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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.
Posted by bsh30 at November 16, 2009 11:00 PM
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