Your application documents are often your first chance to impress a prospective employer. Whether you are applying for positions in academia, industry, nonprofits, or government, these documents should highlight your best—and most applicable—experience for a position. By carefully tailoring your materials, you will maximize your chances of receiving an interview invitation.
Job document norms vary by industry. Please consult the information below to learn more about the best practices for your field. When you are ready to receive feedback on your materials, make an appointment with your UChicagoGRAD career advisor.
Academic Job Documents
Application Documents for Academic Jobs
Academic job application norms vary by institution, discipline, country, and position type. If you are seeking a tenure-track faculty role, you can anticipate needing a CV and tailored cover letter for each position. You may also encounter requests for teaching statements, teaching portfolios, research statements or proposals, diversity statements, letters of recommendation, writing samples, transcripts, and other materials.
Curriculum Vitae (CV)
The CV is a centerpiece of your application for an academic position. It provides a snapshot of your academic identity by documenting past research, teaching, mentoring, and service activities. CV formatting and content vary by discipline, so read the CVs of recently hired assistant professors in your field to identify norms and best practices. Keep in mind that the goal is to present information in a way that is clear and easy to digest; you should not overwhelm your readers with information or confuse them with non standard formats.
Cover Letter
Cover letters are required for nearly all academic job applications. Each letter should be a tailored pitch that highlights how your research, teaching, and service fit a hiring institution’s needs. The content and organization of your letters will vary by field and institution type. If research output is of central importance to the hiring department, you should lead with and emphasize your past, present, and future research projects, focusing on the big-picture contributions and outcomes of your work. If teaching seems to be the hiring department’s top priority, lead with and emphasize your teaching philosophy and experience. Throughout the letter, be specific about how you will carry out research, teaching, and service at the hiring institution. Academic cover letters follow the formatting conventions of business correspondence. Your letters should be two pages in length (one page for some STEM research positions). Your language should be concise and easily understood by someone outside your subfield.
Research Statements or Proposals
A research statement provides the search committee with more detailed information about your past, present, and future research. This document is not a narrative of every research project you’ve undertaken; rather, it makes an argument about who you are as a researcher, where you’re headed with your work, and why your work matters. In the humanities and social sciences, this is typically a 2-page document, while in STEM fields, this document may be 3-10 pages in length. Work with your advisor and other scholars in your field to ensure that you are describing your current and future projects in an appropriate and compelling manner. Please note that a research statement differs from the research proposals that you may be asked to write for postdoctoral fellowships in the humanities or social sciences.
Teaching Statements
A teaching statement is a one- to two-page personal reflection on your pedagogy. It demonstrates that you’ve thought deeply about the practice of teaching in your discipline, and it shows that you can apply what you’ve learned to successfully teach a range of students in various settings. The statement is structured as an argument with specific examples that illustrate your approach and its impact on student learning. For further advice on writing an effective teaching statement, consult your UChicagoGRAD career advisor.
Teaching Portfolios (Evidence of Teaching Effectiveness)
A teaching portfolio provides evidence of your effectiveness as an instructor. It may contain a teaching statement, a teaching biography (i.e. list of courses taught, with descriptions), sample syllabi, sample assignments, course evaluations and feedback, and a list of completed pedagogical trainings. More than a loose compilation of documents, the teaching portfolio is an argument about your teaching, supported by compelling evidence. Consider using a cover sheet with a table of contents to assist readers in finding information. For further advice on teaching portfolios and evidence of teaching effectiveness, attend the Chicago Center for Teaching and Learning‘s Seminar on Teaching Portfolios and schedule an appointment with your UChicagoGRAD Career Advisor.
Diversity Statements
Diversity Statements are 1- to 2-page documents that address your past or potential contributions to academic diversity, inclusion, and equity. These statements typically address both your own learning and development related to diversity as well as others’ learning and development (achieved as a result of your research, teaching, or service). Diversity statements are typically written in first-person point of view, and they provide evidence of reflection as well as concrete examples.
Reference Letters
Many job openings request that 3 letters of recommendation be sent in support of the application. These letters are typically written by scholars or researchers in your field who can speak to your intellectual capabilities and the merits of your research and teaching. Speak with potential recommenders far in advance of applications, preferably the spring or summer before you plan to apply to academic jobs. When you ask for letters, you should also ask how your recommender prefers to handle the logistics of submission. Some faculty members prefer to submit all letters themselves (perhaps using a shared Google Sheet to track deadlines). Other recommenders prefer that you use a dossier service such as Interfolio, which collects, manages, and submits letters at your command.
