I'm on the job market (of Doom) this year and I'm trying desperately to piece together my first cover letter. Yes it's due today. Yes I started several days ago. Yes, it still pretty much sucks.
I. Hate. Cover. Letters. In fact, I hate all sort of personal statements, project proposals, dissertation abstracts. You name it, I probably hate it. But what really drives my nuts about the whole process is that people say a cover letter is supposed to get both "you" and "your expertise" across in the same letter. The problem is that that is a big, bold-faced lie. Because me - the funny, passionate, enthusiastic, caring, invested me that students respond to - really doesn't come across on letters that have to be impressive for their formality. I try, I include bits of my voice, but every time they're the first thing readers say to cut. The readers are right, but it means my letters read like a shitty summary of my work desperately tailored to hit all the buzz words in the job ad. I can't say: "I incorporate such a wide
range of material to demonstrate that a history of the potato is as valid a
historical inquiry as the role of gender and class in 19th century
European Imperial projects or the development of the Reformed ideology in 16th
century England." - which is both funny and gets the point across, because it's not appropriate, reads as glib, blah, blah, blah. Cover letters aren't about expressing yourself, it's about shilling yourself in a way that will get you through a search committee sort, and it's really hard to do that w/o being, frankly, stuffy and boring. And I hate the way writing these things make me feel icky inside. It's like writing grant proposals where you basically like about all the work you've done (will do) just to get the money. The best salesmen (regardless of whether any of the work is done) get the sale.
These letters aren't me, they're the me that I think the search committee wants to see... because the letters that are "me" don't pass muster. How sad is that?
I wish I could send a video cover letter. I realize that a SC can't skim a video as quickly as they can skim a real cover letter. When I talk to people about what I do and how and why I do it, they're always really impressed with me. But translating that onto paper feels like the difference between watching Shakespeare or opera versus just reading the libretto.
Actually, the most important thing you have to do in a cover letter is to show that you are smart and that you have you s**t together. Your voice and your personality can wait until the phone interview / campus visit stage. It might seem not right to you, but that's how search committees work. Their first priority is to find someone with the academic competence for the job. Once you get invited to the interview/visit, you don't have to show anymore how smart you are: they already know that you are smart, that's why they invited you.
ReplyDeleteA cover letter is not a sales pitch. It is only a foot in the door.
ditto what koldito said. and also remember that this is why you work the old boys' network when you can -- they know you already, so the cover letter is just reminding them of your full qualifications of awesome in case there is anyone who needs it spelled out.
ReplyDeleteSo this is interesting to hear because it's quite dissimilar from the advice I've gotten from my dept. Oh well, at least the first one off is for a school that probably won't be interested in me and isn't in a great location for L.
ReplyDeleteQualifications of awesome - I'll remember that for the next for I have to write, 3 of which are jobs I really care about.
As for academic competence, this does get a little tricker when applying to RI versus teaching-centered schools. Reading successful cover letters from colleagues who got jobs at R1s versus small liberal arts or community colleges are really night and day.
Either way, I still hate writing the damn things :)
I'm really no expert on this, but for what it's worth I can tell you that my model letter is one written by someone who is now a tenured prof. at my department. She gave me two versions of her letter, one she wrote to my department (R1, obviously) and the other which she wrote to a prominent SLAC. There are a few differences between them, but they are pretty minor. The letters look mostly the same. As far as I know, both applications were successful.
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