Criteria for Success
- You demonstrate scientific accomplishment and scholastic achievement.
- You clearly define the vision and impact of your future research program.
- You differentiate yourself from your advisor(s), colleagues, and other faculty candidates.
- You demonstrate an aptitude for teaching and advising students.
- You establish what your niche will be in the department.
- You clearly display your excitement and passion for the position.
Structure Diagram
- Letterhead
- Critical contact information: name, degree, current position, email, and phone number
- Your professional profile or webpage (e.g., LinkedIn, ResearchGate, Academia.edu)
- Date, department, and university name and address
- Salutation – “Dear [Faculty Search Committee / Department Head],”
- Brief introduction – Display excitement. State specific terms related to the faculty position, department and university. For example, if you are applying to a “cluster” hire that includes faculty across multiple departments, such as Systems and Synthetic Biology, then state this directly. State the position you are applying for (i.e., tenure-track appointment, assistant faculty position).
- Strong opening statement – Declare succinctly your targeted research areas. Establish your foundation on which you will base your research. Emphasize novel interfaces and applications within your proposed research.
- Scientific achievements – Summarize successes highlighted in your CV that demonstrate the breadth and depth of scientific expertise. Demonstrate your productivity, as well as key scientific or technical strengths with supporting details.
- Motivation & impact – State areas of expertise and indicate specific aims of your future research program. Clearly describe how these aims align with current research initiatives in the department or university.
- Teaching & mentorship – Highlight your experience in the classroom and as a research mentor and service in the profession or community.
- Wrap-up – “Additional documents are enclosed. Please feel free to contact me if supplemental information is required.”
- Follow-up & thank you – Be clear that you expect to hear back (e.g., I look forward to your reply). Thank the committee for their time and consideration.
- Closure – Maintain professionalism. Sincerely, Best regards, and Kindest regards are appropriate closing phrases. Include your electronic signature.
Purpose
The faculty cover letter is the first part of your application to be read by the Faculty Search Committee. Your cover letter may be the only part anyone reads if the Search Committee doesn’t like what they see in your cover letter. Therefore, the primary purpose of a Faculty cover letter is to capture attention and generate interest among members of the specific department for which you are applying.
The cover letter should serve as a letter of introduction. It connects all other application material, such as the CV, research statement, and teaching statement. Brainstorm approaches to reiterate important points and themes between these documents in a complementary, cohesive, and concise manner. The cover letter should not be longer than one page.
Analyze your audience
Knowing what the Faculty Search Committee is looking for will help you tailor your application. Searches for new hires often focus on specific research areas (e.g., robotics, machine learning, nanomaterials, systems, renewable energy). If this is the case, you should customize your application to highlight your work in the specified research area. Explain why you are a good fit and how you’ll benefit the department.
Alternatively, departments may concentrate solely on the best candidates regardless of pre-selected scientific disciplines. In such cases, you have more flexibility in presenting yourself. Still, you should indicate your research area in a clear manner and give a strategic vision for your research program.
Additionally, academic employment opportunities differ based on whether positions are tenure-track or non-tenure track, research-focused or teaching-focused, and the type of institution (R1 university, liberal arts college, etc.). Investigate the responsibilities and culture associated with each of these positions, and include only information relevant to the specific position – don’t waste valuable space on irrelevant experiences.
Skills
Advocate for yourself
The cover letter emphasizes your past and present academic career while promoting your future potential. For many of us, exuding confidence in an open letter of introduction is challenging, but you have to believe in yourself before you can convince others to believe in you.
State your pedigree
In academia, the institutions and departments you have attended and the advisors for whom you have worked do matter. State this information in Scientific Achievements. Inform your audience if you have co-taught classes with distinguished professors in Teaching & Mentorship or emphasize existing collaborations in the Motivation & Impact section.
Quantify your productivity
Academia identifies scientific contributions by the following conventions: number of publications, quality, and impact. In addition to research articles, noteworthy contributions may also include book chapters, or your role as a conference or journal reviewer. Emphasize alternative sources of scientific communication (and funding) such as distinguished merit-based fellowships.
Engineering students are likely to be co-authors of patents; state this information.
Describe your future potential
Beyond reiterating your past accomplishments, you must also show you are prepared to handle the future challenges of being a Principal Investigator. By far, the most difficult paragraph to write in the faculty cover letter focuses on the Motivation & Impact of your future research program. Clearly articulate the vision of your future research program and describe how your leadership will facilitate an environment of scientific and teaching excellence. Demonstrate expert understanding of your field, and confidently state your qualifications as a leader in research, educator, and citizen of the university.
Define your niche
Your application will be one out of hundreds. You must differentiate yourself and your research program from other candidates, as well as previous or current advisor(s). Ask yourself what you will do that is unique compared to any of your past or future colleagues. How will you uniquely fit into the department? What is your niche?
The Motivation & Impact section provides an opportunity to concisely define your niche. State specific aims of your proposed research that expand upon the department’s core strengths while simultaneously diversifying the university’s research portfolio (e.g., emerging research fields, state-of-the art technologies, novel applications). Carefully consider research centers, core facilities, or affiliated institutes at the university. In many cases, campus- or state-wide research initiatives may complement your research program.
Finally, take advantage of any experiences you’ve had outside of academia. Have you previously worked in industry or consulted? Would these former and future relationships lead to additional funding for your lab? If so, suggest more unusual avenues of additional funding. It may no longer suffice to focus primarily on traditional grants sponsored by government agencies. Think of creative alternatives and diversify your future financial portfolio. This, in turn, differentiates your research program from colleagues.
Finally, you will more than likely apply to multiple departments and universities. Therefore, modify your niche for every application!
Make important information concise and identifiable
Again, your application is one out of hundreds. Helping the Faculty Search Committee easily identify important information in your cover letter will only improve your chances of moving forward in the hiring process. A faculty cover letter should not exceed 1 page, so you must present your qualifications to the Faculty Search Committee in a concise manner.
Maximize impact of words. When it’s accurate, use verbs that illustrate impact (“led,” “developed,” “innovated”) over verbs that make you sound passive (“participated”). Aim for verbs that are more specific to the actual contribution you made.
Minimize redundancy and wordiness. For every sentence, challenge yourself to remove as many words as possible without changing the meaning of the sentence.
Use keywords. Keywords cited by grant-funding agencies, easily recognizable by any faculty member, should be included in relevant sections of your faculty cover letter. Using field-specific vocabulary may demonstrate your understanding of the field and the department’s needs, but be aware that Faculty Search Committees that are more mixed in expertise may require simpler vocabulary and/or explanations accessible to a broader audience.
Maintain abundant white space. In terms of formatting, inclusion of white space is easy on the eye while providing a precise transition from one section to the next.
Devote time!
Crafting your faculty application is a process that will continue indefinitely.
- Devote time to your faculty application, and work in consistent increments over the course of weeks not days.
- Take time to brainstorm, reflect, write, edit, critique, and revise accordingly.
- Seek guidance in terms of technical content, emphasis of soft skills, as well as grammatical improvements and aesthetics from colleagues and friends.
Above all else, remember that the faculty application is a creative process. Enjoy it!
Content adapted by the MIT Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Communication Lab from an article originally created by the MIT Biological Engineering Communication Lab.
Resources and Annotated Examples
EE faculty cover letter
Submitted by an MIT PhD candidate who now holds a faculty position at UT Austin 474 KB