Desperate Cramming
Let’s imagine that I am doing some sort of cover letter “blind taste test” and I have to guess, by content only, which cover letter has been written by a graduate student. I will know by one element...
View ArticleWhen I Say ‘Be Specific,’ What Do I Mean?
As I explained in last week’s post, I won’t be blogging for the next few months while I get the Professor Is In book written. However, I had this post in draft form, so I’m putting it up. After this...
View ArticleCampus Visit While Breastfeeding (A Guest Post)
I just accepted my dream academic position at a research-intensive university, with only two years before I can go up for tenure (they’re counting my whole publication record, including articles...
View ArticleTrailer Park Professor: On R1 Success and Learning to Value Yourself (A Guest...
I got the chance to meet a client-turned-R1 assistant professor at the AAA meetings, and I asked her what she found most helpful about the work with me. She took the time to write it out. This is what...
View ArticleDr. Karen’s Rules of the Campus Visit
This post was previously published ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Today’s post is another response to pleas from clients and strangers, this time to cover the proper comportment for a campus...
View ArticleStop 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...
View ArticleThe Rescinded Offer: Who Is In the Wrong?
I keep getting asked about the recent rescinded offer in Philosophy at Nazareth College, which originally popped up on Philosophy Smoker, (with a response from the rescindee, “W,” here), went to...
View ArticleMore 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...
View ArticleDr. 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...
View ArticleI-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...
View ArticleBreak The Cycle of List-Addiction (Or, Just Say No To Flabby Logic)
[This is a repost] Too many of you 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...
View ArticleHow To Tailor a Job Letter (Without Flattering, Pandering, or Begging)
This is a re-post ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Today’s post is going to address the difficult matter of tailoring a job letter. In the work my clients do on their job market materials, it...
View ArticleThose 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...
View ArticleGrad 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...
View ArticleManaging Your Postdoc Year(s): Avoid These Mistakes (A Guest Post)
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...
View ArticleWe Don’t Need Your New Perspective
If you have the words “a new perspective” in any of your job documents, get rid of it. It’s the tritest and most hackneyed of all job document language (that is not in the hyper-emotional-passion...
View ArticleBanish These Words, 2014
Previously I told you to banish the words “unique” and “burgeoning.” Here is a new set of painfully overused, excruciatingly tedious, annoyingly self-important, and frustratingly vacant words to be...
View ArticleThe Hash-Slinging Slasher
This fall, a new phenomenon has emerged in job documents—the slash/dash addiction. I think, if you read the examples below (which are shared with permission of the authors), you’ll see the problem. In...
View ArticleStop Acting Like a Grad Student, Redux: “After My Defense, I Will…”
I am always telling clients to stop “sounding like a grad student.” But the trouble is, clients don’t understand all the ways that they do this. Some are obvious. “While a grad student in the English...
View ArticleAdjectives Are Not Arguments, Part I
It is time that all of you grasped a simple yet profound truth of academic writing: adjectives are not arguments. Simply repeating the words: complex multivalent/multidirectional/multiplicitous unique...
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