CVs/Research & Teaching Lists: What info is relevant?

[Pierre de Olivi]

Hello all,

As some of you know, I am currently a rising senior undergraduate looking into religious studies, theology, and history programs for admission in Fall 2019. I hope to use this summer to bang out a lot of materials related to my applications, but have already come up with a few questions as I've started working on CVs/resumes to submit with my application. I have prepared resumes when applying for summer jobs/internships, but have not yet had to prepare them for applications for further academic study, and therefore had a few questions:

1) I have been told that, when applying to jobs, a resume should be at most one full page. On the other hand, I have seen CVs by senior and even junior scholars that go on for pages. Is there a generally-accepted "maximum length" for CVs/resumes when applying to graduate school?

2) What information should generally be included on a resume when applying for graduate programs in the humanities? Right now, I plan for my resume to include an "Education" section, a section on employment history and work experience (both work related to my prospective field of study and non-academic work/academic work not directly related), a list of academic awards and grants, and a list of skills (including languages) and miscellaneous certifications. I took out a section on volunteer work at the suggestion of my undergraduate adviser, but I still worry it will look like I am padding my application. Is there anything I should cut?

My questions have further been compounded because some schools to which I plan to apply do not ask for full resumes/CVs, but only a list of "relevant teaching and research experience." However, there are a few jobs I have worked at which I am not sure I should include, and I was wondering if anybody with more experience than I could tell me if they would look like I was padding my application or not:

1) Should I include work as a TA in a subject unrelated to the field to which I wish to apply? Namely, I worked as a TA in my school's mathematics department for two semesters before I declared a major, but do not know if admission committees in religious studies or history would care.

2) Last summer I worked a non-academic internship on archival work, which included a small research component. If I clarify what sort of research I did in this internship and how it relates to my academic interests and goals, would it be appropriate to consider this research work, or should I only include it on my traditional resume?

Thank you all for your help. I wish you all excellent summers and look forward to hearing more.

[jujubea]

This is a good question, and one whose answer will change somewhat depending on what you're applying for.

1) Resumes and CVs are completely different beasts. In academia, it's best to forget most of what you've learned about resumes, and just learn the CV game anew. CV's, in general, can be as long as they need to be, no matter what stage of your career you're in. What can be tricky for some is figuring out what is sort of lame/bs padding and what is legit good material that should make it onto the CV. Again, this changes depending on what you're applying for.

2) ) What information should generally be included on a resume when applying for graduate programs in the humanities? Right now, I plan for my resume to include an "Education" section, a section on employment history and work experience (both work related to my prospective field of study and non-academic work/academic work not directly related), a list of academic awards and grants, and a list of skills (including languages) and miscellaneous certifications. I took out a section on volunteer work at the suggestion of my undergraduate adviser, but I still worry it will look like I am padding my application. Is there anything I should cut?

Unless the program(s) you're applying for specifically ask for a resume, do not submit a resume, instead submit a CV. Education should be the first section. Academic awards and grants (of the sections you've listed) should come next. Instead of "volunteer work" that section should be "Community Service" and will eventually include things like serving on random committees, groups, or labs for relevant academic activities--essentially volunteering within your program, school, or academic community. It is OK that this volunteer work may be somewhat unrelated, in my opinion, because it shows that you dedicate time above and beyond and outside of normal work hours to the betterment of your community in some way. Also, just Google a standard CV to get the general idea. 

1) Should I include work as a TA in a subject unrelated to the field to which I wish to apply? Namely, I worked as a TA in my school's mathematics department for two semesters before I declared a major, but do not know if admission committees in religious studies or history would care.

Yes, in general, absolutely include it all. Teaching experience at the early stage you're in is relevant and worthwhile to include. Have a good one-sentence story or anecdote ready when they ask you why you TA'd in math and not your current major. For the programs which ask for NO CV and ONLY relevant teaching/research experience, I would strongly consider still including it, but I am interested to know others' opinions on this.

2) Last summer I worked a non-academic internship on archival work, which included a small research component. If I clarify what sort of research I did in this internship and how it relates to my academic interests and goals, would it be appropriate to consider this research work, or should I only include it on my traditional resume?

The word archival alone screams academia -- yes again include it because coming out of undergrad, it is very easily arguably relevant. Absolutely include it. Research is research. 

 

I'm happy to take a look at your CV once you've put it together and tell you if in my humble opinion there is any glaring padding. Of the things you've mentioned, none sound bad. 

Toot your own horn! 

[Sigaba]

On 7/7/2018 at 11:55 AM, Pierre de Olivi said:

history programs for admission in Fall 2019. 

Is there anything I should cut?

• Minimize or cut from your to do list tasks that keep you from working on how you define yourself as a historian,  your SOP,  your writing sample, getting  your LoRs lined up, preparing for the GRE, improving your language skills, and the courses you'll be taking in the fall.
• For CVs, use the guidance that @jujubea in conjunction with CVs that you can find on line for graduate students in history.
• IRT the non academic archival research that you did, I recommend that you exercise caution in how you highlight it.
  • If the research was performed for an organization that has objectives, interests, and sensibilities that are counter to the values of professional academic history, you may want to consider minimizing the experience or omitting it (if possible).
    • Examples include think tanks that produce politically controversial policy recommendations and firms that seek to privatize history.
• IRT "padding," if you think it is padding, it probably is and will likely be viewed as such.
  • That being said, it's likely that your CV is going to have a lot of blank space on the page, so you will do what you need to do to fill up some of the blank space.
  • Understand that over time a CV, like a resume, evolves.
• A recommendation. Do what you can to craft your SOP so that it's a lens through which interested parties will read the information on your transcript and your CV.
• A second recommendation. Do what you can to differentiate between building the tools that are going to get you where you want to go and crafting totems that help you manage the anxiety of the application process. Pie in the sky, you're going to spend most your time building tools that also serve as totems. 

[Pierre de Olivi]

Hey guys,

Thank you both for your helpful replies. I am sorry for the delayed response; I wrote this post between travel and a research assistantship and didn't find time to reply. I have been looking into sample CVs/resumes and have found a lot of help from them, per @jujubea's suggestion.

On 7/11/2018 at 11:15 PM, jujubea said:

I'm happy to take a look at your CV once you've put it together and tell you if in my humble opinion there is any glaring padding. Of the things you've mentioned, none sound bad. 

 

Wow, thank you very much for your kind offer! Are you still willing to do this? I have an early edition of my CV (it will be updated further over the coming semester) and would really appreciate making sure I'm not padding (or selling myself short). Of course, if you're busy I totally understand too.

On 7/12/2018 at 1:39 AM, Sigaba said:

• • If the research was performed for an organization that has objectives, interests, and sensibilities that are counter to the values of professional academic history, you may want to consider minimizing the experience or omitting it (if possible).
    •  Examples include think tanks that produce politically controversial policy recommendations and firms that seek to privatize history.
•  

I realize my statement was a little ambiguous - the archival work was for a relatively small, local art studio; I preserved and digitized selected artworks and related documents on an archive and then used the archive itself and other sources (archives of relevant newspapers and advertisements, museum information, some books) to fill in background on each piece. The studio was for-profit AFAIK but they didn't seem to be flagrantly violating any historical or archival methodologies, and most professors and curators I talked to about the project took it pretty seriously. Does this affect anybody's answer?

[jujubea]

Sorry for the delay.

Yes just PM me any time!