This entry outlines approaches to tailoring academic job materials and offers guidance on how to adjust emphasis for different positions and institutions.

Tailoring academic job materials involves making deliberate choices about how you present your work to different audiences. Some of this work happens in advance, as you prepare versions of core paragraphs that speak to the kinds of departments or programs you plan to target. Other forms of tailoring happen at the level of individual applications, where you adjust emphasis and framing to demonstrate fit with a specific department and institution. Strong cover letters usually reflect attention to both kinds of tailoring.

An efficient approach to tailoring while on the job market involves developing and maintaining a growing catalog of paragraphs (of research, contributions, teaching, etc.) that can be reused and strategically revised over time. Rather than starting from scratch for each application, you can draw from this catalog, refining language and emphasis based on the priorities of each position. This process streamlines your workflow and supports more precision in your job materials as the job market unfolds. 

In this entry, we outline how to approach both preparatory and job-specific tailoring. We will focus on strategies for positioning your expertise for different audiences, how to audit your potential fit with particular departments and institutions, and helpful rhetorical strategies for demonstrating your fit for the position. 

Preparatory Tailoring: Positioning Your Expertise

Even when firmly grounded in a single discipline, most scholars are interdisciplinary in some way. A biologist might be well poised for a job in an interdisciplinary Environmental Studies department in addition to positions in general Biology. A sociologist might be a strong candidate for a job in an Ethnic Studies department as well as one that focuses on sociological theory or methods. How you present your expertise will vary depending on the audience. This first type of tailoring addresses how to signal appeal and fit across the different jobs you are qualified for. 

The first step in this process is taking time to understand what kind of jobs you would actually find satisfying. This matters because your primary affiliation will shape many choices over the course of your career: where to publish, what service to take on, which conferences you attend, which professional relationships to foster. These choices also affect how and what you write, what elements of your research to emphasize, and what contributions your work makes. For instance, an anthropologist may be qualified for jobs in a Public Health department, but the publishing expectations in that field, often higher and more empiricist, may be at odds with a more humanistic approach. Clarifying this early allows you to streamline both your workflow and your job search, focusing your energy on positions that are genuinely aligned.

Once you have clarity about which jobs fit your expertise and interests, you can begin tailoring your research paragraphs to speak to different audiences. Consider a scholar finishing a PhD in Performance Studies whose work examines the intersection of trans identity and dance in South India. In addition to jobs in Theatre and Dance, this scholar may be a strong fit for positions in Gender and Women’s Studies or in area-studies departments. How they present their work, and especially how they articulate its contributions, may differ substantially across these searches. One might emphasize contributions to gender theory, while another might focus on gaps in established regional literature. Because this kind of tailoring is time intensive, it is wise to limit revisions to two or three disciplinary areas that you plan to target in your job search. Over time, you can develop cover letter templates as other distinctive job opportunities arise.  Below are two exercises that can help jumpstart your preparatory tailoring. 

Tailoring Exercise 1: Rewrite Your Big-Picture Project Sentence for Each Audience

Start with the sentence you use to introduce your project, often something like:

“In my dissertation, [title], I examine…”

Write two or three versions of this sentence, each pitched to a different kind of department or program you plan to target.

• In each version, replace field-specific descriptors with broader frameworks or terms that are familiar and meaningful within the target audience’s disciplinary or programmatic discourse.
• Ask what concepts, problems, or lenses are commonly used in that field to organize research, and use those as your entry point.
• Be careful to not change the substance of your project or describe a project that you can’t follow through on. Instead, practice modifying how you name it.

Lay the versions side by side and notice how each one signals a different kind of fit. When these description sentences are refined, you can move to translating the significance of your project for this audience. 

Tailoring Exercise 2: Translate Significance into the Department/Program’s Terms

• Identify one or two sentences in your research paragraph where you explain why your work matters (see also Thinking in Contributions). 
• For each type of department or program you are targeting, gather a small comparison set:
  • CVs of two to three assistant or associate professors in that department or in closely comparable program.
  • One article or book introduction by each, focusing only on how significance is framed
• From this material, extract the dominant mode of significance. For example, note whether significance is most often framed in terms of:
  • advancing or reframing a theoretical debate
  • filling a gap in an established literature
  • resolving a persistent empirical or regional problem
  • offering exciting new findings to an established field of inquiry
• Rewrite your original significance sentence once for each target audience, aligning it with that dominant framing.
• Insert each revised sentence back into the paragraph and read the paragraph straight through. Notice whether the contribution now sounds legible and familiar within that department’s discourse.
• Use the revised significance sentence as the anchor for the paragraph, adjusting surrounding sentences only insofar as they need to support that framing.

