The Cover Letter

The bulk of our job search happens in Oct./Nov., ending with short interviews before Thanksgiving. Those are the busy months in my field, followed by the possibilities of on-campus interviews. While on-campus interviews may be more stressful and/or time consuming, there are, at least, fewer of them.

Why bring this up? Because I have a job application due next Monday, and I feel like I'm back in October. I have to write the cover letter, I don't know how to write this particular cover letter, and generally cover letters are horrid.

I haven't heard anything from anyone about other jobs. It's a bit ridiculous, actually -- I think I got one "confirmation of materials" note, and then all the colleges fell completely silent. None of them were interviewing at our monster convention (that's a first, for me!) so for awhile I had hope. Said hope faded after Thanksgiving, when there were no emails or phone calls.

The job I'm supposed to be writing for now is good, though. It's only a one-year with possible extensions, but it's close to me and no moving would be necessary. It's at an interesting school with fairly diverse faculty, and the teaching load is (gasp) five courses. Per year, not per semester. Hell, I teach twelve courses a year in my sleep, these days...

So, back to the cover letter. I want to get it out today, which means I have to come up with something useable in the next hour.