Uncommon Common Sense for Job Hunters

In applying for a position, you first present yourself on paper and then in person. In both instances, you want to conduct yourself as a thorough professional—one who is organized, competent, reliable, and exudes an attitude of general confidence and cooperativeness.

Remember, the search committee is looking for a future colleague, not a high-maintenance talent. Don't look or act like a graduate student; comport yourself as what you want to be (and be regarded as): a writer and professor.

The search for a job is a full-time job in itself. You must be prepared to put some time and effort into it, and to spend some money for airfare, photocopies or published copies of your work, even presentable clothes. This is your future. Invest in it.

Curriculum Vita

Your vita should be no longer than three pages.

Do not pad. Adding filler will only camouflage your genuine accomplishments; better a short, honest vita than one crammed with throwaway items.

Organize your vita for clarity. This document, like all your application documents, will come under intense scrutiny because you are a writer and should know how to present material in a clear, concise, inviting fashion.

Avoid fanciness (e.g., using script fonts, colored paper, cute logos).

Order of information:

1. Personal (i.e., name, address, phone, e-mail).

2. Education (post-secondary only).

3. Publications in your genre (do not include undergraduate literary magazines).

4. Teaching experience (you may include non-traditional experience, such as tutoring at a community center).

5. Honors and awards (list only prestigious nominations, as too many nominations without winning will cast you as a perpetual bridesmaid).

6. Any other pertinent experience or training: e.g., administrative or editorial work.

The format can be varied slightly after item 4.

Letters of Reference

Always waive your right to see the letters; otherwise, the letter will not be taken as a candid assessment.

Solicit letters only from professors whom you are confident will write positive and specific letters on your behalf.

Do not overload your dossier with letters. Three are sufficient for most jobs.

Application Letter

Make sure your qualifications match the job description. Don't merely "shotgun" your vita anywhere and everywhere, because this wastes your time and resources and that of search committees. It also diffuses your focus from the jobs you really might have a chance at.

The letter—a succinct page or page-and-a-half—should be specific and convey a sense of your voice. Don't be too chatty. Use the letter to highlight three or four important items on your vita, briefly telling why they make you a significantly more interesting candidate than everybody else (e.g., you won a teaching award for graduate TAs, you taught in a prison workshop, you worked with Caribbean writers at a conference in Jamaica, you have already gotten an advance on your first novel).

Don't try to be all things to all people. Play up your main strength and a useful secondary expertise, but don't pretend you are an expert in every specialty. (This applies to interviews as well).

Your letter should address the specific contribution you can make to their program. This means you have to write a different letter to each search committee, or at least tailor your basic letter to each different audience. You are a writer. You should be good at this.

It also means you have to know their program. Most now have websites, which makes this part a breeze. Do your homework. Such preparation marks you as a serious candidate who takes the initiative.

Proofread all names of search committee members, the college or university, etc. Mail merge programs sometimes send the wrong letter to the wrong place, and spelling the chair's name wrong will hurt your chances.

For that matter, proof the entire letter carefully. Pretend it is going to be published. After all, they are hiring a writer, and they expect a level of professionalism in your documentary presentation.

Retain a copy of each letter you send, so that when the time comes for an interview, you can remember what you said about yourself, since that is likely to form the basis for some of their questions.

MLA Interview (please see link for Preparing for the MLA Interview)

A hotel room is not the ideal venue for an interview, particularly not with a dozen other applicants cooling their heels in the corridor. Just do the best you can. Wear clothes you feel professionally comfortable in.

Realize that some on the search committee—maybe even most—are not writers but academics from other specialties. Know who they are and be able to address their interests and concerns.

Anticipate their questions and practice talking out loud about your qualifications in advance.

Visualize the interview. Then, once in the room, be alert to the body language and other signals the committee are giving off.

Don't talk too much. Give succinct answers, leave space for other questions, and be alert to the interests of the committee.

On-campus Interview

At this stage, the search committee has decided that on paper you are qualified for the position; the MLA or telephone interview has put you on a short list—probably between two and five—of finalists who will be invited to campus.

Typically, you will be expected to do some combination of the following:

* Give a reading or presentation of your work.

* Answer questions from the department in a meeting (some formats conflate both presentation and Q/A into one session).

* Meet with the dean, the chair, and other assorted faculty and staff individually.

* Meet with students- individually or as a group.

* Teach a demonstration class (if there are materials they want you to workshop, arrange to get these in advance of your visit; if they allow you to distribute your open chosen sample to workshop, make sure you get it to them in time for students and faculty to read it in advance of your demo class).

* Attend a cocktail reception.

* Have meals with faculty members and students.

Realize the interview begins as soon as you step off the plane and doesn't end until you board the return flight. The rest of the time, no matter how informal the experience seems, you are on. So realize that everything you do or say, even a casual remark made over a drink, may be considered by the committee. After a long day of questions and presentations, you may be tempted to relax at the cocktail reception, but realize the interview hasn't ended. It's just entered a different phase.

That said, be yourself. You have to be—you can't sustain a masquerade for a 36 or 48 hours. Show yourself to your best advantage, but make sure it is yourself you are showing, not some invented persona you think they want to see.

Present yourself not as the graduate student you are but as the faculty member you aspire to be: in your manners, your dress, your general demeanor.

Common sense and common courtesy go a long way. Be sure to introduce yourself to departmental secretaries and assistants and to treat everyone with the courtesy you yourself would expect.

Be prepared: know exactly what your itinerary will be and prepare your presentations accordingly. Don't just ad lib. You need substance. Remember, if you can't hold the interest of your interviewers and even get them excited about what you have to say, they are not going to put you in front of a classroom of their students.

After you return home, drop a brief note to the person in charge of the search thanking everybody for their time and the good experience you had visiting their campus. (Don't go overboard by sending flowers or fancy greeting cards. Again, this is a professional transaction, and you're just trying to give it a human touch.) Even if you aren't offered the job or don't choose to take it if you are, the world of teaching writers is a small one, and you will likely encounter these folks again somewhere down the line. You want them to have fond memories of you as a professional.

Potential Trouble Spots

Most search committees will conduct their business in the professional manner described above, and most campus visits are set up more or less along the lines described. But there are some things to beware of:

* If you find yourself alone in a hotel room at MLA with a single interviewer (especially if you are a woman and the interviewer is a man), the caution flag goes up. It may be a legitimate situation—you're the first interview of the day, and the other committee members will soon come straggling in—but it is one that would make most candidates and interviewers uncomfortable. If you pick up bad vibes, say you need of a cup of coffee and ask to move the interview to the hotel coffee shop, or simply leave and send a note of regret to the chair of the department or another appropriate person. This is a rare situation, mentioned here because the unusual nature of it makes it suspect.

* Interviewers may not ask you about your sexual orientation, your plans for having children, or other personal matters. If you believe a question is inappropriate, simply decline to answer. In unusual situations, you may want to bring up a personal matter yourself (for example, you and your spouse are trying to find jobs at the same institution; in that case, you may need to talk about your marital situation and what opportunities are possible).

* If you are invited to an on-campus interview and your accommodations will be in a private home, ask politely if there is a hotel nearby. It is worth having your own sanctuary after a long day of interviewing; otherwise, you will still be on, even as you are brushing your teeth before going to bed, calling your significant other, etc. It's not a professional arrangement.

* Be sure about who is paying for what and how before you get on the plane to campus.

Good luck!