Taking the Next Step
If you're looking to move up in your organization or to make a lateral shift, you might need to market yourself.
Whether it's for writing a cover letter, buffing up your CV, or preparing for an interview, we've got you covered.
Email us at crl2 (at) williams (dot) edu with feedback or suggestions for more content to put up here, or to let us know what you think of the current offerings.
- The Williams College Career Center's Guide to Cover Letters and Résumés
- Latex templates for résumés/CVs (for Latex users)
- Pro tip 1: sometime when you have a little bit of time on your hands, make up a "Master" CV document.
- This document should include, in the format that you want for your CV, everything you've ever done.
- All your awards, every conference you've presented at, any honors, all your travel experience, work experience, teaching experience, the fancy full names for all your diplomas, as well as the dates for all of the above.
- Whenever you have new experience to add or receive a new award, add it to your master CV.
- When it comes time to apply for something specific, pull the details that are relevant to that post from your "Master" CV. Future you will thank you.
- This document should include, in the format that you want for your CV, everything you've ever done.
- The difference between a CV and a resume
- Pro tip 2: A good way to get a sense for CVs is to see them. One place that has a lot of CVs is our very own Williams economics department.
- If you need an academic CV, take a look at the Williams College faculty page, and browse through some of their CVs for reference
- In most cases, more junior professors update their CVs more often and pay more attention to how they look.
- If you need an academic CV, take a look at the Williams College faculty page, and browse through some of their CVs for reference
If you run into a situation where you would like to ask a professor to write you a letter of recommendation, there are several things you should keep in mind
(taken directly from the Economics Department"Student Guide to Navigating the Econ Department"):
It is part of your professors’ job to write these letters for their students, so do not be shy about asking for a recommendation. Ask with plenty of time in
advance (a few weeks), and be prepared to share with your professor your resume and information about what you’re applying for and why you are interested in doing it. Your professor may or may not want to meet to discuss your interest in the position.The letters matter less (and are easier to write) for low-stakes opportunities ... than for more selective or higher-stakes opportunities, so be particularly careful about choosing your letter-writers for the higher-stakes instances.
Who is a good letter-writer for you? An optimal letter-writer: has had you in at least one class or has supervised you in research ... or other work; their contact with you was relatively recent; you did well in the class or work; and is someone you had contact with them outside of just the classroom (so the prof got to know you a bit beyond your classroom participation).
The professor may say no for any number of reasons, notably: they don’t have time, they don’t feel that they know you well enough, or they’re not confident that they can write you a strong letter for this position. (Some profs will tell you that they can write you a letter but will warn you that it will not be a super enthusiastic letter or that it will acknowledge challenges or limitations; then you get to decide whether you still want this professor to write for you.) If they say no, don’t take it personally, and make sure you have time to move on to the next possible letter-writer.