CV confusion

[criscamino]

Hi. I'm English and here what we call a CV is the thing you send out to get whatever kind of job you are going for and roughly equates to what you guys call a resume, I believe. The things I find when googling academic CV don't seem too relevant to me. I haven't taught (and never heard of an undergrad teaching at my uni), haven't received research grants, haven't been published, haven't presented at conferences, don't belong to any professional organisations... but then none of my friends (who've been getting into great programmes over here) have either, so I don't think that not having these things is unusual. So what am I supposed to put on this CV thingummy?

Edit: I'm doing history, by the way

Edited December 15, 2010 by criscamino

[LJK]

For me I have the following sections:

Basic Info (not labeled that but has my name, contact information and stats such as undergrad gpa, grad gpa and gre scores)

Education - For each degree/school attended - degree type, dates of attendance, location, major, graduated w/ honors (if applicable)

Honors and Awards - including scholarships, research awards, honor programs, etc.

Research Experience - date, type of experience (thesis or RA work, etc.), supervisor, then a brief description of the research and what technical skills were gained

Service - anything that I have done field related that wasn't course work or for my research

Teaching experience - I have TAed as an MS student, but tutoring could go here if you have ever done that

Professional Memberships - I recently joined an association to submit a paper proposal for their annual conference

I also used to have a research interests section with some quick key words to remind my reader but I wanted to stay to one page and that was the first to go.

Basically, an academic CV is putting together everything that is academically relevant - you shouldn't include working in retail during your summer vacations or anything of that ilk which would go on a resume.

Edit: Also, if you are looking for examples, I would look and see if you can find grad student CVs. They will have more to put on than a potential grad student but will be closer to what you want than the CVs of professors who are summing up 20 years of experience.

Edited December 15, 2010 by LJK

[Strangefox]

Hi. I'm English and here what we call a CV is the thing you send out to get whatever kind of job you are going for and roughly equates to what you guys call a resume, I believe. The things I find when googling academic CV don't seem too relevant to me. I haven't taught (and never heard of an undergrad teaching at my uni), haven't received research grants, haven't been published, haven't presented at conferences, don't belong to any professional organisations... but then none of my friends (who've been getting into great programmes over here) have either, so I don't think that not having these things is unusual. So what am I supposed to put on this CV thingummy?

Edit: I'm doing history, by the way

Well, your CV will be kind of short, then... May be you can send a resume instead of a CV. May be that would be more reasonable. Some schools ask for any of those. While in a CV you can put only academic stuff, a resume can contain more diverse information about your experiences. I am sure you have some nonacademic experiences that you can include in it. Projects accomplished at work? Language skills?

[criscamino]

Just the one pressing deadline does say cv/resume, so that sounds like a plan. I've got a little time to mull over the other cv-requiring one

Thanks, both of you

[Strangefox]

I've got a little time to mull over the other cv-requiring one

I believe that even if they require a CV on their website that still might not be the only option. Confusion created by schools' online instructions is legendary

Considering your situation, I would try contacting the grad secratary from the schools that requires a CV (just email them) and asking if sending a resume instead would be fine. The chances are high that it would and then you won't have to rack your brains!

Edited December 15, 2010 by Strangefox

[criscamino]

I believe that even if they require a CV on their website that still might not be the only option. Confusion created by schools' online instructions is legendary

Considering your situation, I would try contacting the grad secratary from the schools that requires a CV (just email them) and asking if sending a resume instead would be fine. The chances are high that it would and then you won't have to rack your brains!

Thanks! I have indeed found some of the online forms to be extremely confusing and rather wished I'd got stuck into them sooner (nice selection of deadlines today!). Won't be so naïve next time round, and I fear there will be one. I've ended up with something that is still a resume but a bit more academically focused than usual, so I'll go with that. And see what happens

[BlueRose]

For a person without much academic experience, there isn't much difference between a CV and a resume - and I think schools expect that. I second the suggestion of looking for grad student CVs; that's what I did when I was making mine for the first time.

On mine, I have:

Name and contact information

Research Interests: the two sentence version

Education: school, degree, year, brief summary of coursework

Research Experience: who, where, when*, and a few bullet points of what

Publications: okay, the plural is ambitious, I've only got one...

Posters: more than one! page 1 over.

Invited Talks: this is unusual, I had a project go viral on me

Teaching Experience: where, when, who, and what subject

Awards and Honors: not my strong suit, so it hides on page 2

Selected Media Features: also not usual, but I'll run with it

Skills: this is a resume thing, but hey I had space

* I went to my undergrad career center and they told me to leave off dates. I ended up compromising and putting in the year only. That way it's less cluttered, less obvious that I only spent a semester at a couple of those jobs, and more obvious where I was in my career at the time (before/during/after undergrad).

Also, I paid the bills teaching, but I'd still put down a job that wasn't academic (maybe add an "Other Experience" section). If you spent 20 hrs/week waitressing to pay tuition, that would be impressive, even if it's not going to be mentioned on a grownup CV.

Edited December 17, 2010 by BlueRose