Ever wanted to apply for a cool summer school, a thesis prize, or a new job, but don’t know how? Technical knowledge, like how support vector machines or batch normalisation work, absolutely helps us succeed in our research. But without communication skills, we won’t be able to promote our work or apply for new opportunities. In this blog, I’ll share tips on crafting a killer application.

We’ll talk about the elements of a typical application and how to craft an effective application. Then, I’ll guide you through my process applying for an honorary scientific position. The outline:

• Elements of an application
  • Reference
  • Motivation letter
  • CV
• Crafting an effective application
• Research the opportunity
• Strategise
• Outline the letters
  • Defining the content
  • What to do when you’re stuck
  • Show, don’t tell
  • Skills over motivation
  • No academic writing, please!
• Examples
  • Example reference letter
  • Example motivation letter
  • CV tips
• Luck: the final ingredient
• Sources

Most applications as for:

• One or multiple references
• A motivation or cover letter
• A CV

But what’s the difference between a reference, motivation, and a cover letter? And what should you put in your CV?

A reference is either the name of someone like a supervisor, teacher or former employer who can testify to your skills. Some applications call for a reference letter. A reference or nomination letter is written by somebody else to present or 'sell' you as a good candidate. In practice, almost every master’s and PhD student I know is asked by their supervisor to write it themselves because the supervisor:

• Doesn’t have a lot of time
• Knows less about the thing you’re applying to than you do
• Wants you to learn how to do it yourself

I’ll be honest, I felt a bit overwhelmed the first time I was asked to do it!I thought 'But my supervisors have so much more experience writing these letters, I’ll be much more likely to win this prize if they write it..' However, you actually do learn a lot by doing it yourself (learning from doing it myself is why I’m writing this blog, after all) – more on the advantages later.

Motivation or cover letters are written by yourself to show the committee why you should be selected. Don’t confuse this with cover letters submitted to journal editors along with your paper: it’s a letter to sell yourself, not a paper. I think the name ‘motivation letter’ is misleading because it’s more about why you’re the right person for the position than how motivated you are to get it.

Your CV or curriculum vitae is a factual document listing your education, professional experience and skills. It can also showcase some personal details like hobbies and volunteering activities. See it as a structured bullet-list; this is not the place for personal anecdotes.

The reference, motivation and CV together give a multi-sided view of who you are as a person:

• From someone else’s perspective
• From your perspective
• From a factual point of view

Your goal is to make the reference, motivation and CV complement each other. Writing each part yourself makes it easier. To give you a cheesy analogy (please forgive me): crafting a good application is like composing a piece of music. Each document is a separate instrument, and they should sing in harmony.

The first step in any application process is to gather as much information about the role as you can. Take notes on the available instructions and documents. Look for:

• Goals of the programme or prize
• Who have won previously: their qualities, skills, how they write
• Read about any rules: are there restrictions you need to be aware of?
• Do they say anything about preferences?

For FoS, I checked:

• The website
• The nomination form
• The regulations
• Websites listing people allowed to nominate me (to find nominators)
• Videos, blogs, and websites of current and previous members

Furthermore, I contacted people to help me with my application:

• A current Face of Science from my university
• I emailed a university employee to ask whether the rector would be willing to nominate someone again (the year before, there was an internal selection to get the Rector’s vote, but I hadn’t heard anything this year)
• A colleague who used to be a Face of Science

Don’t be afraid to be bold and reach out to people!

I learned that they prefer PhD students who:

• Are in the first half of the programme, because they’ll be able to hold the position longer
• Come from diverse universities, backgrounds and fields
• Want to learn about science communication
• Want to inspire children from all walks of life to go into science
• Speak Dutch fluently (because speaking to children)

The next step is to plan which information will convince the committee you’re the person they’re looking for. You need to market yourself. Marketing is not about blowing up your credentials or lying in any other form. It’s about choosing which of your many faces you’re going to show the committee. We’re multifaceted people, and the trick is to highlight the parts of you to match the intel from the previous step.

