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The Professor Is In

Guidance for all things PhD: Graduate School, Job Market and Careers

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How To Choose and Manage Recommenders

How to Write a Recommendation Letter

By Karen Kelsky | September 7, 2016

The wonderful Shit Academic Say (@AcademicsSay) retweeted a hilarious parody of American vs. British recommendation letters this week. (December 8, 2016) It's so painfully accurate that it immediately brought back traumatic memories of my … [Read more...] about How to Write a Recommendation Letter

Filed Under: Bad Advisors and Good Mentors, Graduate Student Concerns, How To Choose and Manage Recommenders, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, Promote Yourself!, Strategizing Your Success in Academia, Writing Tagged With: How to write a recommendation letter

How to Write Your Own Rec. Letter, plus All of my Vitae columns

By Karen Kelsky | January 22, 2016

In my two+ gratifying and enjoyable years of writing for Chronicle Vitae, I've only had one column rejected by them, and it is this one, which I submitted late in December as an end-of-year compendium of all my columns, organized thematically. I … [Read more...] about How to Write Your Own Rec. Letter, plus All of my Vitae columns

Filed Under: Advising Advice, Graduate Student Concerns, How To Choose and Manage Recommenders, How to Interview, How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, Negotiating Offers, Strategizing Your Success in Academia, The Campus Visit, What Not To Wear, Your Second and Third Jobs

Update on My Book: Blurbs, Reviews, and a Promotion

By Karen Kelsky | May 23, 2015

The book inches closer to actually existing in the material world (August 4)!  It has gotten some lovely blurbs by amazing people, like this one by the inimitable Rebecca Schuman: “If you would like your academic career to begin in delusion and end … [Read more...] about Update on My Book: Blurbs, Reviews, and a Promotion

Filed Under: Adjunct Issues, Advising Advice, Bad Advisors and Good Mentors, Graduate Student Concerns, How To Choose and Manage Recommenders, How To Do Conferences, How to Get Grants and Fellowships, How to Interview, How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, How To Write CVs, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, Negotiating Offers, Ph.D. Poverty, Post-Ac Job Search, Strategizing Your Success in Academia, Teaching and Research Statements, Teaching Portfolios, The Campus Visit, What Not To Wear

Buy My Book!

By Karen Kelsky | April 10, 2015

Love the blog? Now get it in handy book form--only $11.40!  Available for pre-order now--comes out August 4! Buy it at all these places! It also makes a great gift for all those struggling grad students in your life! For bulk orders for use … [Read more...] about Buy My Book!

Filed Under: Advising Advice, Alt-University Critique, Bad Advisors and Good Mentors, Book Proposals and Contracts, Graduate Student Concerns, How To Build Your Tenure File, How To Choose and Manage Recommenders, How To Do Conferences, How to Get Grants and Fellowships, How to Interview, How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, How To Write CVs, International Perspectives, Intersectional Analyses, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, Mental Health and Academia, Negotiating Offers, Ph.D. Poverty, Post-Ac Job Search, Postdoc Issues, Promote Yourself!, Publishing Issues, Quitting--An Excellent Option, Resumes & Postac Docs, Shame, Stop.Acting.Like.A.Grad.Student, Strategizing Your Success in Academia, Surviving Assistant Professorhood, Teaching and Research Statements, Teaching Portfolios, Tenure--How To Get It, The Campus Visit, What Not To Wear, Work/Life Balance in Academia, Writing, Yes, You Can: Women in Academia, Your Second and Third Jobs

Those 12 Sentences: Evaluating Cover Letter Advice

By Karen Kelsky | September 5, 2014

Many of you have undoubtedly seen the blog post by Philip N. Howard that has been circulating around the internet for the past couple of weeks, called A Dozen Sentences That Should Appear in Your Academic Cover Letter.  It was originally published on … [Read more...] about Those 12 Sentences: Evaluating Cover Letter Advice

Filed Under: Advising Advice, How To Choose and Manage Recommenders, How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, Strategizing Your Success in Academia

Chronicle Vitae’s Free Dossier Service

By Karen Kelsky | February 15, 2014

As you probably know by now I am launching a post-ac branch of The Professor Is In, dedicated to advice and information for people seeking jobs outside the academy. I’ll be posting 2 post-ac posts written by my team of experts early in the week, and … [Read more...] about Chronicle Vitae’s Free Dossier Service

Filed Under: Adjunct Issues, Advising Advice, How To Choose and Manage Recommenders, Promote Yourself!, Strategizing Your Success in Academia

The Perils of “Nice,” Cont’d: Recommendation Edition

By Karen Kelsky | August 22, 2012

I got to see a letter of rec this week, and was stunned at the way it sabotaged my client, a SUPERB AND TOTALLY HARD-ASS candidate.   It did this apparently from the best of intentions, by burying her achievements in endless verbiage about how "nice" … [Read more...] about The Perils of “Nice,” Cont’d: Recommendation Edition

Filed Under: Advising Advice, Bad Advisors and Good Mentors, Graduate Student Concerns, How To Choose and Manage Recommenders, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, Strategizing Your Success in Academia, Tenure--How To Get It

It’s Not About You

By Karen Kelsky | May 22, 2012

Today The Professor continues her mobilization of low brow pop culture references in the service of the scholarly career by bringing to your attention the sentiment, “It’s Not About You.” This is actually another installment in the “Nice … [Read more...] about It’s Not About You

Filed Under: Advising Advice, Bad Advisors and Good Mentors, Graduate Student Concerns, How To Choose and Manage Recommenders, Strategizing Your Success in Academia Tagged With: bad phd advisors, worst graduate advisors

What To Do Now in Grad School (Special Request Post)

By Karen Kelsky | March 2, 2012

Apologies for missing Tuesday's post and then delaying on Thursday's post. I had a family health crisis (thankfully, fully resolved) that kept me away from the computer this week. Today's post is a Special Request post for K, who asks, what can a … [Read more...] about What To Do Now in Grad School (Special Request Post)

Filed Under: Bad Advisors and Good Mentors, Graduate Student Concerns, How To Choose and Manage Recommenders, How To Do Conferences, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Promote Yourself!, Strategizing Your Success in Academia Tagged With: Grad school strategies for success, Graduate student rules, Graduate student strategies

Why You Need Recommenders From Outside Your Department

By Karen Kelsky | January 17, 2012

I've had a raft of new clients this past couple of weeks seeking my help in strategizing for the Fall 2012 job market. I applaud this foresight and planning, and recommend it to all who know they will be on the market next year. One piece of advice … [Read more...] about Why You Need Recommenders From Outside Your Department

Filed Under: How To Choose and Manage Recommenders, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, Promote Yourself!, Stop.Acting.Like.A.Grad.Student, Strategizing Your Success in Academia Tagged With: How to choose references, Picking recommendation letter writers

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