Your letter of application is very important. That probably goes without saying, but it’s worth revising, editing, revising, editing, and revising some more in order to make it pretty darn great.  In general, you want the letter to represent your most important work and accomplishments as an emerging academic in your discipline, but you also want to shape it specifically for the job for which you’re applying. You want to make sure to highlight strengths in the following areas.

• SCHOLARSHIP: your dissertation and/or current research
• TEACHING: your experience as an instructor at the higher education level
• SERVICE: your experience in the service of your university, program, any committees you sat on, etc.

Here is the skeleton of a sample letter that resulted in a successful job search. There is no silver bullet for what will work over what won’t on any given search, but it’s a template you’re welcome to use, build on, and tweak for your own purposes:

[gview file=”http://opencuny.org/job101/files/2013/11/sample-letter.pdf”]