Why do you especially want to teach at Octo University?"  It's just one short question and only needs a short answer.

We don't really want to hear about their interest in line dancing or break dancing or raising exotic snakes, or whatever, we want to know that they have checked out our school, our town, and our part of the country and have a clue what they are getting into. We don't want to hear about how small (it's only small if you are from NYC or somesuch, really!) our town is. We want to know if you have looked, at least in a cursory way, at what the university is like and what the town is like, and if those things attract you or are likely to be a good fit for you.

No one expects this sort of thing in a cover letter, of course.

Dear Applicant,

Please provide a vita that actually shows your journal articles separate from your proceedings (or other non-journal articles).  We are losing our eyesight trying to figure out what exactly your peer-reviewed journal articles really are.

If we can't easy see your peer-reviewed journal publications over time and if we can't see  your academic employment over time, we wonder why you actually applied for our opening. Really.  Paging through dozens of sheets of CV to hunt down these important details is a waste of our time.

Tired SC member

+1!!!

Having just read through about 40 letters and cv's for a position, I am astounded at the amount of applicants who do not clearly state their employment history. I don't care if you've adjuncted, are a lecturer, or teaching one class at the local cc. Just tell me where you have worked and are working in the cover letter and cv. Out of the 25 non-grad students in the pile, I think maybe 10 did this clearly.

I have to say, octo, I find these problems are even worse when you move up the food chain:  I've seen materials for a senior faculty position and a major administrator during the past year, and those materials are even more unpredictable and inexplicable than stuff from the newbies right out of grad school. 

Agreed. OMG, the things I read... yikes.

VP

So, I read through all the apps for a professorship.  The CVs were horribly organized and confusion. Hello? If you are a big enough star to have a 20 or 30 or 40 page CV, then organize the thing, for heaven's sake. At first, I thought it might be different CV usage from different cultures (since we had a significant number of foreign applicants), but no, the American applicants have CVs that are equally as maladjusted.

As someone who was hired in a similar position recently, I was worried my CV had looked this bizarre to the SC then, but they have assured me it did not. 

It should be easy to see a list of peer-reviewed journal articles (not mixed in with proceedings and book chapters). In a book field, I'm sure the books should be separate or otherwise stand out, as well. I don't get why this is so hard for applicants, particularly senior applicants.

[janewales]

Maybe these people come from institutions that insist on a particular format? Mine does, and my CV is, as a result, both very ugly and very long. On the other hand, I do have a separate (much shorter, and I hope, prettier) version of it that I use when communicating with the outside world, because I _know_ that my institution's format is ugly. It might be that these people have been inside their systems for so long that they've lost the ability to see what their CVs would look like away from their own institution.