fishing for jobs

A few years ago I was looking for jobs in my respective 'field' and came across a website that gathered the job calls from across the world for professional communicators. As I read through the job postings I came across a job call for an in-house news publication at Los Alamos National Laboratory. It was the kind of job that spoke to me. There I would be around smart people with federal money. It was a dream job. In my application process I wrote the following 'cover letter' to accompany the documents attached in an e-mail to their recruiting office. What follows is how one puts heart into a presentation of self and completely misses the point of addressing what the job states that it needs. In short, I talked about myself without explicitly applying myself to the job description.

I am writing in application for the position Communications Specialist 3. I am confident that you will find my skills, education, and experience commensurate for the position and its requirements.

My interests in science extend back to my first semesters at college where I studied on a pre-med. course track at Saint Louis University. There, I learned lab report writing and experimental design, the importance of demonstrative evidence, and the clarity of exposition. I took these ideas into my communication studies as I pursued a liberal arts degree the following year. After brief forays into business computing and computer science I finished with a degree in communication, focusing on communication technologies, computer based design, and creative and professional writing.

I was employed for 6 months by a pharmaceutical publisher as an assistant editor. There I learned the importance of proper formatting and pharmaceutical nomenclature. I was charged with integrating package inserts into digests sold on a subscription basis to pharmacists and nurses to aid in prescribing drugs. I was also charged with integrating FDA press releases concerning the bioequivalency of generics to their reference drugs in an ancillary publication known as Approved Bioequivalency Codes (ABC). I supplemented this trade knowledge with important organizational communication skills as I was charged with coordinating work flow among copy and layout specialists while integrating the judgment of pharmacists, concerning copy for publication.

After this employment, I returned to school in pursuit of a Master's degree in communication. There, I studied research methodologies, media history and technology, and organizational communication. My work culminated in a thesis, which was a rhetorical analysis of a film. In addition to my writing and education I began my training as a university instructor, earning teaching accreditation through the university and applying this to teaching a course in Computer-Based Media design.

I would continue my studies in communication through a doctoral program at the University of Colorado, Boulder. I did not complete my degree but earned Certification in Science and Technology Policy through the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Science under the tutelage of Roger Piekle, Jr. I was also able to meet and discuss science and technology policy with Dr. Marburger, then Science Advisor to President George W. Bush. This culminated in a joint publication on the talk that Dr. Marburger delivered on the topic of science and technology funding in the Bush administration.

My research and coursework at the University of Colorado focused mostly on science and technology related issues. Applying both social science and rhetorical methodologies, I focused on technology use and computer-assisted decision making in the modern organization. My dissertation research focused on a group of cognitive neuroscientists using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to study decision making, addiction, and choice-related mental processes using this brain visualization technology. I conducted the bulk of this research in the group's weekly meetings and so my focus was expressly on their preparation of fMRI images for the purpose of presentation and evidence demonstration. I focused on visual communication and public presentation as the basis of my initial writing.

In addition to my studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, I taught courses in Organizational Communication, Public Speaking, Group Interaction, and a special topics seminar on Cultures of Innovation. As a capstone course, I created the seminar around major social theoretical approaches to technology such as the Social Construction of Technology and Actor-Network Theory. Teaching this course demonstrated the importance of how science and technology are mobilized in society and contribute to its organization. In addition, I focused on the skill requirements of technology use and the challenges that it can place upon democratic participation. During this time, I helped found the Communication Graduate Student Association at the University and accomplished funding a visiting lecture from renowned philosopher of science and technology, Langdon Winner.

I applied my subject matter expertise and my teaching skills in presenting science and technology related issues at Ball State University as an adjunct instructor. There, I taught Rhetorical Criticism, Public Speaking, Leadership Communication, and Organizational Communication to undergraduate students.

I currently teach Organizational Communication for the online university, University of Phoenix.

Through my scholarly activities I have the following publications:

Keränen, L., Lesko, J., Vogelaar, A., & Irvin, L. (2007). “Myth, Mask, Shield, and Sword”: Dr. John H. Marburger III’s Rhetoric of Neutral Science for the Nation. Critical Studies <–> Critical Methodologies, 8, 135-158.

Sunwolf, Frey, L. R., & Lesko, J. W. (2008). Story as Medicine: Empirical Research on the Healing Effects of Health Narratives. In K. B. Wright & S. D. Moore (Eds.), Health communication: An applied sourcebook (pp. 35-61). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

In addition, I have published the following book reviews:

Lesko, J. (2008). Review of Devices and Designs: Medical Technologies in Historical Perspective, Eds. Carsten Timmermann and Julie Anderson. In Technology and Culture, 49, 55-56.

Lesko, J. W. (2006). Review of The Transparent Body: A Cultural Analysis of Medical Imaging, by José van Dijck. In Ethics and Information Technology, 8, 85-87.

Lesko, J. W. (2005, March). Review of Protocol: How Control Exists after Decentralization, by Alexander R. Galloway. Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies. http://rccs.usfca.edu/booklist.asp

Notable papers and presentations that I have given at national and regional conferences are:

Lesko, J. W. (2005, November). Paganini and the hackers: The cultural construction of ‘virtuosity’ and its implications. Paper presented at the meeting of the National Communication Association, Boston, MA.

Lesko, J. W. (2004, February). Defining the network: A postmodern interpretation of the discourse about university bandwidth and network use policies. Paper presented at the meeting of the Western States Communication Association, Albuquerque, NM
(Awarded top Debut paper at the Western States Communication Association)

As you can see by my past employment and scholarship that I have focused almost solely upon science and technology related issues. Therefore, I am confident that you will find my skills, knowledge, and abilities commensurate to the position of Communications Specialist 3.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

What I cleverly left out was the part where I spent all of 2008 drunk and online.