Newsgroups: sci.research.careers
From: gh@cs.toronto.edu (Graeme Hirst)
Subject: Re: Getting Faculty Position. What is the secret ?
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Toronto
Date: 30 Jul 92 14:14:23 GMT

In article <1992Jul24.215939.20329@wuecl.wustl.edu> rr2@cec2.wustl.edu (Rajamiyer Ravichandran) writes:
>>	 I generally submit a resume, copies of two recent publications,
>> a list of publications, names of three references and a brief statement
>> of teaching and research objectives. Is there anything else I can do
>> to make a better impression ? All the universities I have applied received
>> on an average 400 applications. It takes real effort and accomplishments
>> to stand alone in such a crowd. All suggestions are welcome.

=========== PART II


In my experience, many applicants hide their lights under a bushel,
either out of modesty or ignorance.  A job application is no place to be
modest (which is not to say that arrogance works either).  If there is,
in fact, anything about you that makes you different from the crowd,
then emphasize it.  If you were voted the best teaching assistant in
your department last year, then say so.  If you were a runner-up for the
best student paper at the conference, then say so.

If you have some particular relevance for the department to which your
are applying, point it out.  "I am particularly interested in the
University of Oh-why-oh because I believe that my research in hybrid
widgets has special interest to Dr Kfutz of your department."  "I have
discussed my research with Dr Kfutz of your department, and I believe
that he was favorably impressed."  The idea, of course, is to get your
file picked out and sent to Dr Kfutz for his opinion (see Part II).

Many applicants do not know what is wanted in an application because
they've never been on the hiring side.  They leave things out that
should be included, and vice versa.  One memorable (but unsuccessful)
application that I once saw included a paragraph about every summer job
the applicant had ever held, but neglected to say anything at all about
their dissertation!  Another omitted the fact (which I discovered later)
that the applicant had been received an award as one of the best
teachers in their entire (large) university.   So have your application
package carefully reviewed by your advisor or someone who has had actual
experience in academic hiring.

Application turn-offs:

 -- Padded listings:  If the same paper or talk has more than one
status, don't list it twice.  Example:  Your conference paper or
dissertation itself is published as a technical report.  List it once,
with a parenthetical notation about the TR, rather than once under one
heading and then again under another.

 -- Spelling errors; clumsy or inappropriately ornate typography or
layout.  Get someone else to help with proof-reading -- especially
if English is not your first language.
 
 -- Volume:  I've got a huge stack of these things to read.  I don't
want to see your whole dissertation.  A one-page abstract is
sufficient.  A couple of papers are okay; but I won't read them unless
you make the short-short-list.


-- 
\\\\   Graeme Hirst    University of Toronto	Computer Science Department
////   gh@cs.utoronto.ca  /  gh@cs.toronto.edu  /  416-978-8747