November 16, 2009
Art History CV Workshop
With Dr Giuffrida
CVs/Resumes/Cover Letters – all about MARKETING!! (how you arrange the content and present it)
Resumes are short – 2 pages; CV is much more comprehensive – max of 3-4 pages (3 is a good goal at this stage)
Websites and books:
Inside Higher Ed --> insidehighered.com
Mostly free
Good career advise for graduate students and young professionals
Chronicle of Higher Education --> http://chronicle.com
CV Doctor – on homepage – will give you commentary and feedback
-Humanities oriented – not necessarily
********Surviving Your Academic Job Hunt: Advice for Humanities Ph.D.s**********
by Kathryn Hume, $23 on Amazon
Teaching philosophies, etc
First 2/3 is about academic job hunt
Last 1/3 has formatting tools
High-Level Resumes: High-Powered Tactics for High-Earning Professionals
By Marshall A. Brown - $3.70 new on Amazon (NOT a typo)
If you get past title – good tips on how to market yourself
Good for non-profit and museum work
Descriptive personal attributes and active verbs
College Art Association
Careers > Standards and Guidelines – good general information (starting point)
U Of Pennsylvania Career Services
Job Search Advise
Tips and Advise
Examples – comparison
Humanities oriented
Accessible to non-students
Content
Major Categories
Order/wording may change by goal and stage in the field
• Education
- ALWAYS first in Academic field
- For museum or non-profit, work comes first
• Teaching
• Museum Experience (curatorial, research, education, conservation)
- Good heading
- Individual titles tell what you did
- May be paid or unpaid positions (don’t distinguish between them)
- At least a few bullet points of what you did
- If you are involved in grant writing – indicate that you were involved as part of a team
- “Cooperation in preparation for … grant…” – if it was not yet submitted
- Want to know that you’ve had some experience
- Say you can work with adults and kids if going into museum education
• Other Professional Experience
• Grants, Fellowships, Awards
- Don’t put the amount – just the prestige of earning SOMETHING
- List if you earned money to travel to juried paper (separate from papers b/c honor)
- Use the name of the Fellowship!!!
- AVOID ACRONYMS (at least spell out first)
- Teaching Assistantship is just the TA assignment – should go under teaching experience
- Honors on MA Exam
- Nomination – can be listed if significant
- Date – then the title
• Selected Juried Papers (or Conference Papers and Invited Lectures, Public Lectures)
• Publications
- Most recent come first
• Selected Research Travel
• Professional Service
• Professional
Do not use multiple emails and phone numbers
- Make sure your cell phone message is professional
Use personal email that will stay with you
EDUCATION
-Resume – come at the end
-Academic – near the beginning
-Easy to make look hard to read
-Degree on far left, year of completion in column, then List Dorctoral Comprehensive exams Major and minor areas – can list
-Do NOT include GPA or coursework
-Section for coursework if needed for fellowship – usually look at transcripts
Publications
-Try to get into conferences – may publish
-Can turn presented papers into published papers
“Selected Juried Papers” – had to be accepted into
-Note where it was and titles
-Mixture of Bold and Italics works well
-Note date (year)
-Mention if you had a specific job
-Presentation abroad is prestigious
-If your paper title doesn’t hint at what the section title was then add it (usually paper title enough)
Languages
-At the end
-List “English” – especially if you have an ethnic name
-List languages, imply a full comprehension
-If you don’t know fully (put competency in parenthesis)
-“Basic” – doesn’t sound stupid
-Include any ancient languages
Study abroad goes in education
Institution and place with year
TA/RA assignment
-Do not use “TA” – spell out Graduate Teaching Assistant/Instructor
-List as Instructor – if you get to stand up in front of the class and do the teaching
-Presented guest lecture on “title” like an exhibition
-NO COURSE NUMBER!!! Means Nothing outside of school (use title)
If you are an “Instructor of Record”
It is a separate category and should be listed as separate
-Start with how many semesters you have under your belt
-Indicate a range if it changes – list years with commas (don’t need to list fall and spring)
-“Conduct weekly conference sections”
-If you collaborate with curators from another institution
General Questions
•If you help on an exhibition – make another section in
•If you did something else (Another Career)
-Generally – mention as a sentence in cover letter but not in CV or Resume (distracts)
-Personal life history – make you memorable in phone interview – give them something that the CV didn’t tell them
•If you work in a gallery
“OTHER” work experience
Try to use language that sounds closer to the field
•Only bring in technical if the certain computer skills are part of the qualifications
•Special Situations – use technical jargon
Visual Resources department –
-People usually have library and/or art historical background
-List software that you may have used
**Always indicate that you know the computer program that the job specifies
-Museum – TMS – good to indicate if you know
-Those kinds of jobs can include a list of
Web design
-DO NOT indicate higher level technical skills than you actually have!!
