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HOW TO WRITE A SUCCESSFUL CV

Your Curriculum Vitae summarizes your academic and professional history. CVs are a search
committee's first contact with you, and should represent you in the best possible light. The goal is to
capture the attention of the reader.

Tips:

• Be generally aware of standards and guidelines, and then create your own version that stands out
from the crowd (within reason – don’t do anything weird).
• Look at examples from peers and mentors who have had recent success on the job market.

Keep your CV updated, and even consider having both a long and short version.

Prioritize the order of information based on your own experience/expertise, while also specifically
appealing to each position to which you apply.

• For recent graduates: page one should cover your educational background and recent professional
experience.
• For more experienced graduates: consider including educational background later if you would
rather showcase professional experience.

Be consistent with formatting:

• Absolutely NO spelling or grammatical errors.

• Choose a fairly standard font no smaller than size 11.
• Bold, italics, and underlining: these are fine for headings and emphasis, but don’t overdo it.
• Dates: list in descending order from the most recent. Keep dates to the right side of the page.
• Number pages.
• Make the page composition nice and balanced. Take the effort to avoid page breaks in the middle
of sections.

Categories to Include

Education: begin with degrees in progress or most recently earned.

• List majors, minors, GPA (where relevant), distinctions, and thesis titles
• Include primary advisors
• Consider including relevant study abroad

Teaching Experience: in reverse chronological order, include:

• Position title
• Department, university, and location
• Dates
• Course title and level
• Any specific responsibilities (especially for TFs)
• Class size is often included
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Honors and Awards: if this list is extensive, choose top awards and most recent; in this case, list them as
“Selected Honors and Awards”.

• Academic awards
• Distinctions
• Fellowships
• Grants

Professional Experience: generally academic work experience, if applicable

Research Experience: in reverse chronological order, include:

• Title
• Department, university, and location
• Dates
• Activities (use action verbs)
• Relevant impact or accomplishments

Professional Affiliations: list past and current affiliations, including:

• Dates
• Any particular position or capacity within the organization

Publications: Do NOT take liberties here. List all single- or co-authored publications, including (and
organized by):

• Monograph books
• Edited volumes
• Peer-reviewed journal articles
o Also list anything currently in peer review (but make sure this is clear, perhaps under a
sub-heading)
• Chapters in edited volumes
• Book reviews
• Non peer-reviewed articles
• Online publications (only include if relevant)
• Select unpublished reports (only include if relevant)
• In progress: this applies to something that is very near submission to an editor
• In preparation: here is where many people take liberties and list a lot of things they are “thinking
about” writing. Only list things that are actually in the works.

Conference Presentations: any paper you are an author on.

• Organization
• Event, location, date
• Authors
• Title
• Session (optional)
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Organized Events: this can be rephrased or subdivided, but includes:

• Chaired conference sessions

• Conferences
• Workshops
• Student events

References: list three or more academic references, and make sure you have their permission.

• Name
• Title, Department, Universities
• All contact information: address, email, phone
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HOW TO WRITE A SUCCESSFUL COVER LETTER

A cover letter is your first chance to make a strong impression on a search committee. It allows you to
begin a personal dialogue with the members of the committee. It is one of your best opportunities to
frame your candidacy: to explain why you would be an especially attractive hire.

Unlike your CV, which is like an autobiographical fact-sheet, the cover letter is an opportunity to
compose more of a narrative about who you are, what you are actively interested in, and how you will be
an ideal colleague. Keep in mind that the people conducting the job search are hiring more a personal
colleague than an employee.

A well written letter will:

 convey a confident and professional tone;

 demonstrate the fit between your strengths, background, and the advertised position;
 enhance your CV and other materials;
 elaborate on your teaching and research;
 single you out as a particularly promising scholar and teacher;
 reveal something about the quality of your mind; and
 differentiate you from other candidates in the pool.

A cover letter isn’t simply a cover sheet for your job application: it is a careful composition that lays out
your scholarly agenda and your teaching qualifications; it’s also a writing sample.

A cover letter needs to set you apart from other applicants. It should highlight your accomplishments,
qualifications, skills, areas of expertise, and potential.

Consider the letter to be a venue for putting a positive spin on an aspect of your CV that you believe is
likely to raise questions or doubts. If it has taken you a considerable amount of time to complete your
degree, and you have good reason for it (e.g., other collaborations, language training), then here is a place
to make a strong case for yourself.

How to Write a Letter that Says: “I Don’t Really Want this Job.”

1. Use Dear Sir or Madam as your Salutation. Address the letter to a specific person, if possible.
2. Fail to state which position you are applying for. Remember, departments are often conducting
multiple searches simultaneously.
3. Allow careless errors to creep into your letter. Search committees consider a shoddy, slipshod, or
slapdash letter, replete with typos, a sign of a deeper problem.
4. Sound arrogant or overconfident.

A disastrous cover letter:

1. Is overly presumptuous, explicitly telling a department the ways you could contribute.
2. Is excessively formulaic, not tailored to the job you are applying for.
3. Rambles.
4. Is aggressive or pushy in tone.
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5. Uses “wimpy” language, including phrases like “I feel” or “I believe.”

