Help with CV

[Gingermick]

I have scoured the internet for how to guides and examples, and it seems there is no one way to make a CV. Even if there were, I feel my CV is deficient because I am lacking publications and conferences and I have few honors. I don't want to pad it, but I'm not sure what exactly is relevent and what I should excise from my current draft. Please give me your advice:

Curriculum Vitae

Gingermick

gingermick @ gingermick.com

1111Street

City, State

Phone:

888-888-8888

Education

College of the Canyons, A.A., 2005, with honors

University of California, Los Angeles, B.A, 2007

Research Interests

English Renaissance/Early Modern Period

Shakespeare

Gender and Women

Early Modern Women Writers

Honors

HITE (High Intensity Transfer Enrichment) Program, 2003-2005

Honors Program, College of the Canyons, 2003-2005

Teaching Experience

Tutoring English in Japan, 2008 - current

Substitute teacher at Windows English Conversation School, 2009 - current

Foreign languages

Spanish – proficient

Latin – intermediate

Japanese –intermediate

Italian - intermediate

Memberships

Modern Language Association, 2010 –current

Shakespeare Association of America, 2010- current

Travel and Study Abroad

Study Abroad in Spain – Spring 2005

Living in Japan - 2008 - current

Edited August 10, 2010 by Gingermick

[Alette]

Hi there:

I've found a few sites that are helpful. First, of course, is the Perdue OWL site. Another is the CAPS PDF. This one is geared to recent PhD grads entering the job market, but it's still helpful. It has examples from a number of fields, including English. I would also look through your professors' c.v.s, and go to your career center for advice. I think you can add more information to what you posted: for example, under teaching experience, write a little about your responsibilities in the classroom. Did you design the course? Were you solely responsible for the class and all evaluation? That sort of thing.

Another thing you can do is ask former professors if you can't guest lecture in one of their classrooms this coming semester. That would be a good way to add a presentation to the c.v.

I hope that helps!

[strokeofmidnight]

I really wouldn't worry about an slim CV. (Until I actually became a grad student, my CV was half a page).

In my latest iteration of my CV, I left out

-research interests (since the rest of my application covers this thoroughly)

-non-academic teaching experiences. [though had I applied with just a BA, I might have left those in]

-memberships (I will add these in when I actually start going to conference and presenting papers...at the moment, it seems a bit gratuitous)

-travel/study abroad experiences that are not directly relevant to my field.

None of these seem like padding, and this might largely be a stylistic preference: prefer a more streamline, to-the-point CV that only discusses my academic work, rather than one which conveys a fuller sense of who I am as a human being. You might feel differently. If you had added (say) college clubs or a survey of your retail jobs, than I'd recommend cutting them completely...but all of your experience at at least somewhat relevant.

Also, you might want to consider being a bit more specific about your languages--particularly if you're not devoting space to this in your SoP. Are you proficient in reading, but not speaking/listening to a language? What was the highest level of coursework you've taken? Did you pass a translation exam?