The unimaginable has happened: there is an add for a TT job* in the
home country. So obviously I (and probably another 16 million people) am
applying. So I have to write a research statement and a teaching statement
(AARRGH I thought I didn’t need teaching experience if I was going to be a
career post-doc). And on top of that I need 3 letters of recommendation. The
first one is going to be from my current PI, which will be easy, I just ask
him. The second is going to be from my grad school professor, which is going to
be a bit harder, because he makes me
write my own letters of recommendation (yes this sucks). The third one is
going to be a bit harder. I have a collaborator in the home country who has
written letters for fellowships and such, but I’m already writing grants with
this person and even though ze says I should totally apply for this job, ze
also told me ze would prefer if I would work with hir. So it feels weird to ask
this person for a letter. I don’t want to ask any of the people in my committee
because they will also let me write my own letter and it’s even harder (and
somewhat schizophrenic) to write two different letters on behalf of different
people for yourself. My PI told me to ask someone in the field who I haven’t
worked with but knows my work. I have such a person who I met at a meeting and
who has written a letter for me in the past, so I think I’ll ask hir again.
But first, on to the hardest part: writing that letter for myself
on behalf of my grad professor…
*So I can finally make use of all the super useful advice on Dr. Becca's TT job aggregator
