Resumes

[knittynerd]

What exactly are schools looking for when they want your resume as part of your application? I have a resume, the only problem is that I have limited to no work experience in the field I want to go into (currently in my final year of undergrad).... And I'm pretty sure they could probably care less about the mindless part-time jobs I have held over the years, which makes a pretty short resume. Anyways, what sort of things should I include and what should I exclude?

[TakeruK]

My CV format was

- Name/Contact Info

- Education -- For each school/degree, I included major, thesis supervisor, thesis title

- Research Experience -- For each project, 3 to 5 lines listing what I did and what the main results were

- Publications -- separated peer reviewed articles and conference presentations -- I picked out one presentation per topic instead of listing every single one.

- Scholarships and Awards -- included year, name/funding agency, and dollar value

- Teaching Experience -- For each item, 2-3 lines explaining my duties

- Volunteer Experience -- same as above, only included things I thought were relevant (e.g. volunteering at a science camp, physics student societies etc.)

A resume is usually a summary of a CV, but for most of us at the stage of applying to grad school, our CV is already pretty short, so a summary isn't much different! The above format was for my CV (which is what most schools asked me for). When a resume was required, I reduced the about of text used to describe each entry but didn't really cut out any entries.

Anyways, I'd make sure to include ALL research experience, regardless of field. Just don't include random part-time jobs of course, but if you worked or even just volunteered in a lab or research group at some point, be sure to include it! Make sure you try to emphasize your strengths as best as you can. The last section, volunteer experience, isn't very important I've heard, so you probably wouldn't want to include too many of these.

I would avoid listing personal information that are common in CVs from outside of North America, such as birthdate, marital status, etc. But I think that's obvious. Also, if you did present the same project at multiple conferences, I'd only list it once.

If you just don't have much research experience (which is normal), then you just might have a short resume. Nothing really wrong with that -- it's definitely better to have a concise, short resume than one with filler material. That said, if you could mention things that might help your graduate application, such as graduate courses taken under Education, then that might be okay. If you are doing a senior/honours thesis, you can include that too since by the time you submit your application, that project should be underway!

Edited August 8, 2012 by TakeruK

[Vader Was Framed]

My CV format was

- Name/Contact Info

- Education -- For each school/degree, I included major, thesis supervisor, thesis title

- Research Experience -- For each project, 3 to 5 lines listing what I did and what the main results were

- Publications -- separated peer reviewed articles and conference presentations -- I picked out one presentation per topic instead of listing every single one.

- Scholarships and Awards -- included year, name/funding agency, and dollar value

- Teaching Experience -- For each item, 2-3 lines explaining my duties

- Volunteer Experience -- same as above, only included things I thought were relevant (e.g. volunteering at a science camp, physics student societies etc.)

A resume is usually a summary of a CV, but for most of us at the stage of applying to grad school, our CV is already pretty short, so a summary isn't much different! The above format was for my CV (which is what most schools asked me for). When a resume was required, I reduced the about of text used to describe each entry but didn't really cut out any entries.

Anyways, I'd make sure to include ALL research experience, regardless of field. Just don't include random part-time jobs of course, but if you worked or even just volunteered in a lab or research group at some point, be sure to include it! Make sure you try to emphasize your strengths as best as you can. The last section, volunteer experience, isn't very important I've heard, so you probably wouldn't want to include too many of these.

I would avoid listing personal information that are common in CVs from outside of North America, such as birthdate, marital status, etc. But I think that's obvious. Also, if you did present the same project at multiple conferences, I'd only list it once.

If you just don't have much research experience (which is normal), then you just might have a short resume. Nothing really wrong with that -- it's definitely better to have a concise, short resume than one with filler material. That said, if you could mention things that might help your graduate application, such as graduate courses taken under Education, then that might be okay. If you are doing a senior/honours thesis, you can include that too since by the time you submit your application, that project should be underway!

Tak - good format there. Curious - where would you advise putting professional experience for those who have been in industry for a bit? I'm learning towards a shortened version (list positions + 2-3 sentences of role) after education.

[TakeruK]

I ordered the categories in what I thought was the order of relevance for graduate school applications. So I think it would really depend on field.