For FoS, we decided that instead of focusing on the impact of my research, I needed to highlight that I could be a good role model:

• I have experience with children from when I studied astronomy, but AI is much more abstract and therefore difficult to communicate. Highlights that I still have things to learn, while showing my expertise.
• I want to go into science communication, because scicomm encouraged me to go into science as a child. Expresses motivation, and show I value engaging kids.
• I never thought I would do a PhD, yet here I am. Shows I know what it is like to not know whether you like science/ being influenced to go into it.
• A lot about my work is already about communication/ ‘translating’ science: I switched from astronomy to AI, and now I do interdisciplinary research, where I have to 'translate' between AI and EO all the time. Shows I have experience communicating/explaining science.

When you have your key messages ready, you can start working on the application letters.

Motivation letters are roughly structured like this:

• Your interest; why are you drawn to this position
• Your skills relevant to the position
• Short summary or statement why you’re right for this job.

For a reference letter, this is similar:

• How you know the person (you) and why they’re special
• The nominee’s skills. Link this to their research
• Summary why this person should be chosen

So how do you choose which key message goes in which letter? A good rule of thumb is to consider what colleagues may know about you, and what only you can know about. What others know or see goes in the reference letter; the personal stuff in the motivation.

For example:

• My childhood love for SciComm and doubts about doing a PhD → Motivation
• My translation skills between research fields → Reference letter

It’s okay to repeat (and even good) to repeat your key messages in both letters, but make sure to introduce new information or nuance through new examples or evidence. The same goes for your CV: don’t just rehash your CV in the letters. Addressingconfusing jumps or gaps (like my switch from astronomy to AI) in the CV is helpful, though.

Motivation and reference letters often have tight word limits to speed up the application review process. I laboured over making my text flow under these constraints. When I’m stuck, I start with the key message and work my way backward to get the remaining information:

1. A main message, e.g. the skill you want to show off
2. An anecdote, situation or turning point in your life that illustrates the main message
3. Context needed to understand the significance of the turning point

Good papers do not just explain why your architecture is better than the previous ones, they also show results proving that your contribution made the difference. It’s the same in motivation and reference letters. Don’t just say you’re ‘curious’ or ‘skillful’, or ‘I got award X’. Instead, when writing the turning point in your reference letter:

• Describe situations that illustrate your curiosity or skill
• Describe how your actions have led to the award (rather than just luck, for example).

Don’t be fooled by the name ‘motivation letter’ – you can be sure that lots of motivated people applied to the position. Be careful of too many grindstone adjectives like hard-working or motivated because they can imply you don’t have any skills!

Don’t write your letters in academic writing style. Use short sentences and write in active voice. Show personality, but don’t be too informal, either (e.g., avoid contractions).

Let’s look at two examples: my reference and motivation letters for FoS.

As Julia’s supervisor since her master’s, I have come to know her as a connector. She is not afraid to seek out the expertise of others and leaves a lasting impression; I am often surprised how many people know her, inside and outside the university. Julia is an all-rounder with broad technical knowledge of AI methods, but also a strong communicator who effectively conveys her technical skills and enthusiasm to her colleagues, students and the wider public. As a result, journalists know where to find her, and she is the point of contact for blogs in the research group. Her research is also about connection. Julia uses her technical expertise to design AI for one of the most complex and sensitive issues in Earth Observation: methane detection from space. In her research, she collaborates with earth scientists and translates their domain knowledge into innovative AI techniques. She is driven by her knowledge but especially by her pleasure in learning and discovering – and sharing this with others. Moreover, she never forgets the responsibility that comes with developing groundbreaking technologies. That's why I can't think of a better person to inspire young people and young adults to design the next generation of responsible AI systems.

The storytelling may not be so obvious here because there is no single anecdote or turning point, but if you pay attention you can see that I crafted the message so each next sentence is a consequence of the previous one. Note how I use 'external' information:

• Relationships with other people
• Presence in media
• Helping group members
• How I work with collaborators
• How my skills can impact other people.

