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

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