The Job Market Package (JMP), along with the Website project, focuses on the writing you do that demonstrates your professional expertise. Both projects together focus on writing connected with your professionalization. Here, perhaps more than anywhere else, your understanding of formatting, business writing, and professional communication is important. At the successful conclusion of this assignment, students will have a “starter set” of job market materials and should be able to competently continue to develop these materials and adapt them for specific positions and purposes.
Overview
Whether you already have a résumé/CV and LinkedIn account, or you are hoping to develop your first materials through this assignment, you will have an opportunity to build and rebuild these documents which are essential to your professionalization. As noted above, this may be some of the most important business writing you do to date. Grammar, syntax, punctuation, and clarity are as important to these materials as are content and format, as each of these elements forecast how serious you are in your intentions, how diligent you are with your work, and how reliable you might be as an employee. Job listings are often gate-kept, meaning that résumés and cover letters pass through several hands before reaching an interviewer. For this reason, it is important to pay attention to these materials now, as you are preparing for the job market.
This assignment sheet details the basic details of this project. Additional companion pages found in Module 4 will provide additional instruction on writing cover letters, building CV’s and resumes, and developing a LinkedIn profile. Each of these is connected to a daily assignment in Module 4, so look to your course agenda for details.
Your final version of this package is due to the iCollege submission box on November 4th.
Deliverables
Your job market project will be composed of the following elements (see below for construction and format):
Job Listing Synopsis
The Job Listing Synopsis is 1 to 2 pages long and identifies two different positions for which you might like to apply. These can be realistic positions you are actually preparing for, or they might be ideals. Alternately, if you are preparing to apply for internships, you can use this part of the assignment to explore those.
To complete this, search for jobs in your field using indeed, Glassdoor, Monster, or any other job search site common to your field. Then develop entries for the two jobs you have selected, formatting it like this example :
Job Title: Assistant Professor of English, Tenure Track, August 2021
Company/Organization (or project, if applicable): Chapman University
Listing Details: [Consolidate this for brevity] The English Department, within Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, at Chapman University invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor of English with a specialization in Rhetoric and Composition, beginning August 2021. The position is pending budgetary approval and the lifting of Chapman’s hiring freeze.
We welcome candidates who will be able to contribute to Chapman’s developing interdisciplinary minors in Africana Studies, Asian-American Studies, Disability Studies, Environmental Studies, Ethnic Studies, Latinx and Latin American Studies, LGBTQ Studies, and Women’s Studies.
Qualifications: A Ph.D. in English, Rhetoric and Composition, or a related field by August 1, 2021 is required.
We welcome candidates who will be able to contribute to Chapman’s developing interdisciplinary minors in Africana Studies, Asian-American Studies, Disability Studies, Environmental Studies, Ethnic Studies, Latinx and Latin American Studies, LGBTQ Studies, and Women’s Studies.
Responsibilities: Tenure-track faculty members are expected to develop and maintain an active research agenda for future tenure consideration and are evaluated on their research/scholarly/creative activity, teaching, and service. The faculty member will teach undergraduate and graduate courses, supervise student theses, and maintain active research and publication agendas.
Application Information:
Contact: Dr. Ian Barnard; ibarnard@chapman.edu
Materials Requested:
- A letter of interest
- Faculty employment application
- Curriculum Vitae
- List of three references
Cover Letter
The Cover Letter is a one-page introduction to you as a candidate for a specific position. To complete your Cover Letter, please select one of the two entries from the Job Listing Synopsis and write a letter for submission to that position. Using our readings, the tips shared in our Module 4 page on Cover Letters, and the business letter format we practiced in our Interoffice Communication Package, develop your letter with the idea that your cover letter should be customized to the company and position and serve as a broad overview of your job materials. Also remember to address the letter to a specific person – do some research and find out the name of the hiring manager if it is not included in the job listing.
See the iCollege companion page: Cover Letters
Master Résumé or CV
The next item in the package is your CV (used in certain fields, like academia, research sciences, etc.) or resume. As an up-and-coming professional, your document will likely not be very long. Following the guidelines outlined in our readings and the lecture notes from our Module 4 page on Résumés and CVs, develop a basic, master résumé that will be included in your package. On the main page, don’t forget to include your LinkedIn profile information as part of your header. This will serve as your LinkedIn Submission.
See the iCollege companion page: Résumés and CVs
LinkedIn Profile
In addition to your résumé and cover letter, you will also build/update a LinkedIn profile page, with the understanding that your potential employer will likely view this page as part of their digital presence research. Your LinkedIn page should be constructed according to the guidelines set forth in the Module 4 LinkedIn page, which serves as a companion page to this project.
See the iCollege companion page: Building Your LinkedIn
Reflection
Your final element is the one-page reflection. As with all of our reflections, you will reflect on your process and what you learned. Include a review of what you built from scratch vs. what you may have updated. What things do you still have left to do in order to bulk up your materials? What field-specific items might you include or need to develop in your next steps. Remember that this is the first step in developing, and these will be documents you maintain, refresh, and grow over the course of your career so speak to them as documents with meaning and longevity rather than one-off documents.
Delivery
As with other projects, your final submission will be one continuous document; this assignment may be saved as either a Word document or a PDF. However, unlike previous documents, you will use the Job Market Package template (linked here) to compile each element for final submission. Follow the instructions found on the last page of the template and paste your final copy into each section of the template.