6. Embellishes the applicant’s qualifications.
7. Is sloppy in appearance and contains typos or grammatical mistakes.

Cover Letter Do’s and Don’ts

Your cover letter—along with your CV and your letters of recommendation—will determine whether a
search committee will pursue your candidacy. As many as half the applicants for a particular job are
rejected after the search committee looks at the cover letter.

The committee members may conclude that the candidate is not qualified for the job or that the
applicant’s work is not engaging. In other words, it is crucial that your letter grab the committee’s
interest.

Avoid common cover letter gaffes and blunders:

 DO address the letter to a specific individual.

 DO be succinct. This is not the place for an overly lengthy discussion of your dissertation.
 DO address each of the required qualifications in the job description.
 DO give examples. Don’t simply state that you have experience; demonstrate it.
 DO show interest. Research the institution, and show why you are a good fit.
 DO be attentive to the difference between research and teaching oriented institutions—though
even liberal arts institutions expect you to be engaged in scholarship. Thus, for a liberal arts
institution you need to recognize the importance of small classes, interactive discussion, mentored
research projects, and the value of getting to know students personally.
 DON’T be too lengthy. Generally two pages are sufficient.
 DON’T use hyperbole. Be professional in tone.

Nuts and Bolts

Length: Generally no more than two pages.

Tone: Confidently professional. You want to come across as serious, interesting, collegial, and
productive.

Basic elements:

• part intellectual autobiography

• part academic transcript
• part a listing of accomplishments
• part an analytical discussion of ideas

Format: Most cover letters follow a common format. But the execution varies significantly. Don't be
generic. Identify those skills and areas of expertise and accomplishment that set you apart from others.

First Paragraph (the “Set-Up”): Identify the position you are applying for. "I would like to be
considered for your assistant professorship in....”
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• Introduce your candidacy: Identify the position, the name of the organization, and how you
learned about it.
• Identify yourself. Imagine this may be the only paragraph a reader glances at before sorting you
into a pile of “rejects” or “considerations”. You need to succinctly communicate why they should
bother reading more about you before moving on to the next hundred or so applications.
o Here is an appropriate place to (tactfully) name drop. If an alumnus, colleague, or someone
else referred you, mention their name. DO NOT name drop unnecessarily – you will come
across as pretentious.
o Take advantage of the fact that you are at Harvard and have studied with recognized faculty
mentors. "I am currently a doctoral student in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and
Civilizations at Harvard University, where I studied under the direction of .... and expect to
receive my Ph.D. in May 2016."
• Don’t try to pack too much in this first paragraph, just focus on hooking the reader’s interest.

Middle Paragraphs (the “Proof”): Show your fit by speaking to the job requirements and highlighting
your relevant skills, background, achievements, and qualifications. Demonstrate that you not only “check
the boxes”, so to speak, but that you are actually competent in all relevant capacities.

Describe your research:

• Briefly summarize your dissertation and underscore its significance.

• Demonstrate how your dissertation makes a contribution to the field of study.
• Describe the validation your dissertation may have received.
• Demonstrate how you are expanding on your doctoral research, or other lines of research.
• If you can, highlight short- and long-term research projects with which you are involved. Viable
and worthwhile research prospects aren’t a given, so showcase what you have.

Describe the breadth of your expertise and experience: It is assumed that you have sufficient depth in
your particular area of study; however, when it comes to potential for teaching and research collaboration,
you need to indicate breadth, as well.

Describe your teaching experience and your teaching and research interests. Again, try to balance both
depth and breadth.

Explain that you have taught diverse students in a wide range of courses.

• Identify any other courses that you are prepared to offer, and communicate your willingness to
provide supporting documents (e.g., syllabi).
• You might also briefly describe your pedagogical approach (e.g., engaging students in hands-on
research).
• Teaching successes, examples.

Elaborate on your CV, distinctive qualifications, and strengths, including relevant non-academic
experience and skills.

• Have you organized any lectures or conferences? Have you taken part in an interdisciplinary
seminar? Have you assisted with a study abroad program?
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Throughout, do your best to exhibit your knowledge of the position and institution to which you are
applying, as well as the discipline in a greater sense.

Final Paragraph (the “hook”): The last paragraph should briefly reiterate your interest and fit for the
position, but particularly do so in a way that conveys your enthusiasm about: teaching and students; your
life in the community; and areas of research and collaboration within the department and across
disciplines.

• Address the issue of fit. If it seems appropriate (and non-formulaic), this is an ideal place to
connect yourself to the departmental or institutional mission statement and goals.

Describe the materials you have enclosed with your application, as well as your willingness to
communicate and provide any additional materials the search committee might wish (e.g., statements of
research or pedagogy, syllabi, course or peer evaluations, transcripts, writing samples).

Show appreciation for being considered, and for the reader taking the time to look over your material.
Close by writing that you would welcome an interview to discuss things in more detail.

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