What are Grad Schools Looking for in a Resume?

[mhindawy]

My resume is very professional. It focuses heavily on my professional work experience. What are grad schools looking for?

I'm open to all suggestions... Thanks

[fuzzylogician]

What kind of program are you applying for? For a research PhD degree, programs want to see that you have relevant research experience and well-defined research interests. You show this mostly through your SOP and LORs, but if you've worked as an RA or TA, presented in any conference or have a publication, that all should appear there. Professional experience will certainly not hurt but it's probably not what programs will be looking for.

[_kita]

Like Fuzzy mentioned above, it does depend on the type of program your interested in & where your work experience lies. For instance, if you want to work in a lab and your work experience is as a cashier, well the school really won't care. But, if you're interested in working with kids and worked at a summer camp - well, that will definitely matter. So, in general, keep the resume tailored for the experience.

My suggestion, if your academia bound:

1. Education

2. Research

3. Presentations/Papers

4. Leadership Roles - especially in academia /Jobs/etc

5. Awards/Grants

If you're going to graduate school to enter back into a direct job afterwards (and not heavy research oriented):

1. Education

2. RELEVANT work experience only

3. Research

4. Leadership Roles

5. Awards/Grants

Both templates have the exact same information. But arrange the information that matters more to them closer to the top of the resume. Also, in general keep out any fluff information that just seems like you wanted to fill in the page more.

Edited October 16, 2012 by psychkita

[scholarlypartier]

Is it appropriate to put a research paper done in an undergraduate course on a CV? I don't have any formal publications , research papers or theses. I did however write two papers in two seperate courses while reviewing the releveant literature in my field. Is this worthy to start a "research experience" section? I did mention it in my SOP/SOI. I have mostly professional experience as well. Many thanks in advance.

[fuzzylogician]

Is it appropriate to put a research paper done in an undergraduate course on a CV? I don't have any formal publications , research papers or theses. I did however write two papers in two seperate courses while reviewing the releveant literature in my field. Is this worthy to start a "research experience" section? I did mention it in my SOP/SOI. I have mostly professional experience as well. Many thanks in advance.

This is just a required paper for a class? It wasn't presented anywhere or turned into a publication? If that is the case then that is not the kind of thing you put on your CV.

[scholarlypartier]

This is just a required paper for a class? It wasn't presented anywhere or turned into a publication? If that is the case then that is not the kind of thing you put on your CV.

Yes they were simply research papers written for a class and were not presented anywhere. I thought as much, I will omit it from my CV. Thank you!

[TakeruK]

My resume was very similar to psychkita's template but I put awards before leadership things since I think heavily research-oriented fields like to see that you have a history of securing your own funding. But I think it depends on what you have to put in these sections and what schools you're applying to. If you have a lot more leadership experience in your professional life, that might be a stronger case for you! Here's my template, for what it's worth:

1. Education

2. Research Experience

3. Publications/Presentations

4. Academic awards/fellowships

5. Teaching Experience

6. Other (related) experiences -- I put things like outreach, student leadership, mentoring etc. here

[Quant_Liz_Lemon]

Yes they were simply research papers written for a class and were not presented anywhere. I thought as much, I will omit it from my CV. Thank you!

I disagree. I included a section on representative research papers. My poi at Vanderbilt really liked that I had included it. The projects highlighted my research interests and how they shifted from qualitative to methodological. I only included papers were I had done original research. I made it clear that these weren't publications.

Edited October 20, 2012 by Quant_Liz_Lemon