-“basic,” “intermediate,” and “advanced”
-Only indicate if it is part of the job description
-You don’t want to scare off the employer – only give them what they ask for
•Nothing High School
If you are on a committee – as grad student – list under professional service
•Don’t list yourself as Union rep – look bad to employers
•No need to distinguish between part time or full time experience
•No need to indicate paid/unpaid internship
NONOs
•Don’t indicate things that you did not do
•Be ABSOLUTELY consistent in formatting
•Serif is hard to read in small (12 point for heading, 11 for information)
•Don’t fully justify – leave white space
•All Titles bolded
•Titles in the same place
•Have people read over and over
Often thrown out if there are typos
•If you send a Resume and a Cover letter to institution you’d like to work for that doesn’t have a posted job opportunity
Include a summary at the beginning – paragraph to tell a bit about yourself
Cover letter thrown away, but Resume will be filed
When they get it later it has the pertinent information
•Post-Doctoral or Fellowship
Might ask for specialized information on teaching philosophy and syllabi
Make up a syllabus to show that you have the knowledge
•Archival research
Can fit under “Selected Research Travel” or “Research Experience”
•List undergraduate awards if you have later information
•Memberships – under Professional Affiliations
CAA or AMA
List
Join the pertinent institution
•Personal research – include in your Cover Letter
Major MA Qualifying paper can go on CV
Recommendation Letters
-Take time to choose people that know you well and have the time
-If they are too busy – the letter will not be good
-Have a conversation first
-Give them as much information as possible
-About the job and your experience
-Don’t assume that they will do the research themselves
-4 – 6 weeks advanced notice
-Remind 2 ½ weeks beforehand
-Ask for a confirmation email that it is sent
-“Friendly reminder checking in to see if …”
-Separate reminder for multiple due dates
Cover Letters
•CUSTOMIZED for every application
•You will be cut if it is not easy to read, confusing, etc
•Need to show that you know how to communicate
•No runons
•Very mapped out
•Strong topic sentences (not creative)
•Hit all points in the job description
First Paragraph
-Short introduction of what you are applying to (Include Title)
-Your experience (short and relevant)
-And your status (where you are in education/career path)
Second Paragraph
-Research job -research interest
-Teaching – teaching experience
-Match the requirements of the job description
Last Paragraph
-Close the deal – why you are a good fit for the job
-Tell them why you are the best for this job
-Don’t be humble!!
-Unnecessary to use grad school letterhead (just your own name)
-2 pages max – academic job or fellowship (tenure track)
Generally 1 page for most jobs
Writing Samples
-Less than 20 pages (inclusive of footnotes, but not images)
-Good if on a single object
-Be aware of using something that uses only ONE method
-Usually a range in a department, but you don’t want to pigeon hole yourself
-What you submit should have 2 – 3 methods (illustrates your knowledge)
- don’t want too much or too specific
Balance traditional and more narrow theoretical analysis
-Don’t just appeal to the person you are working with
*Always ask professors if they know someone at the place you are applying to!! Connections are always beneficial even if they are through someone that is not writing a letter for you.
bsh30 at 11:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
November 13, 2009
MA Exam Meeting
November 11, 2009 – Dr Olszewski
Questions will be gathered from all of the faculty (essay questions and images)
Ancient – Dr Niles
Medieval – Dr Olszewski
Ren/Baroque – Dr Olszewski 3-4 questions and Dr Scallen 3-4 questions
Modern – Dr Landau, Dr Helmreich, Dr Adams, Dr Carrier – each will present a few questions
Non-Western – Dr Giuffrida, Dr Petridis
DAY ONE
2 1/2 hours
30 images – 5 minute answers
Answer all 30
6 images in each of 5 areas – equally balanced painting, sculpture, architecture
Graded 0-4 points for each answer
1 point artist title and date, 3 points for discussion
5 lowest scores dropped (because not everyone familiar in all areas)
Artist title and date (don’t need location, except architecture) Some will be anonymous
May not have a specific title – be as precise as possible
Dates – as specific as you can – will vary by item
Explain the importance – in term of significance to period and larger history
If it is not unique or extraordinary – contextualize what makes it fit category (ie: peristyle temple) (Why Last Supper is an important theme)
Can be any image from the history of art
Emphasis on images from the CMA collection and Stokstad Survey book (but not limited to these sources)
ID questions will NOT be any chronological/stylistic order (may repeat a patter or sequence – don’t know what to expect)
If it is something you are unfamiliar with it, try to rationalize and say something about the work – partial answer better than none
Should be able to say something significant about very famous works.
If there is something you are unfamiliar with –> comment to the extent that you can
Visual components might relate to the essay questions the next day
DAY TWO
Also in the 5 areas
Answer 4 questions in 3 areas
(Minimum of 3 areas must be answered)
2 of 4 in area you plan to study in PhD
4 hour exam – 1 hour per essay
Spend first 5-10 minutes in making an outline (use extra blue book) – decide answer before writing
Answer the question as it is asked (give specifics to the answer and then bring in outside material – suggest fluency in the material)
If you are strong in one answer, don’t spend too long on it (will cheat other answers)
Support answer with visual references (artists, images *dates) to show visual fluency
General Information
Both Days in Mather 100 – projection – rearrange tables
Faculty will be present for questions
Blue books provided and shared between faculty in grading
Usually graded within a week
Information will come later in the semester about applying to Case’s PhD program
You have to do well in those answers
High Pass, Pass, Low Pass, Fail
PhD needs at least 2 High Passes
Image ID grade should be above 80 (want to be as high as possible)
2 HP on essays and good slide grade or 3 HP essays and mediocre slide grade = HP overall
(2 HP and 1 LP – problem)
Normal – high grade for image ID is low 90s
Dr Scallen grades images
Other faculty looks at essays
Recommended bibliography?
Visual fluency is the key!! Just keep looking at images
Then move to advanced books (Renaissance = F. Hart)
Then move to monographs
Start thinking in terms of 3 areas (don’t study what you won’t need to know)
Know major monographs
Get a sense of chronology
Impressive if you bring in methodology and historiography
Major authorities in the field should be at your disposal
Impress reader by bringing in different methodology in your essay
If you answer a question quickly – be careful
Difference between undergrad and grad
(Undergrads – say too much; Greaduates – don’t say enough)
Start with the question and then get into extraneous information
Be careful that you don’t speculate or make it clear when you are
Don’t add INCORRECT information!
Won’t mark up the blue book (don’t want to influence if there is a second reader)
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