WHAT MAKES A CV STAND OUT?
(A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE!)
IoPPN
Department of Neuroimaging
What makes a CV Stand Out?
(Preferably in a good way!)
Remember that
if there are 100 applicants for a post, the reviewer has less
that 2 minutes per CV even if they set 3-4 hours aside for
shortlisting
even if there are only 20 applicants, and the reviewer sets
aside 4 hours, they only have about 10 minutes per CV
Need to stand out!
A Typical CV
• Demographics
– Name, contact details ...
• Personal Statement
• Education
• Employment History
• Teaching & Supervision
Experience
• List of Research Grants
• List of Peer Reviewed Papers
• Referee contact details
A Typical CV
• Demographics
– Name, contact details ...
• Personal Statement
• Education
• Employment History
• Teaching & Supervision
Experience
• List of Research Grants
• List of Peer Reviewed Papers
• Referee contact details
Demographics
Going to come back to this
later...
A Typical CV
• Demographics
– Name, contact details ...
• Personal Statement
• Education
• Employment History
• Teaching & Supervision
Experience
• List of Research Grants
• List of Peer Reviewed Papers
• Referee contact details
Personal Statement (or similar)
Keep this brief
Customise it to the particular job you’re aiming for.
This is your chance to “capture” the reader; tell them, in one
sentence, why they should employ you:
• “Following my PhD, and a 2 year PostDoc in <relevant field>, I
am now looking for an opportunity to <job / ‘independent
researcher’ / ...>”
Don’t include lots of generalities
– Everyone wants world peace, and to help children, but it won’t
necessarily get you a job!
Don’t just duplicate your cover letter verbatim (or vice versa)
A Typical CV
• Demographics
– Name, contact details ...
• Personal Statement
• Education
• Employment History
• Teaching & Supervision
Experience
• List of Research Grants
• List of Peer Reviewed Papers
• Referee contact details
Education & Employment History
Required, but probably the most boring section of a CV!
Keep it brief
Full details of your GCSE s are probably no longer relevant!
Consider adding a 1 line overview:
“Following A-levels in BLAH, I realised that my ambition to
become a BLAH was best suited by pursuing a degree in BLAH”
“Following my PhD, I wanted to broaden my experience of BLAH
and therefore undertook a number of short PostDoc positions in
BLAH, BLAH and BLAH”
A Typical CV
• Demographics
– Name, contact details ...
• Personal Statement
• Education
• Employment History
• Teaching & Supervision
Experience
• List of Research Grants
• List of Peer Reviewed Papers
• Referee contact details
Teaching & Supervision Experience
Be imaginative – if you think you’ve not done any official teaching,
for example, think what you HAVE done.
Supervised MSc student projects?
Given demos to visitors?
Etc etc
Consider adding a 1 line overview:
“Teaching has always been integral to my roles so far, and I have
been able to contribute to BLAH, BLAH and BLAH”
Consider (deliberate) understatement:
“While my PhD/PostDoc/... didn’t involve any direct face-to-face
student contact, I was able to [list of 8 things you did!]”
A Typical CV
• Demographics
– Name, contact details ...
• Personal Statement
• Education
• Employment History
• Teaching & Supervision
Experience
• List of Research Grants
• List of Peer Reviewed Papers
• Referee contact details
Research Grants
Again, be imaginative – if you think you’ve not got any grants to your name,
think what you HAVE done. (List everything!)
Found money for conferences/visits/... during PhD?
Contributed informally to grants with others?
Officially co-I-ed grants with other?
A bit naughty – doesn’t actually say
whether or not this was successful!
Give a 1 line overview:
“My PostDoc was funded by BLAH, and I was heavily involved in
writing the successful follow-up grant (recently funded £1.9m, PI: Prof
BLAH). I also hold 3 small grants in my own name...”
Again, consider (deliberate) understatement:
“While I don’t currently hold any funds in my own name, I am a named
collaborator on a £2.2m bid to the MRC and a further recently awarded
£100,000 grant from the Wellcome Trust”
A Typical CV
• Demographics
– Name, contact details ...
• Personal Statement
• Education
• Employment History
• Teaching & Supervision
Experience
• List of Research Grants
• List of Peer Reviewed Papers
• Referee contact details
Publications
Again, be imaginative – if you think you’ve not lots of papers to your name, think
what you HAVE done. (List everything!)
Conference papers/abstracts (include, but flag as not full papers)
As usual - give a 1 line overview:
“My h-index is BLAH, and 3 of my publications have already received
more than BLAH citations”
Yet again, understatement may help:
“I have over 20 publications in high impact peer reviewed journals”
sounds better than “I have 21 papers”?
A Typical CV
• Demographics
– Name, contact details ...
• Personal Statement
• Education
• Employment History
• Teaching & Supervision
Experience
• List of Research Grants
• List of Peer Reviewed Papers
• Referee contact details
Demographics
Why are these sections always first and last?
Good practice for reviewers is to ignore name (from which gender
can often be inferred) indications of age, etc, etc
Research indicates that both males and females show bias towards
male candidates.
• (Go on one of the KCL “unconscious bias” training sessions if
you haven’t already!)
Demographics
Why is this section always first?
Maybe make it easy for the reader to ignore/discard info that may
bias them:
• Put all contact and similar details on a separate sheet?
• Put these details at the end, not the beginning, of the CV??
• *DON’T* include a photo!
• Put referee details on this page too?
• Signpost reader to these details with a “place holder” on the first
page???
Review: What makes a CV Stand Out?
Remember that the reviewer may spend only have a few minutes
at most on your CV, so you need to stand out!
(In a good way!)
Need to catch readers attention, and direct them to the things you
want them to focus on.
Must be honest, but can also direct the reader away from weaker
sections, by giving them something positive instead!
Need to avoid anything that will put them off:
• Check your spelling
• Make sure everything is nicely formatted
• ...
Final Thought
Don’t apply more than once!
Seeing the same application twice in the same pile is a sure fire
indication to the reviewer that you’re “carpet bombing” every
potential oportunity, making it much less likely they’ll believe you
when you say that this is the post been waiting for all your
(research) life!
CONTACT NAME
TITLE
ADDRESS LINE
ADDRESS LINE
ADDRESS LINE
TEL
EMAIL