Uncommon Common Sense for Job Hunters

In your final year of the program, you will be asking your professors for letters of recommendation. As a rule, we are happy to do this--we want you to succeed at the next level of your ambition. But there is a protocol about how to get terrific letters from your faculty without abusing their time and good will.

The protocol also makes it more likely that the letters will get written and reach the people they need to reach in a timely fashion. So print this page of helpful guidelines to help you in your quest for great letters of recommendation:

1. In the past, graduates set up dossiers, paper or online. Nowadays it is common for the references to be sent a link by which to upload a letter of recommendation. A dossier service such as Interfolio can still be a useful tool for applications that have a tight deadline, since it will already contain letters of reference.
2. Select which professors, employers, or colleagues (if you are already functioning as a professional) to ask for letters. Some sub-rules (what YOU can do to ensure great letters):
   1. Be sure the letters come from people whose credentials are relevant to the purpose of the letter; in other words, a letter from your minister or a family friend won't help convince an MFA program to hire you-- but strong letters from writing professors or visiting writers might.
   2. Make sure the person you ask to write the letter will write a strong letter-- it’s no good having a Pulitzer Prize winner write a letter in which he or she just says, “So-and-so was in my class.” That can be worse than no letter at all. And a professor with reservations about your work or attitude has the obligation to express those to his or her colleagues at another university. SO ASK THE RECOMMENDER HONESTLY IF HE OR SHE CAN WRITE YOU A REALLY GREAT LETTER. If not, then thank him or her and try someone else. You’re better off knowing this up front, much as it may disappoint you or hurt your feelings, than have a letter floating around in your file that will torpedo your chances.
   3. Realize that someone reading lots of letters of recommendations quickly catches on to the “code”-- what is NOT in the letter is often far more important than what is. If a letter does not contain some variation of the sentence, “I recommend this person without qualification” or “I give this person my highest recommendation,” it will usually be considered a sub-par recommendation.
3. Once you have chosen your recommenders and they have agreed to write really terrific letters on your behalf, do the following:
   1. Provide each with a readable resume or short list of things you have accomplished-- including in his or her own class, since hundreds have passed through since you have and you want specifics in the letter which may have faded from memory with time.
   2. Provide a stamped and addressed envelope, in case that is called for, or send the link to upload. The letter will go directly to the university where you are applying, not to you, except in rare cases. THE LETTER IS NOT MEANT FOR YOUR EYES-- though many recommenders routinely show their letters to the ones who asked for them. BUT THIS IS THE RECOMMENDER'S CHOICE. He or she has done you a professional service-- written a candid assessment of your abilities and performance. You should already know you can trust it, or you shouldn’t have asked for it (see 2 b. above).
   3. Given a choice between “?Waive right to see letter” and “Do not waive right to see letter,” ALWAYS waive the right. Otherwise, your recommender and the person who gets the letter may feel you don't trust your recommender and wonder why.
   4. Give your recommenders enough time to write their letters-- remember, dozens of other graduates, former students, and colleagues ask us for letters each semester. Allow at least a month-- and a week before the letter is due, give the recommender a gentle reminder and a way to contact you if he or she has misplaced the original form. DO NOT WAIT TO ASK UNTIL AFTER THE DEADLINE HAS PASSED-- UNLESS THE UNIVERSITY OR EMPLOYER HAS REQUESTED YOU TO TRACE THE LETTERS AND YOU ARE STILL UNDER CONSIDERATION. By then it is too late.
   5. Fill out all forms completely before you forward them to recommenders.

The Department of Creative Writing routinely offers panel discussions conducted by qualified faculty on how to go about applying to graduate school and for academic jobs. If you are graduating with either of these ambitions, you should not consider these sessions optional-- they can make the difference between success or failure.

Summary:

• Always check the box waiving your right to see the letters- otherwise the letter will not be taken as a candid assessment.
• Therefore, solicit letters only from those professors who you are confident will write positive letters and who know you well enough to do so with specifics.
• Do not overload your dossier with letters: 3 are sufficient for most jobs.

Curriculum Vitae--literally, Latin genitive singular for “course of life”—an account of one’s career; please see sample Vitae

• Your vitae should be no longer than two or at most three pages.
• Do not pad: adding filler will only camouflage your genuine accomplishments. Better a short, honest vitae than one crammed with throwaway items.
• Organize your vitae 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 you presumably know well in a clear, concise, inviting fashion. One method is to align categories to the left and indicate experience to the right.
• Avoid being too fancy (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 (here you may include non-traditional experience, such as tutoring at a community center).
  5. Honors and awards (list only prestigious nominations, though, 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.

• Make sure your qualifications actually match the job description. Don’t merely “shotgun” your vitae anywhere and everywhere-- 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, but not be too chatty. Use it to highlight three or four important items on your vitae, 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. (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, so 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 disproportionately 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. I recommend a cloud-stored file you can access from any of your devices on site.

