Preparing Future Faculty II The Application Package

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Preparing Future Faculty IIThe Application
Package

• Tao Ju
• 2007

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Whats in your package?

• A full list
• Application form
• Reference letters
• Cover letter
• Curriculum Vita
• Research and teaching statements
• Selected publications
• Content and format varies for different univ.

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Compare

• Whats different from an application package for
  grad schools?
• No application fee (Yay!)
• GPA not important
• Personal statements replaced by research and
  teaching statements
• CV and reference letters are much more important
• Schools are most interested in what you did in
  your PhD

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My timeline

• Prepare your CV
• Early Sept.
• Ask for reference letters
• Mid Sept., letters ready in mid Oct.
• Prepare cover letter and R/T statements
• Sept. to Oct.
• Submit the package to schools
• Oct. to Jan.

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My timeline

• Prepare your CV
• Early Sept.
• Ask for reference letters
• Mid Sept., letters ready in mid Oct.
• Prepare cover letter and R/T statements
• Sept. to Oct.
• Submit the package to schools
• Oct. to Jan.

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Curriculum Vita

• Arguably the most important piece in the
  application package
• Especially for the first screening process
• Factors that will increase your chance
• Matching research interests
• Good publication record (quantity and quality)
• Well-known school and/or advisor
• Female? Minority?

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Curriculum Vita

• Things to cover
• Basic facts
• Educational background, honors, skills,
  immigration status and citizenship, etc.
• Research-related
• Teaching-related
• TA-ship, course development, etc.
• References
• Name, title, contact
• Online link to your application materials

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Curriculum Vita

• Research-related items
• A few sentences briefing your research area and
  specific interests
• Research experience (when, where, who, what)
• Theses (and advisors)
• Publications
• Separate into journal, conference, and tech
  reports
• Organize by published, in-review, and
  in-preparation articles
• If you can, find out conference acceptance rate
  and journal citation index
• Presentations and invited talks
• Artifacts
• Patents, software, websites, etc.
• Professional activities
• Program committee participation, reviewed
  conferences and journals

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Curriculum Vita

• A few tips
• Format it well
• Ask for CV templates from friends or Google
• Structure your CV
• Make your strong point stand out.
• Provide online links if available
• Papers, software, etc.

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Curriculum Vita

• Example

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My timeline

• Prepare your CV
• Early Sept.
• Ask for reference letters
• Mid Sept., letters ready in mid Oct.
• Prepare cover letter and R/T statements
• Sept. to Oct.
• Submit the package to schools
• Oct. to Jan.

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Find references

• Find at least 4
• Advisor (must), collaborators, distinguished
  researchers
• Do
• Ask for those that can write STRONG letters for
  you
• Cover various aspects of your work
• Especially if your work is multi-disciplinary
• Do not
• Ask for someone who knows little about your work

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Ask for reference letters

• Ask early
• 1-2 month ahead of deadline
• Give them a package of materials to start
• Cover letter
• CV
• Extended biography
• Transcript

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Ask for reference letters

• Cover letter for your references
• Your timeline
• Where and how to send the letter
• Extended biography
• Extension of your CV, narrative and detailed
• Education experience and any awards
• Teaching experience
• Research summary (organized by subjects)
• What you did and how you did it

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My timeline

• Prepare your CV
• Early Sept.
• Ask for reference letters
• Mid Sept., letters ready in mid Oct.
• Prepare cover letter and R/T statements
• Sept. to Oct.
• Submit the package to schools
• Oct. to Jan.

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Cover letter

• First page in your application package
• Letter of interest, or Letter of application
• Should be a single page
• What to cover
• Who you are and what position you are applying
• When you will get your PhD degree
• Highlights of your credentials and achievement
• A 1-2 paragraph version of your R/T statement
• Highlight your strength! (i.e., why are you the
  one for the job?)

