A PhD Is Not Enough: A Guide To Survival

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0201626632?ie=UTF8&tag=ucmbread-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0201626632#reader_0201626632

Your application materials

You'll find that Tomorrow's Professor has good general advice on composing your job materials: cover letter, CV, research statement and teaching statement. Google and ask around for other folks' job materials in your area. Your professional web site is an unofficial fifth application document, since people will type your name into Google.

• Create a simple, elegant and straightforward professional web site with your job materials and publications.
• Remove unflattering photos and anything which could identify your views on politics, religion, etc. from your web site, facebook page, etc.
• Put a high-quality, professional-but-not-cheesy-looking photograph of yourself on your site. (Try black-and-white or sepia tone filters.) Don't be surprised when this photo shows up on posters.
• According to Google analytics, visitors coming from academic institutions had the following page-view distribution during the period of my job search:
  • Main site: 69%
  • CV: 18%
  • Research statement: 10%
  • Teaching statement: 3%
  Numbers are rounded to nearest whole percentile. From this, it seems that your CV is your most important document. (And yet, I put far more effort into my research statement!)
• Post your job materials in HTML in addition to PDF. (Well over 99% of all the people that looked at my materials looked at the HTML version of my job materials.) PDF is great for printing, but it's cumbersome for online viewing. For those using LaTeX, try HEVEA.
• Take the time (at least one hour) to personalize the content of each cover letter. (I tried to work in the names of the faculty members at each school qualified to judge my application.)
• Bold face faculty member names in the cover letter. Hiring packets are skimmed very quickly when they come in, so this boosts the chances of your packet being routed to the appropriate person.