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November 01, 2002
Happy Halloween!
My halloween present to myself was to send out 5 job applications yesterday. As someone around here says, Yay me! And such applications I've never seen. Thus I must share, without going into details of the actual content. But here's what goes in some of these things: 1) letter of application showing that you know who you are, what job you're applying for, and why you think you have a hope in hell of getting it. 2) Statement of research interest that implies that not only have you done things in the past, but hope/plan to do things in the future. And these things aren't your normal things, like ""I hope to finally learn the history of the word grommet,"" but things of lasting and enduring cultural value and significance, like ""I plan to conduct inquiry into the hegemonic and sociopolitical influences surrounding the insitutions from which the grommet first came, and track its influence on the maritime cultures of Nebraska."" 3) A curriculum vita(e) of ponderous weight and importance. It should be an alzheimer's special, covering everything you ever did in nice neat easily ignorable slots. I swear, I know what I was doing november 15, 1986 because of my CV. 4) Proof of effective teaching is the most dangerous. How can you prove you're an effective teacher? Well, I... I'm not going to say. Suffice it to point out that I sent photocopies of all the course evaluations of my last two grad courses, the anticalendar entry from one of my ENV321 classes where I got to do things my way, and 6 (six) apprasials of my teaching from when I got my teaching degree back in 1992. I don't remember what else was in each of these packages, but there was more. And STILL, I have to send transcripts of every post-secondary course I have ever taken, going back to 1982!!! AND 3-4 letters of reference. This isn't enough to decide if I should get an interview. It is enough to reconstruct me completely. I think I just sent out 5 golem construction kits, just add incantations! Bah. I think I'll go get a blood test or something."
Posted by jason at November 1, 2002 08:32 AM