No cover letter?

No cover letter?

socialneuro 16 Aug 2016 14:46

Hi everyone,

Most job posts ask applicants to upload or email certain documents (e.g., CV, research statement, teaching statement, etc.), and this usually includes a cover letter. However, I've noticed some posts where there is no mention of a cover letter, and when I fill out the job website application, there is no place to upload a cover letter. If this is the case, should I assume that the search committee is not interested in reading a cover letter? Just wondering because there's some info in my cover letter that would be difficult to integrate elsewhere in my materials, and I think this info helps my application.

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Re: No cover letter?

DocJ 16 Aug 2016 18:14

One camp will argue that if you don't follow the exact application instructions, the search committee might outright discard or not consider your materials at all. My view is that the cover letter is all but essential besides the CV. If it were me, I'd scan a cover letter and my CV into a single PDF and just upload that as the CV document. If the committee doesn't want to read it, they don't have to. I note that having been on search committees, sometimes extra documents we didn't request were helpful in filling out our finalists list. These didn't make a difference in the top 2 or 3 applicants, but for more "middle" applicants, extra information was useful in our searches.

Re: No cover letter?

socialneuro 16 Aug 2016 19:37

Thanks, DocJ! I really appreciate your comments.