• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Professor Is In

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

  • Home
    • Testimonials
    • Intervention Testimonials
    • Gift Certificates
  • Academic Job Help
    • Services Overview
    • Job Document Editing
    • The Art of the Academic Cover Letter
    • The Art of the Academic CV
    • Quick Job Document Editing
    • Interviews, Job Talks, Teaching Demos and Campus Visits
    • Personal Negotiating Assistance
    • Tenure and Promotion Statement Assistance
    • Article/Chapter Manuscript Editing
    • Current Specials
  • Institutions
  • Career Coaching
    • One-on-One Career Consults
    • Tenure Denial Consultations
    • CV Strategizing Service
    • Pre-Tenure Coaching Group
    • Graduate School Application Assistance
  • Productivity
    • Unstuck: The Art of Productivity
    • The Art of the Article
    • Article/Chapter Manuscript Editing
    • How To …
    • Productivity Coaching
    • Free Productivity Webinars
  • Professor Is Out
    • Welcome Video
    • Leaving Academia Support
    • Our Art of Leaving Program
    • Leaving Academia On-Demand Webinars
    • Prof is OUT Client Testimonials
    • It’s OK to Quit
  • Webinars
    • University Workshops & Events
    • Upcoming Live Webinars
    • On-Demand Webinars
  • Blog
  • Merch!

How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters

This Christmas, Don’t Be Cheap

By Karen Kelsky | December 13, 2011

Regular readers of The Professor Is In know that I espouse as the cardinal rule of job document writing the rule of Show, Don’t Tell. Job documents should not make claims about your feelings or your wants or your beliefs (“I am passionate about … [Read more...] about This Christmas, Don’t Be Cheap

Filed Under: How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, Major Job Market Mistakes, Strategizing Your Success in Academia, Teaching and Research Statements

What UK/Commonwealth-Trained Candidates Are Doing Wrong on the U.S. Job Market (And some c.v. advice for everyone)

By Karen Kelsky | November 13, 2011

[sorry for the inconsistent fonts in this post.  I am trying to correct.  It's really hard in the theme that I use, and involves html.] One of the unexpected pleasures of being The Professor is the opportunity it's given me to work closely with … [Read more...] about What UK/Commonwealth-Trained Candidates Are Doing Wrong on the U.S. Job Market (And some c.v. advice for everyone)

Filed Under: How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, How To Write CVs, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, Strategizing Your Success in Academia Tagged With: how to write a c.v., International candidates on the U.S. job market, What should a c.v. look like?

Editing Your C.V. and Letter for Teaching/Writing Positions

By Karen Kelsky | October 28, 2011

Today's post is a Special Request post for a reader who shall remain anonymous. Her question concerns how to tailor her letter and c.v. for different jobs. Here's the background: She is a Victorian literature specialist and on the job market in … [Read more...] about Editing Your C.V. and Letter for Teaching/Writing Positions

Filed Under: How to Interview, How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, How To Write CVs, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, Strategizing Your Success in Academia, Tenure--How To Get It Tagged With: applying to generalist positions, applying to Writing positions, how to tailor your job letter, tailoring your c.v., tailoring your letter for a generalist position

Job Letter Issues When You’re Beyond the Dissertation

By Karen Kelsky | October 24, 2011

Today’s post is a Special Request post for Amy, who wishes to know how the standard “dissertation” paragraph of the job letter should be adapted when the writer is well beyond dissertation stage. This is a good question!  Applying for jobs … [Read more...] about Job Letter Issues When You’re Beyond the Dissertation

Filed Under: How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, Strategizing Your Success in Academia, Your Second and Third Jobs Tagged With: academic job letter mid-career, how to apply when you're advanced scholar, senior scholar job letter

The Golden Rule of the Research Statement

By Karen Kelsky | October 21, 2011

Today's post is short. It's about the Research Statement. There's undoubtedly a lot to say about Research Statements. But Dr. Karen doesn't have time today, because she's submerged in client work with looming deadlines. So this post is simply going … [Read more...] about The Golden Rule of the Research Statement