Note: Some institutions now interview at AWP.

• 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—“business attire.”
• 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 members 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.

MLA Job Interview reprinted by permission from The AWP Job List

No. 4, November 1999

You’ve applied for the academic jobs that seem attractive to you-- a good fit between your aspirations and the needs of the college or university that has advertised the position. After two or three months of anxious waiting, if you’re lucky, several have called you at the last minute and asked if you’ll be available for an interview at the MLA convention, which happens at the most inconvenient time of the year, between Christmas and New Year’s, usually at some far-flung city in an expensive hotel.

This is good news: it means you’ve made the first cut. On paper, you look attractive to them. And you-- confident in your experience and abilities-- have already made arrangements to attend. Sure, it’s a gamble, but what’s the alternative? You want to join the big leagues, so you have to prepared to make a calculated investment in your career that might or might not pay off.

The bad news is that each institution will be interviewing other people for the same job-- probably between half a dozen and twenty. Each of you will get about half an hour in a prescribed format. Some institutions seeking adjuncts or temporary replacements may interview in the MLA’s job center, but most tenure-track job interviews take place in hotel rooms or suites.

A typical format is for the chair of the committee to introduce the committee, make some general remarks about the requirements and advantages of the job, then allow members of the committee to ask a prearranged set of questions.

1. Do your homework. Before you get on that plane to MLA, scour the web pages or catalogues of the prospective employers. Know what programs they offer, how many writers are on their faculty, and who those people are by name. Look up the committee members and find out who they are-- what are their fields, where did they do their graduate work, what have they published? You can’t be comprehensive about this, but you can impress the interviewers that you are serious enough to have cased their program. You might find common interests, backgrounds, and some insight into what the position will really entail. All of this will make your interview—and subsequent decision—more informed.
2. Prepare for the interview. Visualize the experience in advance. Jot down the kinds of questions you’ll likely be asked. Team up with other job hunters and interview each other—just so you can hear yourself speak out loud, putting your qualifications into words. You’ll be nervous—everybody is.
3. Find the interview site. Make your interview arrangements in advance of MLA, then upon arrival call the committee chair at his or her hotel and confirm those arrangements.(This means, of course, that you have to find out in which hotel the chair is staying and under what name the room is listed BEFORE he or she leaves for MLA.) Arrive a few minutes early-- make allowance for weather, traffic, and most of all the clogged MLA elevators, which can add half an hour onto your trip if your interview is on a high floor.
4. Dress appropriately. We’re not talking about power ties and Gucci ensembles, but a professional look. People may admire eccentricity, but almost nobody wants to hire a flake, so leave the Grateful Dead outfit and the red leather miniskirt at home. Remember, the interview committee will likely include not only writers but also other academics. You don’t have to wear a suit, but wear clean pressed clothes. Jacket and tie is the norm for men, though the tie has become more and more optional. Women have more options, but “business attire” is still the rule. Gaudy or provocative outfits, including too much jewelry, will call too much attention to themselves at your expense. Bottom line: wear what you would feel comfortable wearing in a meeting with deans and trustees. Better to be slightly overdressed than the other way around.
5. Use common sense and common courtesy. Put yourself in the places of the four or five people interviewing you-- they are probably tired, pressed for time, overworked, and itching to get out of that hotel room to a cocktail party with their friends. Remember your manners. Do all the things your mother told you: shake hands firmly, be attentive and alert, sit up straight, look people in the eye, say please and thank you, and smile occasionally. Graciously decline the cup of coffee they offer so that you are not juggling a hot cup of liquid stain on your lap while trying to sound intelligent and focused. Break the ice-- some interviewers may be as nervous as you, and a welcoming look or remark may put them at their ease, which will enhance your attractiveness in their eyes. But don’t start off with a ribald joke or a disparaging remark about the hotel, the job search, another institution, and especially the MLA.
6. Expect the obvious questions. Search committees usually ask about your own work, your teaching philosophy in general and in creative writing in particular, your ability to teach composition and/or literature, and any special courses or initiatives (reading series or grants, for instance) you are qualified to undertake. Probably they will want to know why you want this particular job-- and don’t say, “To eat and pay my rent.” They may ask other questions as well, but if you are stymied by the obvious ones they will mentally cross you off their shortlist. Answer honestly: don’t try to be all things to all people. You aren’t qualified to do everything, and they know it.
7. Give concise answers. Leave room for the committee to chime in—don’t ramble on and on. And on and on and on.
8. Be alert—pick up on what is said. If a committee member broadly hints that writers tend to avoid committee service, tactfully interject that you have served on thus and such committee and consider such service a necessary part of good academic citizenship. If an interviewer expresses an interest in an author or course that is in your ballpark, make it clear with a brief remark that you have an interest, too.
9. Don’t take it personally. It is personal, of course, but the committee is talking to a long line of strangers, hoping to find a future colleague. Don’t expect to become fast friends with them. You may, of course, in the future. But for now it’s a professional transaction, so treat it like one. Be charming and honest, but not over-familiar or chummy.
10. The hardest part: distinguish yourself from all the other candidates. Sometimes this can be as simple as remarking on some special accomplishment of the program (don’t suck up to individual committee members by praising their books-- even if sincere, such praise comes off as unctuous). Your goal is that after you leave the room you want the committee to remember you-- she was the one who had the great idea about the creative process course, or he was the one who was so articulate on why literature students can benefit from creative writing courses. Not: Who was that guy in the clown suit and sandals?

