Greg Kochanski

Applying for a job.

ZZZZZ wrote:
> Dear Dr Kochanski,
>
> Re:Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Phonetics Laboratory
> I'm very interested in the above post. Please find my cv attached.
>
> Yours sincerely,
>
> ZZZZZ ZZZZZ

Dear ZZZZ, that's not the way to get your application taken seriously. In fact, we won't even read it because it doesn't meet the requirements laid out in the job advert.

The job advert has a link to the "Further Particulars", which is an important few pages in the UK. It tells you about working conditions, start and end dates, and it gives a more detailed list of the skills we are looking for. It also tells you what we want in an application.

This job's further particulars say that an application consists of:

• letter of application
• CV
• list of your published works, and
• (optionally) one of your publications.

It also says that this should all be in PDF format. (We ask for it in PDF format because we prefer people who can demonstrate a little bit of competence with computers. PDF format is a little bit non-standard, so producing it is a bit of a challenge. PDF is also nice in that it guarantees that all the members of the hiring committee will see exactly the same application. Further, not all members of the committee regularly use Microsoft Windows, so Word documents aren't especially convenient.)

So, if you don't meet those requirements, it's not an application and you will get a polite little letter pointing you at the Further Particulars page. But, you only get that polite little letter because we're nice people: we could just as well toss it into the bit bucket.

So, the further particulars for the position say what's required in an application, and if you want to be taken seriously you should follow them. It's always a good idea to read all the web pages you can find that are relevant to the job.

The letter of application is quite important. It is a 1-page (more or less) letter that explains why you're a good candidate for the position. If you just send your CV, you're asking us to make the connections between the things you can do and the skills we need. Suppose we don't make some important connection? So, doing it well is very much in your interest.

Also, we're only human, we have our own little egos and we like to think that our job is at least interesting enough for you to to spend a couple of hours writing a letter. Finally, part of the project involves writing scientific papers, so it's entirely reasonable for us to want to see a sample of your writing abilities.

So, read the further particulars, follow them, and your application will stand a much better chance. Otherwise, we'll assume you don't really care. Perhaps you don't really want a job and you're only applying to make you mother (or your social worker) happy. If so, don't worry: you won't get one here.