For me, if I had professional experience that was basically a research position (e.g. a R&D position in industry), then I would just include it with "Research Experience" (and maybe re-label the category to "Research and Professional Experience"). If the work resulted in patents or something similar, I would probably include those in my "Publications" as a sub-category and re-label things accordingly. Otherwise, if it was a non-research related professional position, I would probably put it either after Research Experience or after Publications, because I don't think industry experience is particularly helpful for research in my field.

But if you are in a field where professional experience before a graduate degree is valued, then it would probably go before or after research experience, depending on what you think is more important for admissions committees to see. But it could also be a good idea to maybe rename "Research Experience" into a title that covers both research and industry positions, especially since if you are going to list things chronologically within each category, then maybe the professional positions will be separated from research positions anyways!

Edited August 10, 2012 by TakeruK

[MacZeeZee]

My (psych) CV / resume format was something like (had to be 2 pages or less):

1. Name / contact info (only address and email)

2. Education (degree, date, minors, thesis, gpa)

3. Research Experience (including lab assistantships, publications - I added this in here because I only have one publication)

4. Teaching and University Service (tutoring, TA position, university committees, etc)

5. Professional Experience (try to make your part-time jobs sound at least a little relevant, mine happen to be)

6. Leadership and Community Service

7. Selected Awards and Affiliations

I don't thin it's a bad thing for adcomms to know that you worked throughout your college career. You still had other responsibilities while (hopefully) having success in school.

Good luck!

[annieca]

How do you handle schools you attended but didn't earn a degree from?

I took 6 classes at the local community college (four during high school, two for gen ed credits) and so I'll have to submit the transcripts regardless. However, I don't know how to put it on my CV, especially date wise. I have dates like "Summer 2008, Summer 2009, Fall 2010" etc.

Then, my last year of undergrad I'm doing at an international school through an exchange. I'm hoping (praying actually) I don't have to send my transcripts from this school but again - how do I mention it in a CV?

[runaway]

How do you handle schools you attended but didn't earn a degree from?

I took 6 classes at the local community college (four during high school, two for gen ed credits) and so I'll have to submit the transcripts regardless. However, I don't know how to put it on my CV, especially date wise. I have dates like "Summer 2008, Summer 2009, Fall 2010" etc.

Then, my last year of undergrad I'm doing at an international school through an exchange. I'm hoping (praying actually) I don't have to send my transcripts from this school but again - how do I mention it in a CV?

If you're completing courses towards your degree, you should report these grades. If the credits are transferring to your home institution and the grades will appear on that transcript, then just submit that. But you should be submitting transcripts sufficient to show ALL grades that have contributed towards your BA.

I studied at 5 different schools before earning my BA, but only listed the coursework that ended up being relevant on my CV. For instance, just for fun I took a class at Tisch one summer. The credits transferred towards my degree but don't have anything to do with my research, so I submitted the transcript but didn't put it on my CV. I also completed an SLI course at Pitt, which didn't transfer towards my BA. It's relevant to my research, though, so I listed it on my CV (as 'summer study') and submitted the transcript to prove I did well.

I also have a question: My school's guide to CV's suggests a section for professional memberships. I have a few, but none are honor societies or anything of the like. Is actually worth adding?

[TakeruK]

There was one school that I attended but did not get a degree from. I attended it as a visiting student with credit towards the MSc at my "home" school. I listed it on the CV with "visiting student" status so that the adcomm understand why I have a random 3rd transcript. But I guess if I had a lot of schools then I might only put the relevant ones, as the above poster wrote.

For professional memberships, I would list those that are related to your field. For example, in CVs that also asked for professional memberships, I listed myself as a "Student Member" of the Canadian Astronomical Society. However, this isn't very "useful" so I usually don't put this on my default CV. I would list it if I was, for example, a member of the Grad Student Council of the society, or something similar. But I might also list this under volunteer/service sections.

But I think these things are much more useful to list when you are applying to faculty/post-docs than grad school.

[michigan girl]

If you are applying to master's and professional programs, the resume should not surpass two pages. This is especially important for recent college graduates and those with under ten years of professional experience.