Professor cover letter comes under the academic category. Academic letters are written differently than business letters. It will further differ depending upon where you are seeking an employment. For example, a cover letter written to the university will be different from schools, colleges or even community colleges. The reason behind this is the fact that goals, visions and needs of the teaching institutes will never be the same. Hence while writing your professor cover letter, you must know about the institution you are applying.
Before applying for the professor job, you should find out whether the institution needs your qualifications for some research purpose, or they want to use your teaching skills. If the institute is research-based, then find out what type of research work they indulge in. Is it historical, geographical, or they are more interested in science and environment? Find out what qualification other faculty holds and what types of research work they have done. Examine whether you can contribute in their research work. If that’s what interests you, then you can apply for the job by writing your professor cover letter.
If they need someone who can help them with his/her teaching skills, then talk about the experience and the philosophy you adopt in teaching. Find out the subjects they need you to teach in. As a professor, they expect you as an intellectual person who could communicate your thoughts and idea clearly to the students. You can also mention about your abilities to raise the passing percentage of students through your teaching skills.
Whether you are applying in the university, college or schools, you should follow certain criteria for writing the cover letter. It must have an introduction, body and conclusion. The first paragraph will specify the job you are applying for, and about you in brief. While publishing the job opening, most of the colleges and universities assign a code to the respective job if more than one job is listed. In such a situation, include the job code in the first paragraph.
This paragraph, however, will be different when you are applying in some research institute. You can start by writing about the research work done by the institute and how it attracted or helped you in your subject. For instance, you could say, “Seeing people languishing in stress for years together made me wonder whether there is any remedial measure to bring them out from this disorder. Reading your research work on stress management, made me realize that it is possible to beat stress and lead a normal life. I feel my education and experience in dealing with patients suffering from mental disorder can be utilized to its best in clinical work of your institute”.
Write your teaching experiences in the second paragraph. You can include your interest for the subject you have taught and are still teaching. Name the institute where you have received an accolade for your pedagogy skills. If there is any particular style of teaching you follow to help those students weak in studies, go ahead and show your creative side to the employers.
Write your educational details in the third paragraph. Start with your school, followed with the name of the college/university you achieved your degree from. Mention the subjects you took as a special. End the letter thanking the readers for their time and consideration.
Remember, there are no shortages of brainy people in this world. The one who acts quickly always have an advantage than others. The idea behind this saying is you should apply in a day or two from the job positing date. Don’t wait till the last date of the application submission. It is quite possible that the institution may stop encouraging application before the end date due to an immense response than expected.
If you are interested in reading sample professor cover letters, then here are the links for your help. Besides sample cover letters, you can also access other letters like: recommendation, thank-you, reference, etc. All these letters are used when trying a job in any field. | 