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Drowning Under a Mountain of Applications
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Job Search
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By nowhiring
Posted Sat Dec 13, 2008 at 01:12:04 PM PDT
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When I last wrote, the department had posted its ad and we were starting to see a flood of applications. At least this year the flood was electronic and not tsunami of paper. I recently had the honor of sitting down and reading them all. After that, I've got more than a few pieces of advice...
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| Personalize, Personalize, Personalize:
About half the applications I read this year left me with the impression that ours was the 500th school they were applying to. Next! The most effective cover letters were the ones that got my attention. Hint: "Dear Sir/Maddam" didn't do that. Some letters talked about someone they wanted to collaborate with. Others talked about a personal tie to our institution or some of the particulars of our student population. Even something as apparently irrelevant as "I have close friends in the area and would love to relocate in such a beautiful place." was enough to convince me to read a little more closely.
Know Your Audience:
This is a great rule for any writing, but application writing adds another layer. Back when we had paper applications, it looked like this. On my already messy desk sat a couple of foot-high stacks of folders. I gave each folder about three minutes to catch my attention. In that time I would glance through the CV, letters, cover letter, research statement, usually in that order. With the number of applicants this year, that time has shrunk down close to one minute.
Most applicants would improve their chances by making their writing shorter, more personal, and more concise. (The same goes for letters of recommendation, but that's another story.)
Teaching Philosophy (TP):
A few weeks ago rtalbot posted a story a few weeks ago, looking at the job search as risk management. (It's a great piece - go read it.) Regarding statements of TP, he wrote:
Don't spend your entire statement of teaching philosophy doing nothing but philosophizing. Search committees aren't very interested in abstraction; they want to know what you have done in the classroom, in real life, not hypothetically you would do in the classroom. (This advice carries over to interviews as well; always be concrete and specific.)
I'd go a little further. Lead off your TP with something specific and unique about YOU! (The fact that you "love mathematics!" probably doesn't set you apart.) Tell me a story about something you did in the classroom, about some moment when you learned a key teaching lesson, about the moment when you knew you were going to be a math teacher.
Research Statement:
This goes back to an earlier comment about knowing your audience. Will everyone on the search committee be in your area? Will they be from closely related areas? Are you writing about Algebraic Topology to a Combinatorist? You need to answer this question before you can write an appropriate research statement. Failure to do so means that you risk insulting or confusing the reader. Also, put yourself front and center. Make your contributions the main focus of what you write.
I actually feel a little bit bad in writing this information to a wider audience. If more people take advice like this and like other things written for YMN, applications will get better and it will be harder to separate the good and bad ones. In the future, a minute per application will no longer suffice for such a large portion of the applicant pool. My future self curses my current self for piling on extra work!
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