Filed Under: How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, Teaching and Research Statements Tagged With: how to write a research statement, key to the research statement

Do. Or Do Not. There Is No Try. (Academic Writing and The Force)

By Karen Kelsky | October 5, 2011

The best piece of advice about writing that I got as a graduate student came from my external Ph.D. committee member, a full professor in the English department.  A poet and a romantic and undoubtedly a former or current pot smoker, he was much more … [Read more...] about Do. Or Do Not. There Is No Try. (Academic Writing and The Force)

Filed Under: How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, Major Job Market Mistakes, Stop.Acting.Like.A.Grad.Student, Strategizing Your Success in Academia, Teaching and Research Statements, Yes, You Can: Women in Academia Tagged With: academic writing strategies, female self assertiveness, teaching women to be self confident, writing tips for academics

What is Evidence of Teaching Excellence?

By Karen Kelsky | September 23, 2011

Today's post is a Special Request post for quite a few clients, who wanted to know what is meant when a job ad asks for “Evidence of Teaching Excellence.” I want to state at the outset that I have only a few thoughts to offer on this subject, and … [Read more...] about What is Evidence of Teaching Excellence?

Filed Under: How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, Major Job Market Mistakes, Strategizing Your Success in Academia, Teaching and Research Statements, Teaching Portfolios

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 6
  • Page 7
  • Page 8

Primary Sidebar

Latest From the Blog

  • 52 Career Actions: Week 20: Practice Telling Your Research Story for Non Academic Audiences
  • 52 Career Actions: Week 19: Submit a Piece for Publication

2026 Update Out Now! (It has the gold “Revised & Updated” sticker)

Get Immediate Help

In addition to our blog and book, we have upcoming live webinars, pre-recorded webinars and other programs that you can get started on right away:

The Art of the Academic Cover Letter
The Art of the Article
Unstuck: The Art of Productivity
Quick Reviews
Free Productivity Webinars

Categories

  • #MeTooPhD
  • 52 Career Actions
  • Academic Job Search
    • How To Choose and Manage Recommenders
    • 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
  • Adjunct Issues
  • Advising Advice
  • Alt-University Critique
  • Black Lives Matter
  • COVID19
  • Disability in Academia
  • Dispatches
  • Goodbye Ivory Towers
  • Graduate Student Concerns
    • Bad Advisors and Good Mentors
  • How To Do Conferences
  • How to Get Grants and Fellowships
  • International Perspectives
  • Intersectional Analyses
  • Makeup
  • Marginalized Voices
  • Mental Health and Academia
  • Outliers Books
  • Ph.D. Poverty
  • Podcast
  • Post-Ac Free-Lancing and Small Business
  • Post-Ac Job Search
    • Careers Outside
  • Postdoc Issues
  • Productivity
    • Book Proposals and Contracts
    • Publishing Issues
    • Writing
  • Promote Yourself!
  • Quitting–An Excellent Option
  • Racism in the Academy
  • Rearview Mirror
  • Resumes & Postac Docs
  • Sexual Harassment in the Academy
  • Shame
  • Stop.Acting.Like.A.Grad.Student
  • Strategizing Your Success in Academia
  • Teaching and Research Statements
  • Teaching Demos
  • Teaching Portfolios
  • Tenure–How To Get It
    • How To Build Your Tenure File
    • Surviving Assistant Professorhood
  • The Campus Visit
  • Unstuck
  • Webinars
  • What Not To Wear
  • WIP Hacks
  • Women of Color in Academia
  • Work/Life Balance in Academia
  • Yes, You Can: Women in Academia
  • Your Second and Third Jobs

Footer

About Us

  • Who Is Dr. Karen?
  • Who Is On the TPII Team?
  • In The News
  • Contact Me
  • FAQs
    • Why Trust Me?
  • Testimonials

Community

  • #MeTooPhD
  • Peer Editing
  • PhD Debt Survey
  • Support Fund
  • I Help With Custody Cases for Academics

Copyright © 2026 The Professor Is In·