Career Strategies for Young Academics: Part 1.

Portfolio and Vita: Your Career Navitgation Logbook and Compass

(A mini-workshop for Postgraduate Students and Casual Employees)

(1999/03/04~)

SASAKI, Yoshinori

Goals

1. To understand basic principles underlying job-application document preparations.
2. To draft a usable vita.

Preparation

• Draft your vita, using Microsoft Word (or a text file) if possible. If you cannot prepare it in English, you may bring information in your L1. (You need not be nervous about your English at this stage; you will have many chances to polish your expressions later.)

Minimally necessary information:

• Contact (address; phone; e-mail)
• Education
• Job experiences
• Academic achievments (Publication/Presentation)
  • publications in refereed journals
  • publications in other periodicals/books, etc.
  • oral presentations
• Any other things you want to emphasize
• Bring both a hard-copy and a document file on a floppy disk.

Workshop Program

1. Very Brief overview
2. Writing Practicum
3. Discussion
4. Review

Ultimate Goal of Job Search -- Happy Professional Life

Well-prepared, informative credentials benefit both an employer and an applicant, in quest for a suitable match. Misleading presentations are avoidable because

1. it is unethical, and
2. it will inconvenience both parties (them and you).
   

   There is a fine but clear line between an effective presentation and and a misleading one. Misleading presentations often backfire on the presenter.

Basic Concepts

Job-Application Documents

• Cover letter
• Vita/Resume
  • Essential
    • Address, Phone & Fax, E-mail
    • Education
    • Job experiences
    • Academic achievments (Publication/Presentation)
      • publications in refereed journals
      • publications in other periodicals/books, etc.
      • (oral presentations -- complete list or summary?)
  • Optional
    • URL
    • Professional goals
    • Research experience
    • Skills
      • technology
      • statistics
      • tester certificate
      • ...
    • Curriculum/Material development
    • Administrative experience
    • Coursework (and grades)
    • extra-curricular trainings
    • teaching experiences (detail)
      • Level
      • Materials
      • Institution
      • Number of students
      • Language of instruction
    • other professional experiences
    • relevant professional/social activities
    • Prize, Honor, Grant, Scholarship, etc.
    • Name and address of referees
    • Affiliation
    • Personal information
      • First language
      • Nationality
      • Passport Number
      • Social Security Number (US) / Tax File Numer (OZ)
    • references
    • ....
• Letters of Reference
• Statement
  • Statement of teaching principles
  • Statement of research objectives
• Supplementary materials (Can be sent upon request.)
  • Summary of teaching evaluation
  • Lesson plan samples
  • Original Teaching material samples
  • Academic writing samples

"Rirekisho" vs. Vita/Resume

Vita vs. Resume

Types of Resume/Vita

• Chronological
• Functional
• Combinational

What is a portfolio?

Possible teaching portfolio contents

• Course outline
• Lesson plans
• Teaching materials
• Student evaluations
• Innovations
• Papers and conference presentations on teaching matters
• ...

What will happen in the hiring process?

Perhaps...:

A prospective employer has received 50 applications for one vacancy. They will give a face-to-face interview to 5 of them, and one of them will be hired. In other words, 45 applicants will never have a chance to present themselves personally.
ﾊ

Vita is your liaison: Let it speak for you before you have a chance to do so yourself.

ﾊ

Imagine that:

On a particularly long day, you, a faculty member of a certain university, are spending a drowsy afternoon in your office. Your are a member of a hiring committee, and by tomorrow you need to submit a list of 5 candicate you want to invite to the campus for an interview out of 50 applicants. Since this morning you have already read 20 applications, but you still have 30 left. It is already 2:30 pm and you have to go to a nursury school to pick up your daughter by 5pm. Your also have to prepare a teaching plan for this Friday, write a grant proposal by next Monday, and call a plumber to fix your kitchin faucet. How will you handle the thick bulk of papers before your eyes?

-> Many committee members (if not all) initially glance the cover letter and the first page of the vita. Only when they look attractive, the rest of the credentials will be seriously examined. Others are likely to be "set aside", which bulk will not be given a second look.
ﾊ

Give the essence and climax of your qualifications (i.e., why they have to hire you) on the first page of your vita. You can give further details in the rest of the credentials.

ﾊ

State the most important (appealing) information at the most visible places -- an early part of your vita (or each page). -> State your education, career and publication records inthe counter-chronological order (if you sequence them chronologically at all).

Conversely,
ﾊ

Your potential employer will judge what you consider more/less important by how you present information and whether you understand their priorities.

Imagine that:

You have to choose one of the following candidates in each pair to invite to an interview. Which one will you choose?
ﾊ

• Candidate A: Taught 1st-year courses only;

vs.

• Candidate B: Taught 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th year courses.

  
  ﾊ

• Candiate C: Taught conversation tutorials only; occasionally marked quizzes,

vs.

• Candiate D: Taught Lecture, reading and conversation tutorials, developed reading materials, and final exam questions.

  
  ﾊ

• Candidate E: Taught language courses only,

vs.

• Candidate F: Taught courses in language, applied linguistics, and inter-cultural communication.

  
  

  You must demonstrate an "edge" over other candiates to survive the screening.

  Enlist everything that can potentially stimulate an employer's appetite. (You can delete them later, if you wish.)

  • Anecdote: Your coursework in your teens may help.

  Tailor the section headings of your vita, to maximize the impact of your presentation. What headings will make you a well-rounded candidate? E.g., You can enlist your teaching experience: By levels; By purposes of the course; By duties; By materials; etc.

Also compare:

• Candidate G: Lousy writing and document preparation
• Candidate H: Excellent documentation skills

  
  

  University staff is very much a documenting profession (committee reports, grant proposals, meeting minutes, course outlines, letters of reference, ....). Lousy documentation tends to turn off readers, who are your possible future colleagues.

  ﾊ

If you are lucky enough to still have a few years before you enter the job market, what can you do to prepare yourself better for the battle?

ﾊ

Write a vita, Compare it with a vitas of persons who you consider as you role model; Think what will make you a more attractice candidate (Project what you want to look like in 1/2/3/5/10 years.), and Plan your teaching/research as such. Vita is your career navigation logbook as well as a compass.

ﾊ

Update your vita regularly and frequently, after finishing a semester's teaching, giving a conference presentation, etc.

Organize your professional portfolio -- it will provide a valuable source of your future job-application credentials.

ﾊ

Keep your professional track record (e.g., lesson plans, material development) in a way that will help you find a job.

ﾊ

• Anecdote: Power of course outline.

Mechanics --- Secondary but not negligible

• language
  • grammar/collocation
  • spelling
  • rhetoric
• layout
  • page break
  • paging
  • header/footer
  • section title position
  • ......
• font
  • type
  • size
  • style
• citation style (APA/MLA)
• incorporating WorldScripts?
• word-processing skills
• paper quality
• printing (laser / ink-jet)
• envelope

Do you want incorporate a few Japanese lines in your English vita?

Tactics

Tailor your vita to the needs of the potential employer (if you know who and what they are).

Provide an updated vita if there is a significant improvement in your qualification.

ﾊ

Beyond Basics

Portfolio and Vita on a Web page -- purpose and audience?

References:

• "Dynamite Resume"
• "Resume that will knock'em dead"
• "The CV doctor" http://chronicle.com/jobs/99/09/99091701c.htm

Caution:

Most resume-writing guidebooks are for professionals: Those books are informative, but note the differences between professional resume (1~2 page) and academic vita (longer).

• "A PhD is not enough"
• Publication outlets for JSL specialists

Last updated on 2002/02/13 (Y/M/D).　

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