Curriculum Vitae
Grad College Workshop
Oct 10, 2013
Presented by Dr. Heather Lusty
Assistant Professor in Residence, Dept. of English
The Vita
The vita is always the first thing you
send to a hiring institution. Hiring
committees may only spend 15
seconds scanning your vita initially.
Design your vita so that your
strongest qualifications stand out,
and enough supporting detail to
stand up to a closer reading.
Grad School “Experience”
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Getting started: Review your
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educational and professional
history, & list everything/anything •
that you could possibly include
•
(trim later)
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What have you done?
•
Depending on your field, you may •
have a lot of experience in various
areas that can accentuate your
flexibility
TA/teaching
Research team/writing
Workshops/certifications
Invited talks
Conference/other presentations
GPSA Research Forums
Publications (divisions)
Journal editing
Committee work
Tutoring
Professional affiliations
Standard Content
Name, contact info (public/private)
Education
Honors/awards/grants
Professional Experience
Publications
Presentations
Professional, extracurricular, or community
activities
Teaching competencies
Service
Name/Contact
Name (slightly larger) at top of page
Home and university contact information
• Home & university address, e-mail, phone, and
web site URL (if applicable)
• Consider CV on public site versus search
committee (remove personal contact info)
• Name change? Jane E. (Doe) Smith
• Last name & page number should appear in
header or footer on each page
Education
• List each institution, degree, field of concentration, and
date of degree confirmation
• Dissertation (anticipated date if not completed)
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Title of dissertation & name of advisor
Names of committee (only if it will help)
Additional research projects/areas of concentration
Activities related to your graduate training (e.g., President,
Graduate Chemistry Society)
– Omit undergrad & high school info altogether
• Honors
– If you’ve received prestigious/competitive awards, they may
warrant a separate section here
• Includes dissertation fellowships & awards
– If you don’t have awards, don’t draw attention to them with a
separate section
Experience
Include anything relevant to your professional objectives
For each position, list
• Name of the institution affiliated with
• Job title
• Dates employed/in residence
• Responsibilities and accomplishments
– Make your words count; use verb phrases. For example:
• [Bad] “Responsibilities included developing various new course
materials and instructional aids”
• [Good] “Developed syllabus and diagnostic exam later adopted by
department”
• Divide “Teaching Experience” from “Research Experience”
(if applicable)
Professional (field) Experience
• If you are applying for a position in a professional
school (law, dental, architecture) and have
experience of any time working in that
profession, create a subcategory and describe it
in detail
• If your professional experience is NOT related to
your current scholarly pursuits, include it
(drastically condensed)
• Licensure/Registration/Certification
– List these credentials for positions in professional
schools where they are required (e.g., nursing,
education, architecture)
Publications
• Listed in standard bibliographic form (field specific)
• If list is long, subcategorize by topic or publication format (calls attention
to areas of expertise that may not be readily apparent)
• Listing articles as “Submitted” or “Under Review” and “In preparation” is
acceptable, but too many of this form not balanced by articles already
published or in press looks desperate
• Separate publications by categories (if applicable):
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peer reviewed articles (most important category)
co-written publications (more acceptable in social & physical sciences)
invited contributions (to textbooks, encyclopedia entries, etc.)
book reviews, conference reports
• Be aware of prestige hierarchies
– Articles in refereed journals rate more highly than term papers or publications
in popular journals or newspapers (leave these out if you have legitimate
conference presentations/ publications)
– Don’t pad publications list (and don’t include anything you don’t want a hiring
committee to dig up and read)
Presentations (Research/Conference)
Presentations at scholarly conventions/societies are generally
considered more important than local or popular conferences
– What are your field’s “major” conventions? These should get
preferential treatment/consideration.
– Are there regional branch meetings for which it may be easier to
get a presentation accepted?
– Early on, you may list roundtable panels, seminar groups, etc., but
these less formal participatory aspects should be pruned as you
build your formal conference presentations list.
– Outside area presentations (archaeology, Classics, solar energy)
should be included if they highlight areas of interest/ongoing
research that show your diversity and flexibility (but don’t make
you look indecisive or spread too thin).
