Thread: Application help

"briefly tell" is the key. If you make it lengthy, the people who are looking at the apps will not read it. If I were on the committee to review applications, I wouldn't read past a page. Keep it short. 8)

BTW, congratulations on your engagement. When is the wedding?

When you are looking to be hired you are trying to market yourself. An application is your "commercial". Think of how TV commercials are made, they have a single point, they state it and show it in 30 seconds. So, in your case, here is what you do:

1. Identify ONE specific attribute of your teaching philosophy you want to highlight.
2. Condense it into a sound-bite (one sentence) DO NOT include any rationale or explanation.
3. Identify a specific instance that demonstrated this attribute in action. Describe it in 4-5 sentences (at the most). State the who, what, where, and how... do NOT embellish or add extra details.
4. Conclude with a statement (single sentence).

The purpose of this is NOT to tell the whole story, nor is it to completely sell them on you. The purpose is to make them want to ask you more. You want them to invite you for an interview. If you say it all now, they have no reason to ask you to come in. The goal of writing this is to make the readers say to themselves "That is great/interesting/unique/fitting (etc) I'd like to learn more about this applicant".

Remember you are marketing yourself.


If you want some more specific help, feel free t PM me and we can talk.