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Cover letter

• Example

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R/T statements

• Most time-consuming to prepare
• May need to write several versions
• 2-page for each statement (most common)
• 3- or 4-page extended research statement
• 1 page for each statement.
• Start with a 2-page version, than revise.
• Plenty of examples and guides online
• Type Research statement or Teaching statement
  in Google
• Here is UIUCs link for help on these
  http//www.grad.uiuc.edu/CareerServices/academic/s
  tatements.htm
• The following is adapted from UPenns guide
  http//www.vpul.upenn.edu/careerservices/gradstud/
  Writing_Research_Statement.ppt

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Research statement

• A coherent exposition about your research beyond
  your dissertation
• Give you a chance to think about your career in
  the next 5 years
• The statement tells
• What you have been doing recently and currently,
• In what direction you hope to go,
• How your research contributes to your field
• It helps to assess (along with other materials)
  your
• Areas of specialty,
• Potential to get grants,
• Academic ability,
• Compatibility with the department or school

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Research statement

• Write so that you
• Give a context for your research interests
• Why does it matter?
• Communicate a sense that your research will
• follow logically from what you have done
• be different, important, and innovative

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Research statement

• Part 1 Areas of interests
• And significance
• Part 2 Achievements and current work
• Organize into subjects
• Part 3 Future plan
• Major problem(s) you wish to attack.
• The problems relevance to the field.
• Your specific goals for a 3-5 year period,
  including potential outcomes.

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Research statement

• About future plan
• If you know what a particular funding agency
  funds, you can name the agency and briefly
  outline a proposal. This might convince the
  reader that you are on the way to getting a
  project funded
• NSF, NIH, DOE, DARPA, etc.
• At the same time, you should have research goals
  that have broad enough goals so that if one topic
  doesn't get funded there are other areas on which
  you can work.

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Research statement

• Tips for writing
• Write as clearly and concisely as you can
• Write with enthusiasm What excites you about
  your research?
• Where appropriate, acknowledge the work of others
  
• Use language that shows youve begun to think of
  yourself as an independent researcher

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Teaching statement

• Philosophy of Teaching Statement
• Your goals and methods in teaching, and why do
  you think they are valuable/effective.
• Dont rehash your CV
• Its not a list of courses you TAed
• Focus on
• What you learned as a TA about effective
  teaching?
• How you're going to implement it?

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Teaching statement

• Tips
• Don't make empty statements
• Cite examples, or talk about concrete plans
• Ground your teaching philosophy in your area
• Adopt a tone of humility
• Dont sound as if you know all about teaching
• Good teaching comes from years of trial and error
• Remember that teaching is about the students
• Adopt an enthusiastic tone towards students
• Keep it short
• Make sure its well-written
• It's a writing sample

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R/T statements

• Formatting tips
• Use headings (and subheadings), bullets, and
  white space
• Avoid page-long paragraphs
• Avoid jargons
• Proofread
• Get feedback !!!

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My timeline

• Prepare your CV
• Early Sept.
• Ask for reference letters
• Mid Sept., letters ready in mid Oct.
• Prepare cover letter and R/T statements
• Sept. to Oct.
• Submit the package to schools
• Oct. to Jan.

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Before submission

• Check each announcement carefully
• Is it opening for my area?
• Do they have faculties in your area?
• Starting date and deadline?
• Is the application online, by email, or by mail?
• How many letters are needed, and how are they
  received?
• What materials are needed?

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Submission Tips

• Proof-read before you send!
• Remember to tailor your documents to the schools
• Especially the cover letter
• Use printed labels for mail envelops
• Prepare these envelops for your references
• Make a spreadsheet to keep tack your status for
  each school you are applying (Important!)
• Letters sent and received?
• Package sent and received?

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After you drop off the last package
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Our Application Packages

• Tao
• Application package (with CV latex source)
  http//www.cs.wustl.edu/taoju/refs.rar
• Materials for references http//www.cs.wustl.edu/
  taoju/docs.rar