After the interview, make notes about what went on and how impressed you were or weren’t with them. What did you do right or wrong? Jot down your unanswered questions. If they call tonight and offer you a job, will you take it?

If the interview went well, take yourself out to dinner. If you blew it, figure out what went wrong and try to do better next time. Take yourself out to dinner anyway. And remember: your impression may not be theirs. You may be passed over by the committee you were sure you impressed, or invited to campus by the one you were sure you didn’t.

That’s why committees don’t write poems.

In any event, you’ll now have your own MLA interview war stories to tell. And sooner or later, when you’re on the other side of the interview, you’ll remember to be as humane and considerate as your best interviewers.

Increasingly, search committees of creative writing programs are conducting preliminary interviews by telephone. Thus they save money and the ordeal of traveling during the holidays, when many would prefer to remain with their families. So if you are invited to interview by telephone, prepare for it as seriously as if you were traveling to MLA. The interview will most often be a conference call.

• Relax—there are several advantages to this type of interview: you can have notes handy for reference during the interview, including questions you’d like to ask; and at the end of the interview, you don’t face a bleak trek back to your hotel—you’re home.
• Since you will not be able to watch body language, listen carefully to the questions, especially to any question that is repeated—a sign that the committee is coaxing you to amplify your answer.
• Many speakerphones will not allow you to hear the people on the other end while you are talking. So keep your answers concise and allow frequent pauses to allow the committee to break in with further remarks or questions. Don’t be shy about occasionally asking for cues—“Would you like to hear more about that, or can I address some other point?”
• The questions are likely to be the same more or les predictable questions an MLA interview committee would ask, for instance:

“Tell us about your work in progress?”

“Talk about your teaching philosophy—what do you do different at the graduate and undergraduate levels?”

“Why do you want to come to our program—what can you offer us, and what can we offer you?”

• Ascertain in advance whether the “telephone” interview will actually be a video interview. In that case, mind your appearance. If you have no experience on Skype or Facetime or similar programs, arrange a chat with a friend to become comfortable with the video version of yourself.

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 of probably between two and five finalists who will be invited to campus.

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

1. Give a reading or presentation of your work.
2. Answer questions from the department in a meeting (some formats conflate both presentation and Q/A into one session).
3. Meet with the dean, the chair, and other assorted faculty and staff individually.
4. Meet with students, individually or as a group.
5. Teach a demo 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).
6. Attend a reception.
7. Have meals with faculty members and students.

• Realize that 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 really can't sustain a masquerade for a 36 or 48-hour stint. 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- e.g., 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.

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 (esp. 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 are really in 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 (unless it was the chair, in which case you can send it to another appropriate person). This is a very rare situation, mentioned here because the very 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.

Spring semester BEFORE year of graduation from MFA program:

• Establish an online dossier if you so choose.
• Solicit three to five letters of reference from valued professors (Be sure to provide them the proper form and a resumé of your accomplishments, including a reminder of which of their courses you studied in; you can add or substitute letters your final year.)
• Begin to make some decisions about what sort of writing and teaching life you are seeking to establish, where, and under what circumstances.

August/September/October the year of graduation (and subsequent years):

• Check out the monthly AWP Joblist either online or in hard copy.
• Check out the October MLA Joblist in hard copy (all MLA writing jobs should be listed in AWP, since AWP will also peruse MLA and copy any listings that seem appropriate, but some may fall through the cracks; MLA does not automatically copy AWP listings).
• Read job listings carefully. Make a list of positions you can realistically apply for.
• Apply before stipulated deadlines (usually deadlines fall between late October and mid-December, and some searches will remain open until the position is filled.) Send only those materials asked for by the search committee. Usually this includes an application letter and a curriculum vitae -- your academic resumé.