– Consider guest lectures, research presentations, etc.
Grants
• If you’ve received funding, list the funding
agency and the project for which it was
awarded.
• Candidates frequently list dollar amounts for
major funded research projects
• Fellowship or dissertation support should be
listed under “Honors”
• Don’t double list grants
Scholarly/Professional Memberships
• List memberships and/or committee work in
scholarly or professional organizations.
• If you’ve been very active in university related
committees, list them here (GPSA, organizing or
moderating conference sessions, honors
societies)
• Research Interests (optional)
– What are your future research plans?
• Describe at a level specific enough to be credible and
general enough to indicate the direction your research might
take over the next several years
• You may also be asked to submit a brief (one or two page)
discussion of your future research plans as a separate part of
your application
Teaching Competencies (optional)
• Optional category if you feel the areas your are
qualified to teach are not obvious from the rest of the
entries in your vita
– E.g., I am proficient in German and Old English, and
familiar with Middle English, so I might highlight my
interest in teaching a department core class: History of the
English Language
• Don’t list so many competencies that your list lacks
credibility (it’s not a wish list)
• If you list a subject as a teaching competency, some
other part of the vita should reinforce your
qualifications to teach it
• If you list specific courses, be prepared to discuss a
syllabus and texts for them
Additional Information
• Service
– Graduate or professional associations, service, etc.
– University committees (e.g., Writing links program, accreditation word,
general education reform)
– Mentoring/tutoring
– Advising (undergraduate thesis committees)
– Field conferences (organizing/hosting, staffing, etc)
• Personal
– Optional section where you may include miscellaneous information that does
not fit elsewhere
• Foreign languages
• Extensive travel
• Interests you feel important
• References
– These should be listed (with contact information) on a separate sheet; include
if required (usually these are uploaded separately in application portals)
– Services like Interfolio provide secure, third party reference letter storage (as
well as application materials) and send confidential letters on order
(www.interfolio.com)
Tailoring your vita to an Audience
• Always include basic info
• Different positions may require different emphases
– Teaching vita (emphasizes range of courses taught and/or
developed)
• Community & small liberal arts or tech colleges
• Private preparatory schools
• Business/marketing training positions
– Research vita (emphasizes scholarly pursuits over teaching
or service)
• Most universities
• Private research institutions/companies
– Administrative/Advisory vita (if you want to transition into
administration, most of your experience is still relevant
and important)
• Civil service
• Government positions (foreign service, NSA, etc)
Layout and Reproduction
• Format (clean, clear) is always important
• Most important info goes on first page (motivate them to turn the
page)
• Spatially, the top half of the page gets more attention than the
lower, and the left column gets more attention than the right (just
something to keep in mind)
• Use a consistent graphic hierarchy:
– Bold type is for emphasis
– Headers should be ALL CAPS (don’t also underline and/or bold – it’s
redundant)
– Use one (at most two) conservative fonts (not something really
cool that expresses the inner you)
– Proofread, proofread, proofread – then ask someone else to look for
typos, spelling errors, inconsistent spacing, date format consistency,
etc. A simple error on your CV shows that you aren’t attentive to detail
and concerned about appearances.
– Use your department faculty: ask them for comments/critiques on
your CV. Their knowledge of field specific trends can be invaluable!
Sample 1: Post Doc CV
Sample 2: Social Sciences
Sample 3: Sciences
Recommended Reading
References
Duke University. Student Affairs: Curriculum Vitae. Accessed 3 October 2013.
<http://studentaffairs.duke.edu/career/online-tools-resources/careercenter-skills-guides/curriculum-vitae>.
Medical College of Wisconsin. Student Affairs: Sample CVs. 2013. Accessed 3
October 2013.
<http://www.mcw.edu/medicalschool/studentaffairs/Residency-MatchProcess/Curriculum-Vitae-Samples.htm>.
The Academic Job Search Handbook 4th Ed. Vick, Julia Miller & Jennifer S.
Furlong. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.