CV for a New Doctoral Student

[imonedaful]

I met my advisor for the first time today. He told me it would be great to attend a conference for beginning doctoral students in my field at the end of October. He was getting all the information for me and come to find out the deadline is September 1st. It is a fairly simple process, I just have to turn in an application, have a letter of recommendation from a faculty member, and a CV. Currently, I only have a professional resume not an academic CV. I have been given a few examples of how it is supposed to be laid out. However, I have not had any works published so I do not really have much to list. I am just wondering what other things do you put on your CV as a new student to fill that hole in your CV? Would it be reasonable to put research projects on there that have never been submitted to a journal? Thanks in advance for any advice!

[fuzzylogician]

You could put your projects under research experience but honestly obvious attempts to beef up your CV will be just that - obvious. Everyone starts somewhere and no one expects a participant in a student conference to be extensively published. Stick to education, publications, presentations, honors (fellowships, scholarships, awards, etc), teaching experience, research experience, service (and anything else that is relevant in your field).

[TakeruK]

Agree with what fuzzy said!

It depends on the field -- in my field, sometimes courses (especially lab courses) might have a "final project" or a "term project" where you do a fair amount of research work but rarely does this work become published (unless it ends up being really good and/or more work is done on it after the course ends). Putting these types of projects on your CV is an obvious attempt to beef up your CV.

However, not all research done (especially at undergrad level) will result in a presentation or a publication. I'd go with the rule of thumb that if you were paid to do the research work, then you should put it under "research experience". Sometimes an undergrad will volunteer to work with a research group in the summer after their first or second year (since it could be hard to find a job with that little experience), and that might be something you could put too, depending on what it is!

[imonedaful]

Thank you guys for the advice. I kept my research section to the research assistantship I currently have and my research interests. Rather keep it simple than make it look like I am trying to put a bunch of random information. Another one of the students told me that for a new doctoral conference they do not expect you to have anything published and to worry about that section.

[Chande]

What about publications in an undergraduate journal, or presentations of research projects at student conferences? Should these be listed on the CV?

[imonedaful]

not?

Thanks for the edit.

[TakeruK]

What about publications in an undergraduate journal, or presentations of research projects at student conferences? Should these be listed on the CV?

I think you should if you don't have a couple of publications already in non-student journals. For me, I only try to list each presentation once, I replace the student conference listing if I end up presenting it somewhere else. I think student publications/presentations are good for CVs but eventually you'd replace them as you progress through your career.