Job-Specific Tailoring

As discussed above, “big picture” tailoring happens throughout your job materials: ideally, you are continually framing your scholarly profile to meet the audience you are trying to reach. Additionally, the final paragraph of most cover letters are more specifically tailored to both the department and the institution to which you are applying. This paragraph should remain focused on grounded, concrete ways your background and expertise align with the department and institution. You can start this work by doing an audit to determine how aligned your background is to the program to which you are applying. 

Tailoring Exercise 3: Program–Background Compare & Contrast Audit

• List key features of the department or institution, using the website, catalog, and any available institutional data including:
  • Student population (first-generation status, racial or ethnic makeup)
  • Whether teaching is primarily majors or non-majors
  • Emphasis on lower-level service courses versus upper-level or boutique courses
  • How much teaching seems to be done by adjunct faculty members versus full-time members 
  • Expectations around student support and availability
  • Service expectations for faculty members
• Do the same audit for your own teaching and training background.
• Compare the two lists.
• If there is strong overlap, argue for fit based on preparedness. Show that you understand the challenges of this context because you have already taught in similar conditions (e.g., teaching non-majors, supporting first-generation students, designing engaging lower-level courses).
• If there is a real discrepancy, anticipate it and turn it into an argument. Acknowledge the difference, show how you have worked toward similar pedagogical commitments despite constraints, and explain why you are drawn to an institution that would allow you to deepen that work.

Use the results of this audit to decide whether your tailoring should emphasize experience, alignment of values, or trajectory.

When you have clarity on where you are aligned with the department/institution, get specific in your materials. Mention kindred faculty by name and indicate how you might collaborate through co-teaching, shared research interests, or other forms of engagement. Name departmental initiatives, programs, or interest groups you could contribute to, including ways you might expand or strengthen existing offerings. If the department has a widely recognized area of strength that aligns with your profile, this is an opportunity to signal interest while also explaining how you would contribute to that strength. 

Be sure to also include how you would contribute to the campus as a whole. Cite interdisciplinary centers, institutional priorities, or teaching and pedagogical initiatives that intersect with your scholarly profile. Quality matters more than quantity here. You do not need to demonstrate fit with a long list of campus programs. Instead, select one or two that align most clearly with your research and teaching, and explain what draws you to them and how you see yourself contributing. In addition to signaling campus-wide fit to the search committee, this preparation will matter later in the process. Campus interviews often include meetings with deans or other administrators who are especially attentive to institutional alignment.

Move Bank: Effective Rhetorical Moves to Demonstrate Fit 

One of the most efficient ways to tailor a cover letter is to rework topic sentences. Small shifts at the level of the opening sentence can drastically change the tenor of, and committee engagement with, your materials. Below are a few moves to make in topic sentences when tailoring:  

Move 1: Demonstrating Awareness of Institutional Context
Use this when you want to show that you understand a defining feature of the institution.

• “I am drawn to X because of its emphasis on ____, which shapes how teaching and learning happen across the campus.”
• “I recognize that a central feature of X is _____, and I have thought carefully about what that means for teaching and mentoring in this context.”

Move 2: Linking Institutional Needs to Your Experience
Use this when there is overlap and you want to argue for preparedness.

• “Much of my teaching has taken place in contexts where ____, giving me experience with the kinds of challenges and opportunities that shape X.”
• “I have extensive experience working with _____, which aligns closely with the student population and pedagogical priorities at X.”

Move 3: Addressing a Potential Discrepancy Directly
Use this when your background differs from the institution’s context and you need to anticipate questions about fit.

• “While my teaching experience has primarily been in ____, I am drawn to X because of its commitment to ____.”
• “Although I have taught largely in _____ settings, I have worked intentionally to __, even in contexts with limited resources.”