November/December:

• You will find out if you are a candidate for a first interview. This may happen by letter or, more likely, by email or telephone. In either case, the search committee will probably ask you for more materials: samples of your writing, statement of teaching philosophy, even sample syllabi for courses you have taught or would like to teach. It pays to have these materials on hand, because you will likely have to overnight-mail them to the search committee or send them electronically in short order.
• You will not necessarily be notified if you are not on the list for a first interview. Typically, search committee will never notify applicants they are no longer under consideration until at least the first interviews have all been set, in case they can't get their first choices. Some will not notify any candidates of their status until an actual hire has been made.
• Some search committees will conduct an initial interview with a pool of semi-finalists over the telephone. Be prepared for such an eventuality.

December/January:

• The MLA convention usually is scheduled the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve in a large expensive city. You may well have to make a calculated decision about whether to buy your airplane ticket and make a hotel reservation before you know for sure if you have interviews. (You need not join MLA. When you call for a reservation, don’t say you are attending the convention unless you are a member, or you may be blocked from reserving a room.)
• With luck, you'll have several MLA interviews, typically conducted by a search committee in a hotel suite or room (see handout on MLA interview from AWP Joblist.). The interview will last between half an hour and 45 minutes, occasionally longer. Know how long it will last before you arrive, so you can conduct yourself accordingly and not overstay your welcome.
• Usually, a search committee will not notify you of whether you’ve made it to the next round of interviews until after they return from MLA and consult with their departments, but some aggressive search committees may not only ask you to commit to an on-campus interview, but may actually offer you a position, especially if they feel you are very marketable and they may lose you later to a higher bidder. Be prepared for this eventuality-- in other words, don’t accept an MLA interview for any position you are not seriously considering.

January/February:

• If you have made the shortlist of candidates based on your MLA interview, you will usually find out by mid-January or so (some searches run behind for unforeseen reasons, or because of lack of consensus). Usually a department chair or search chair will call you and ask if you are interested in an on-campus interview, and typically the department assistant or secretary will follow up and schedule the actual visit. Be clear about the terms: they may expect you to pay for your airfare, hotel, and meals in advance and then submit a reimbursement claim; they may even submit that reimbursement for tax purposes, and you may wind up paying unfair taxes. It’s always better to get them to pay up front, but realistically you may have no choice. Beware of any offer that comes with strings attached: e.g., “If we offer you the job and you take it, we’ll reimburse you,” or “If we offer you the job and you turn it down, we won't.”
• On-campus interview will typically be scheduled ASAP from mid-January through February. Most often, you will be one of two to five candidates being brought to campus to “audition.” The search committee will usually tell you how many other candidates are still under consideration, and you may certainly ask. If you already have received other offers, the campus interview is a good time to make this known, particularly if you’d really prefer this new offer.
• After the campus interviews are finished, a search committee usually will make a recommendation to their department, who then vote, and an offer is tendered by the chair. You will have a short time- usually two weeks, often much less-- to make up your mind. Now is the time to bargain for whatever you want to bargain for: salary, course load, relocation money, summer grants if available, even a window office (the hardest thing to get!). Once you are hired, you will have to live with the bargain you made.

Following Fall Semester:

• Begin working at your new institution and distinguish yourself as a brilliant writer, a gifted and committed teacher, a collegial colleague, and a hot prospect for early tenure.

CASPER Q. GATSBY

Home address: 1966 Bubblecuffer St. Telephone: 555.555.1234
New Novel, VT 12345 Fax: 555.555.1235
E-mail: gatsby@westegg.com

Education: MFA in Creative Writing, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, 2002.
BA in English, Whatsamatta U., Frostbite Falls, MN, 1998

Teaching Experience: Teaching Assistant, UNCW (1999-2002): ENG 101-- College Writing and Reading; CRW 201-- Introduction to Creative Writing
CRW 207-- Introduction to Fiction Writing Teacher, New Novel High School (1996-1999): Tutored 10
students in Writing for Life remedial English program.

Publications: “A Horse of a Different Color” (short story), Bullwinkle Quarterly, Watsamatta U., Vol. 7, No. 12, Dec.1998, 19-26.
“Dudley Dooright and the Post-Colonialists” (essay), Culture Matters, Sam Hill State Univ., Pecos, TX,
Vol. 8, March 1999, 75-87.

Administrative Experience: Administrative assistant for summer writers workshop, UNCW (1999- 2000): Handled scheduling of writers.

Editorial: Intern at the UNCW Publishing Laboratory (2000-2002):
Critiqued project proposals, solicited manuscripts, copy-edited fiction, proofread galleys.

Honors: Graduate Student Teaching Award (May 2001). Robert H. Byington Leadership.

Academic Service: President, Graduate Student Association (2002). MFA student representative on Creative Writing Department MFA committee.

Agent: The Shakspeare Agency, 1 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10012.

Credentials: Complete dossier available from Associated Writing Programs
(AWP), George Mason University., Fairfax, VA 22030; 703.993.4301.

Personal: Born December 25, 1975, New Novel, VT.