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How to Write an Academic CV + Example CVs
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How to Write an Academic CV + Example CVs

Introduction

In this section, the speaker introduces herself and explains that she will be discussing academic CVs.

  • Casey is a professor in an information science department.
  • She has created videos about advice for applying to PhD programs.
  • The topic of this video is academic CVs.

Basics of Academic CVs

In this section, the speaker explains what an academic CV is and how it differs from a resume.

  • A CV is an encyclopedia of everything you've ever done in an academic context.
  • It includes education, publications, talks, awards, etc.
  • It's not specific to any particular thing that you might be using it for.
  • A resume tends to be fitted for a particular job that you're applying for and focuses more on skills and things that you bring to the table for that particular job.
  • A CV tends to be much longer than a resume.

Tips for Creating an Academic CV

In this section, the speaker provides tips on creating an effective academic CV.

Look at Examples

  • Look at examples of people's CVs in your discipline.
  • Faculty and even PhD students often have a copy of their CV linked from their website.
  • You'll get examples not only for format but also things to include, things you might have forgotten, and also if there are any conventions specific to your discipline.

Organize Your Information Effectively

  • Organize things in such a way that they emphasize whatever puts your best foot forward and what is relevant to your academic career.
  • This means education and research over non-academic work experience usually.
  • Structure might differ per person depending on their background.

Tailor Your Content

  • Tailor your content based on what's important in your field or what you want to emphasize.
  • For example, if you graduated from undergrad and then worked for a few years as a user experience researcher at Google, and now you're applying for computer science PhD programs, that is far more impressive than the fact that someone worked at the zoo.

Follow Specific Instructions

  • Make sure that you look at the specific instructions to make sure that you're giving them what they want.
  • Most of the time when you are applying to an academic position whether that's as a student or for a job they want a CV as opposed to a resume.

Listing Manuscripts in Process

In this section, the speaker discusses listing manuscripts in process on your CV.

  • It can be quite common to list manuscripts under preparation in your CV depending on your field.
  • Find out whether it's the norm in your field or not.

Emphasizing Your Best Attributes

In this section, the speaker emphasizes organizing information effectively to highlight one's best attributes.

  • Organize things in such a way that they emphasize whatever puts your best foot forward but as they relate to academia.
  • This means education and research over non-academic work experience usually.
  • Structure might differ per person depending on their background.

Structuring Your CV

In this section, the speaker provides tips on how to structure your CV in a way that emphasizes your strengths and makes you stand out.

Emphasize Your Strengths

  • If you only have one or they're not that impressive, put them at the end.
  • Don't feel like you have to structure your CV in any particular order based on what other people's looks like. You can change the structure to emphasize what makes you look best.
  • Follow some basic conventions, like putting your education at the top.

Include Details as Appropriate

  • Include details as it seems appropriate.
  • For research positions, use this to emphasize what kind of methodological experience you have: conducted interviews, designed surveys, created novel scrapers to collect data.
  • These are the kinds of details that tend to drop off your CV as you get more experience.

Clarify Your Publications

  • List all publications on your CV but clarify which ones are peer-reviewed journal articles and which ones are small workshop position papers.
  • Separate full rigorously peer-reviewed papers from short conference publications such as posters and late-breaking works.
  • Optionally include information about impact factor of a journal or acceptance rate for a conference.

Make It Look Professional

  • Make sure it looks nice and professional. Show that you put some effort into it.
  • Have someone else proofread it to make sure there aren't any spelling errors or formatting mistakes.

Length of CV

  • If no page limit is specified, give them the whole thing even if it's 19 pages long.
  • If there is a page limit specified, follow those instructions.

Tips for Writing a CV

In this section, the speaker provides tips on how to write an effective CV. She suggests including a section for selected media coverage and recommends looking at examples from one's discipline.

Organizing Your CV

  • The speaker shows her current CV as an example of one organizational scheme.
  • The speaker notes that if you are finishing your PhD and applying to faculty jobs, your CV is going to look very different.
  • If you're applying to PhD programs, your CV is also going to look very different.
  • The speaker encourages viewers not to worry if they are not publishing until their fourth year.

Sections of a CV

  • At the top of the CV should be your name, current position, and contact information.
  • Typically things should always be in reverse chronological order.
  • It is common to put the title of your dissertation and/or your advisor or entire committee if you have it.
  • Awards and honors can go back as far as undergrad but should only include academic-related awards that are notable.
  • Publications should be organized based on factors such as journal articles first then peer-reviewed conference publications next with acceptance rates noted where known.

Other Sections

  • Refereed non-archival publications include things like conference presentations at humanities-style conferences where you just submit an abstract and it's not archival.
  • Talks given can also be included in a separate section.

CV Tips for PhD Students

In this section, the speaker discusses how to create a CV as a PhD student. She explains what to include in a CV and how to organize it.

What to Include in a CV

  • List all talks together.
  • List research funding at the top of the CV.
  • For teaching positions, list teaching first and then research.
  • Include student research mentoring if you are on the academic job market.
  • Include editorial and advisory positions, big professional service positions like being part of SIGCHI executive committee, having conference organizing positions, etc.
  • List all of the conference program committees that you've been on and reviewing that you do.

How to Organize a CV

  • Professional experience should be listed near the very end of your CV.
  • If you have really impressive internships, consider putting those much farther up on your CV than other experiences.
  • Create a section for selected popular press publications that are related to specific research papers and selected press coverage.

Final Advice

  • Don't be discouraged by putting your CV together and feeling like it's not impressive enough.
  • Imposter syndrome is real but remember that you should be worried about being the best that you can be and not comparing yourself to other people.
  • Try to organize your CV to emphasize whatever you think is best and most compelling about yourself.
Video description

Whether you're applying for PhD programs or faculty jobs, you'll need an awesome curriculum vitae (CV)! How is a CV different than a resume? What should be on it? What kinds of experience should you emphasize? How long is a CV? And... CV examples! So here are some tips about how to write a curriculum vitae for a PhD application or a job application, including CV format. Here are links to my old CVs, as well as my current one: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Yx97wCvTwkcJ6VRukMq2P7uRxu9OatN5 (Note again that these are not necessarily what you should use as a CV template, but hopefully seeing some examples will give you ideas!) PhD application advice playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPA3GFqdHv_oL8gRg-44TmvMzjcFRMH4I MORE RESOURCES + Academic job market advice: https://medium.com/@cfiesler/the-academic-job-search-its-not-you-it-s-them-41d3f4d47735 + Tips for PhD applications: https://youtu.be/dAk3pEa4OZs + Tips for grad school statement of purpose: https://youtu.be/B5-lrCaGLOw + How does peer review work? https://youtu.be/u2neVj5xgFY + What being a college professor is really like: https://youtu.be/Q5UmU-ujX5E I post new videos most Fridays! Especially if you're applying for grad school or are on the academic job market, consider subscribing, as there will be more in the spring about grad school interviews, how to choose a PhD advisor, on-campus interviews for academic jobs, etc.!