Writing Samples and Article Reprints
To evaluate your research, search committees in the humanities and social sciences may request writing samples or sample publications. If you need to supply a writing sample, you should provide the best, most polished example of your scholarship. When possible, ensure that the sample you provide aligns thematically with the requirements of the position. ABD candidates should be prepared to provide all completed dissertation chapters, as some committees wish to assess your progress toward degree. STEM applicants usually are not asked to supply these materials, as scientific papers are readily available online.
Transcripts
You may be asked to provide transcripts from all of your graduate institutions. These transcripts are usually used to verify your credentials, not to evaluate your candidacy.
Other Materials
Applicants for positions at faith- or mission-based institutions may need to prepare faith statements or a statements summarizing your potential contributions to the institution’s mission. Applicants for faculty positions in music composition or the visual arts should prepare an artist’s statement and a portfolio of your work.
A Note on Online Presence
While it is not likely that a hiring institution will request a scholarly website or online teaching portfolio from job candidates, these forms of online presence are gaining in popularity among job seekers. Search committee members may search for short-listed candidates online, and a professional-looking website or portfolio can be a nice place for them to land. As you prepare your other job materials, reflect on your online presence and determine what forms of digital identity are in line with your values and appropriate for scholars in your field. This could include a personal website, online portfolio, Academia.edu page, ResearchGate profile, LinkedIn profile, departmental website profile, or a combination of these.
Industry, Nonprofit, and Government Job Documents
Most industry, nonprofit, and government job openings require applicants to prepare résumés and cover letters. The résumé is the cornerstone your application. It is a curated, tailored document highlighting your best—and most applicable—experience for a position. The cover letter gives narrative shape to your résumé, using a few specific examples to demonstrate that you could excel in a given job. To write a strong résumés and cover letters, begin with these steps:
- Read job descriptions with a pen and highlighter. Make note of repeated competencies and qualifications. Be sure to highlight these in your documents.
- Research the hiring organization’s mission statement. Who do they serve? What are their goals? Can you mirror this language in your materials to show similar commitments?
- Translate your experience and skills into the language of the job ad. It is okay to be overt about this; you can copy key phrases and terms.
Looking for feedback on your résumé or cover letter? Schedule a meeting with a UChicagoGRAD career advisor.
Drafting Your Resume
Please refer to UChicagoGRAD’s Résumé Guide for formatting best practices. We recommend organizing your resume into four major sections:
Contact Information. Your name and contact information appear first. Do not waste unnecessary space; this should only take up two lines at the top of the document.
Education Section. For those currently enrolled in graduate school, an education section typically occupies the space immediately beneath your contact information. Here you will list anticipated and earned degrees.
Experience Section(s). Your experience section lists the roles you’ve held and associated accomplishments. Rather than using a generic heading like “Professional Experience” for this section, use your headings to show a hiring manager your fit for a given job. Example headings can include, “Research and Analytical Experience,” “Writing and Editing Experience,” “Project Management Experience,” or “Teaching and Mentoring Experience.” Populate these experience sections with your past positions (in reverse chronological order), and use bullet points to describe those experiences. Your bullet points should articulate for the reader the kind of project you were engaged in, the purpose of the project, and the impact that resulted from your participation. Begin each bullet point with an action verb and quantify when possible.
Skills Section. You can conclude the résumé with a section listing all relevant technical skills and language capabilities. This list should not stand alone; you should also show your reader how you developed or employed particular skills in your experience sections.
Note: If you are applying for a job with the US federal government, please review the bespoke résumé guidance from the Office of Personnel Management.
Writing Your Cover Letter
Cover letters work in tandem with your résumé by creating narrative context. They give you space to demonstrate interest in and knowledge of a hiring organization, and they provide specific and compelling reasons why you are a strong fit for a specific position.
It can be helpful to think of cover letters as short argumentative essays. To this end, well-written cover letters should have a main claim about your fit to the advertised position (e.g. “I bring writing and communication skills that enable me to effectively serve clients”), and they should provide evidence to support this claim. You can write an effective cover letter in just four paragraphs:
Paragraph 1. State the position to which you are applying, and provide specific reasons for your interest in the organization. Then, offer a thesis statement that mentions two distinct competencies (A and B) that make you a fit for the job.
Paragraph 2. Make a claim about competency A (e.g. “I have excellent communication skills . . .”) and provide one or two examples that serve as evidence.
Paragraph 3. Make a claim about competency B, and provide one or two examples that serve as evidence for your claim.
Paragraph 4. Express gratitude and look to the future (e.g. “Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to discussing my application in an interview.”)
An effective cover letter should be one page long and single spaced (with double spacing in between paragraphs). You should include your contact information, the date, the employer’s contact information, a formal salutation and closing, and a signature.
Looking for feedback on your résumé or cover letter? Schedule a meeting with a UChicagoGRAD career advisor.