FoS breaks the motivation into two parts: motivation for participating and previous experience with SciComm. The motivation:

As a high school student, I had no idea what to study. By crossing off studies on a list, I ended up with astronomy. Once at university, I learned a lot of new things, such as programming. As a result, my interest drove me to computer science, and within computer science to my current field: AI for Earth Observation. For a long time, I felt insecure about this winding path: as if I didn’t finish anything and wasn’t really good at anything, and that I would therefore never have the focus and specific knowledge to get a PhD. Now I see this differently. My background is actually valuable in my interdisciplinary research, because I learned from the start to contextualize AI with other fields. Moreover, the statistics I learned as an astronomer helps me to design better experiments as a computer scientist. I learned to translate from one field to another, which helps me to 'interpret' domain knowledge from Earth scientists to AI techniques. As Face of Science, I want to encourage young people like my brother, sister and other students: follow your curiosity, because a unique profile gives you a fresh perspective that is essential for challenging problems such as reliable AI and climate change.

Storytelling strategy:

• The motivation is a clear story: how my feelings towards doing a PhD changed over time
• By describing my doubts I show I can empathise with kids who don’t think they fit in science.
• I give concrete examples of my skills, e.g. why my interdisciplinary background is relevant (it means I know how it is to go into a new field)
• The combination of my doubts about doing research and my doubts about being interdisciplinary then lead to the final message: that being different and unique makes you a better researcher (so you don’t have to feel insecure about it)

Can you see the internal drivers? I use information colleagues don’t have about me:

• How I felt I couldn't do research
• My insecurities about not being an expert in anything because I’m in different fields

The experience part:

I have experience in science communication for various audiences. I have written over 40 blogs on research and AI for Earth Observation, mainly aimed at students and other researchers. I have also been interviewed in various media. On the other hand, as a student ambassador I have inspired high school students to study astronomy, and as a tour guide at the Observatory I have explained the difference between a star and a planet to primary school students, and told retired legal scholars what dark matter is. AI is as mysterious as black holes. My brother, sister and parents all have questions, such as: 'What exactly is AI?', 'Can AI make us lazy?' and 'Should we regulate AI?' These are probably the same questions that were asked when the steam engine was invented! Social media, ChatGPT and the robot vacuum cleaner. AI is everywhere. Yet it feels like a mysterious technology that is made for us, not by us. AI is much more abstract than the amazing field of astronomy. As Face of Science I want to learn how to make AI just as fun and accessible, and show that it is a tool like the steam engine. Just like the students who now say, 'Because of you I started studying astronomy,' I want to hear in a few years, 'I design AI.'

Storytelling strategy:

• My goal was to show that though I have some experience, I still have a lot to learn.
• Context: my experience in astronomy
• Turning point: questions from my family that were hard to answer, and concrete examples why: AI is more abstract than astronomy
• Conclusion/lesson: I want to learn how to make AI as inspiring as astronomy
• End with a concrete goal for fulfilling the role and the impact I want to make.

Finally, some tips on the CV.

• Aim for max 2 pages. Don’t go over the page limit provided in the application. If there is no page limit, you can go over the 2 pages but only do this if you think it’s really necessary.
• Include a photo.
• Rearrange CV categories based on the application (I moved SciComm up)..
• Reverse chronological order in education & experience.
• Add a short description of each experience item. List crucial skills developed or used.
• Make sure any personal info has something to do with the application.
• Share your ambitions or final missing details in a_ personal bio or mission statement_. I used my bio to explain the switch from astronomy to AI because it didn’t fit in the letters.

So what happened to my FoS application? In this blog, I shared a lot of handholds for improving your applications. Even with all the help I got, I wasn’t selected for FoS. However, I got a nice compliment from the organisation that my application was very strong; they just had to make a choice. Sometimes we’re just shit out of luck, no matter how skillfully we crafted our application. We don’t control all factors going into these decisions.

Once you submit your application, all you can do is be proud of yourself and reflect on what you learned. Remember you can ask for feedback if you’re rejected, and you can re-use what you made. Parts of my application have made it onto my website and other applications. And the lessons I learned helped me write this blog!

I learned a lot from these blogs:

• Wageningen university guide to motivation letters
• Award nomination tips and resources, University of Toronto
• How to write a great awards nomination
• Cover letter using a storytelling approach
• Info on grindstone adjectives
• How to write a bio

Finally, I want to thank the following people for their help with my application:

• Manon de Visser
• Anna Terra Verhage

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