A few months ago I wrote a column in Chronicle Vitae about managing your time for a postdoc; the main point being, get your writing done! A reader wrote to follow up and share her own story about failing to effectively manage her writing time on a … [Read more...] about Managing Your Postdoc Year(s): Avoid These Mistakes (A Guest Post)
Major Job Market Mistakes
Those 12 Sentences: Evaluating Cover Letter Advice
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
How To Tailor a Job Letter (Without Flattering, Pandering, or Begging)
An expanded and updated version of this post can now be found in Chapter 23 of my new book, The Professor Is In: The Essential Guide to Turning Your Ph.D. Into a Job. I am keeping a shortened version here, but for the complete discussion including … [Read more...] about How To Tailor a Job Letter (Without Flattering, Pandering, or Begging)
Grad Student Grandiosity
Grad students tend to veer between two extremes: I know nothing and I know everything. The latter position is an over-compensatory response to fear of the former. As you gain experience you find a middle ground of calm confidence. However, at the … [Read more...] about Grad Student Grandiosity
Break The Cycle of List-Addiction (Or, Just Say No To Flabby Logic)
[This is a repost from August 2011] Too many of us are addicted to lists in your writing. What does this look like? Well, something like this: “In sum, my dissertation uses interviews, surveys, textual analysis, and internet research in order … [Read more...] about Break The Cycle of List-Addiction (Or, Just Say No To Flabby Logic)
I-Me-My
An effective job document will employ varied sentence structures that do not revolve continuously around the words I, me, and my. If you are reading this and on the market, pull up your job documents and do a universal search for each of these … [Read more...] about I-Me-My
Dr. Karen F**ks Up
A constant tension in my work at The Professor Is In is the awkward balance between the free content that I provide on the blog, and the fee-based services I charge money for. From the start there has been a chorus of detractors who decry the fact … [Read more...] about Dr. Karen F**ks Up
More on Negotiating–Thoughts from an R1 Department Head
Discussion of negotiating the tenure track offer continues apace. Last week I was included in an email exchange between Rebecca Schuman and Mike Tarr, Department Head of the Psychology department at Carnegie Mellon University. Mike got in touch … [Read more...] about More on Negotiating–Thoughts from an R1 Department Head
The Rescinded Offer: Who Is In the Wrong?
I keep getting asked about the recent rescinded offer in Philosophy at Nazareth College, which originally popped up on Philosophy Smoker, (with a response from the rescindee, "W," here), went to Jezebel, then Forbes, and shows no signs of … [Read more...] about The Rescinded Offer: Who Is In the Wrong?
Stop Negotiating Like a Girl
A re-post ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This post comes from an email exchange this week, with a client who is working with me on Negotiating Assistance. Discipline, institution, etc. all excised. She has more than one offer, and drafted … [Read more...] about Stop Negotiating Like a Girl