PhDs: How do you talk about yr diss in yr letter?

[idk]

I'm a recent PhD in a postdoc and on the market. A colleague just advised me not to refer to my dissertation as "my dissertation" in my cover letter. She said that such language shows you are still in a grad student mindset, and that you should just use the title of the dissertation w/o explaining what it is.

This seemed almost dishonest to me, since (at least until this thing becomes a book) it is indeed my dissertation. But then I thought "I'll ask the job market forum what they think!" and here I am.

So is there some better, more sophisticaed way to introduce one's dissertation in the cover letter?

[god]

Who cares?

This issue is not going to make you or break you. Refer to it as a dissertation when talking about it in the past tense. If you plan to make a book out of it, say so, and also refer to it from time to time as a manuscript.

[guest321]

Your dissertation is, first and foremost, a project; it just happens to be the product that got you out the door at your grad institution. Therefore, regard it as your ongoing work from which you will derive several articles or a book in progress. I concur with your colleague that there is no good reason to refer to this project as your dissertation in your cover letter -- the functionality of this reference for ABDs is to call attention to the fact that they have made good progress on theirs and that they will, therefore, be done with it soon enough to begin the job, but if you have the degree in hand, then this is a moot point.

[anyyyyms]

I don't think there's any reason not to refer to it as your dissertation; perhaps more pertinent is that search committees will want to see how your postdoctoral work has moved beyond the dissertation. If you are in the first year of a postdoc, it's understandable to really have just been trying to get the diss published (as a book or sending out articles); but you do want to show that something is under review and that you've at least started new projects.

[phooey]

I think it seems strange to not refer to your dissertation at all. Maybe if your dissertation is forthcoming as a book, but even then you could say something like, "from my dissertation research...". It's not like search committees don't know you wrote a dissertation! FWIW, I am a postdoc and I refer to my dissertation as such in my letters. It's not front and center--my first paragraph is a general opener and statement of interests, in my second paragraph I center my work within several literatures and explain how it fits together, and then I describe my dissertation and grad school work in the next paragraph, then postdoc research after that (sometimes with other stuff--that's a general rundown).

Additionally, I have cover letter examples from four of my friends who now have jobs at really good universities with sociology phd programs, three of whom were postdocs before getting their jobs, and all of them refer to their dissertation in their letters. Three of them do so the way I do (fairly prominently), whereas one buried it further into a paragraph. Don't twist yourself in knots to avoid referring to your dissertation. Just make it clear that you have continued to be productive as a postdoc.