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How To Write CVs

As the School Year Ends, Update Your CV!

By Karen Kelsky | May 23, 2024

What better time to revisit my advice on the rules of the CV (Originally published in 2016!) than the end of the academic year. If you haven't been updating your CV as you go, do it now so you are ready for the job market or anything else that … [Read more...] about As the School Year Ends, Update Your CV!

Filed Under: Academic Job Search, How To Write CVs

Academic Job Search Live Webinars Start Friday!

By Karen Kelsky | October 25, 2022

Our Academic Job Market Webinar Series Starts this week! While the data is mixed, some fields are seeing a rebound in academic hiring to pre-pandemic levels (which are not good levels, but are better than the last couple of years). If you're … [Read more...] about Academic Job Search Live Webinars Start Friday!

Filed Under: Academic Job Search, Graduate Student Concerns, How to Interview, How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, How To Write CVs, Landing Your Tenure Track Job

Leveling the Academic Playing Field: Our Mission

By Karen Kelsky | August 15, 2022

I periodically publish a Careers Digest on Facebook, and here is the one for August 2022. We'll start a whole new one for the '22-23 academic year from this point on. Our individual goal is to help you advance in your career; our overarching … [Read more...] about Leveling the Academic Playing Field: Our Mission

Filed Under: Academic Job Search, How to Get Grants and Fellowships, How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, How To Write CVs, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes

Nihilism Was Inevitable

By Karen Kelsky | December 12, 2021

A genre of tweet has been gaining steam the last couple weeks, about the complete meaninglessness of academic job application documents or processes. It's all a crap shoot, argues this line of thought. Further, the collapse in hiring has only exposed … [Read more...] about Nihilism Was Inevitable

Filed Under: Academic Job Search, How to Interview, How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, How To Write CVs, Major Job Market Mistakes, Mental Health and Academia, Ph.D. Poverty, Post-Ac Job Search, Quitting--An Excellent Option, Strategizing Your Success in Academia

Banish These Words, 2016 Edition

By Karen Kelsky | October 7, 2016

Every season I note a new batch of trite, overused words cropping up in job and grant documents. I've already written about some of the most critical to banish from your vocabulary here, and here. Here is the newest set of words that need to go. The … [Read more...] about Banish These Words, 2016 Edition

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, Writing

Dr. Karen’s Rules of the Academic CV

By Karen Kelsky | August 19, 2016

Please note this advice is continually checked and updated! Including for COVID. ~~~~~~~~ Today's post is a long overdue post on CVs.  While the CV genre permits a wide range of variation, and there is no consensus on the value … [Read more...] about Dr. Karen’s Rules of the Academic CV

Filed Under: How To Build Your Tenure File, How To Write CVs, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, Promote Yourself!, Writing Tagged With: how to write a cv, rules of the academic cv, what is a curriculum vitae

A Perspective From the Hiring Committee (A Guest Post)

By Karen Kelsky | October 12, 2015

This is a guest post, volunteered by a tenured reader.  Also check out her previous post. I and my fellow committee members work in a somewhat technical field at a mid-tier state university. While every institution and department is different, … [Read more...] about A Perspective From the Hiring Committee (A Guest Post)

Filed Under: How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, How To Write CVs, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, Writing

A Big Week at The Professor Is In: My Book Comes Out!

By Karen Kelsky | August 7, 2015

The day finally arrived!   On Tuesday the book came out and The Professor Is In: The Essential Guide to Turning Your Ph.D. into a Job was officially launched onto the world. 480 pages, half of it newly updated and revised versions of the most … [Read more...] about A Big Week at The Professor Is In: My Book Comes Out!

Filed Under: Adjunct Issues, Book Proposals and Contracts, How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, How To Write CVs, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Strategizing Your Success in Academia

Data Point, Data Point, Data Point…

By Karen Kelsky | June 12, 2015

Sometimes I hear reactions to The Professor Is In, that my level of attention to details and minutiae (everything from what kind of bag you carry to where your voice rises in your delivery of a sentence) is excessive--even anal or obsessive.  … [Read more...] about Data Point, Data Point, Data Point…

Filed Under: Advising Advice, How to Interview, How To Write Academic Job Cover Letters, How To Write CVs, Landing Your Tenure Track Job, Major Job Market Mistakes, Stop.Acting.Like.A.Grad.Student, Strategizing Your Success in Academia, What Not To Wear

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

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