CV organization

[lotuspetal7]

Hello all,

 

I'm a current master's student getting started thinking about some Ph.D. applications I'll be turning in this winter for fall 2014. I'm thinking about how to write my CV and wondered if I could get some opinions on organization.

 

I'm TAing my way through this master's program, so I have the academic stuff and the TA stuff to write about. Before that, I have four years of work experience outside an academic environment, and before that my undergraduate stuff which I will summarize just briefly.

 

So, should I do education (M.A., undergrad) and professional (TA, 2 jobs in between undergrad and grad school)? Or chronological?

 

Also, I'm not sure what to write about in the part about the M.A. degree I'm currently getting. In undergrad I had a bunch of flowery things like phi beta kappa and honors program, and in my jobs outside of school I did a bunch of special projects and whatnot. But for my grad program I'm not sure what I'm supposed to put on there. I've only been in this program for just over a year and have spent most of the time working on getting the basic sort of background I need since my undergrad program was in something unrelated. I'm writing a thesis which will be in the refining stages by the time I turn in my applications. I've read papers at a couple of small colloquia and will be looking for any more chances I may get in the fall. That's not much to put on my CV though...I haven't published anything, though for my field (Japanese literature) at my level that seems not to be a problem. It would be nice to be able to take a paper to a bigger conference before turning in my applications, but I don't think there's going to be one in the next six months. (My field within the U.S. is very small and I'm aware of just two major graduate student conferences, both in February, and one major professional conference which accepts mostly pre-arranged panels). 

 

I have lots to say in my SOP about my research interests, and I should have a great writing sample, probably a cut-down version of my thesis. I spoke to all my POIs a couple of years back when I was doing my M.A. applications, and I think a couple of them should remember me and be anticipating my application. So I'm confident in general but not sure what to write about the year I've spent in graduate school so far. 

 

I'd really appreciate any advice. Thank you!

[marquisbey]

I think you're doing all the right things. I am only in undergrad, but I've talked with numerous people in academia about the CV and graduate school, as well as read many books on the subject. An unofficial expert one might say lol. I would say educational and then professional; academic careers usually don't care much about the chronological format as business and professional careers do.

 

Also, regarding what to write about your M.A. degree, my simple piece of advice would be this: include EVERYTHING!! The more, the better. Any relevant information you can include (research papers, presentations, conferences attended, organizations you belong to that are relevant to your field, research done on your own like going to, say, a museum of Japanese history, etc.) should be included. The point is to show graduate schools that you are committed to your field, not only know about your field but more importantly are willing to learn MORE about your field, and that you are capable of high level, independent research. They are not necessarily looking for a graduate student but a potential colleague.

 

If you'd like, we could swap CVs, writing samples, SoPs, etc. I would love to see what you have so far, and perhaps we can garner some new insight into both our fields (I'm applying to top tier schools like you are, but I'm looking for African American literature programs and Gender studies certificate opportunities in conjunction with that as well). Message me if you want to swap stuff.

 

Hope this helps!

[Eigen]

My best suggestion is to look at examples from current faculty, job applicants, etc. 

 

Norms can shift quite a bit between fields and subfields, and the "best" guidelines are the people who have successfully gone ahead of you. 

 

Mine's cobbled together with different bits I liked from my major faculty's CVs, as well as bits I picked up from the Chronicle of Higher Education "What not to do with your CV" threads. 

[lotuspetal7]

Marquisbey, thanks for the advice! I'll send you a PM.

 

What about a paper I wrote right when I got in and presented to a good reaction from my advisor, but still I now realize the paper was immature and I wouldn't want to show it to an admissions committee? I suppose I should list only papers I am prepared to show should they ask about me? Would they actually call me up and ask to see random older papers I have written?

 

I suppose I could just list it as a colloquium presentation, not as a paper, and if they ask about it say that I don't have a fully fleshed-out version of the paper to show (actually true of my other colloquium presentation, and kind of true of this one too insofar that the version I have is one I can no longer sign off on), and offer to show other papers. Does that sound like a good idea?

 

Eigen, I just saw your reply--thanks. I have looked at some faculty CVs, but they usually have lots of publications and stuff to list. Not sure where to find a CV for a person who's at the same stage in the game that I am!

[gsc]

 

Eigen, I just saw your reply--thanks. I have looked at some faculty CVs, but they usually have lots of publications and stuff to list. Not sure where to find a CV for a person who's at the same stage in the game that I am!

 

Try academia.edu! You can search by school and then department - usually lots of graduate students have CVs posted (generally, the ones with pictures of themselves also have CVs) that you can look at without having to sign up. I must have looked at hundreds when I was figuring out how to do mine!

[zapster]

viz. organization, do not bother to be strictly chronological wrt the sections - i.e put what you think are the most relevant and most important sections upfront (remember that CV is one of the documents usually skimmed through very quickly - cannot generalize of course, but unless there is something exceptionally exciting, it does not get a very detailed read - so you do not want to lose some critical information buried right in the middle of a 3 page CV)....within each section, you could arrange either chronologically or thematically. Typically, if you have many sub-points within a section it is better to be thematic, if only a few, probably easier to read if chronological - but this is just a suggestion.

 

You way want to devote a section on topics you have worked upon even if these have not (yet) resulted in a paper or a publication. I would keep the "flowery stuff" you mentioned right towards the end. It may also be a good idea to add a sort of appendix to your CV listing key courses taken, if that seems relevant to the application.

 

Most importantly, be comfortable with how you think the CV reads, there are no hard and fast rules, and everyone has their own preferences...my personal observation is that any CV / SOP / writing sample that is too "standard" may easily be stereotyped, too "adventurous" may make it difficult to follow (I used to be guilty of the latter till someone brought it to my notice, thankfully a long time ago!), maintaining a nice balance is important.

 

Best of Luck!

[Eigen]

I've been meaning to respond to this in more detail when I had my CV in front of me to discuss, and it keeps getting pushed to the side. 

 

Zapster makes some great points with respect to organizing based on the most pertinent information. Generally, you want to start off your CV with the "best" stuff (Education, Awards, Grants, Publications) and move on to the less important stuff (service). These orders obviously can change some depending on where you're applying (ie, teaching goes higher on the list if you're going for a primary teaching career vs a primary research career). 

 

Within each major section, you can have subsections; I break mine down like this:

 

Background

 

Education

 -Degrees

 -Thesis Title, abstract

 

Employment

 -Current fellowship, current research project outline

 

Fellowships

Honors/Awards

Academic Service

 -University committees, etc.

 

Scholarship

 

Publications

Presentations

Posters

 

 - in each of the above, I denote works that are not yet published but are far along in progress- submitted, under review, accepted, in revision, etc. This is discipline specific, and some people advise a separate subcategory for publications in progress, but I don't think that's really important until you have enough for two relatively sizable sections on their own- ie, not early career.

 

Research Experience

 

I use this to detail the range of techniques and methods I'm comfortable working with, and will probably go away as my publications speak more and more for themselves. 

 

But at this stage, I want people to see that I have a background in synthetic chemistry, as well as molecular biology and can code for molecular modeling. 

 

Other Experience

 

This covers Leadership, Teaching & Community involvement. 

 

As the teaching section grows, I'll probably expand it to a second major section after Scholarship. But honestly, most of the teaching stuff goes in the teaching portfolio and statement of teaching philosophy, anyway. 

[rising_star]

If you're applying for East Asian lit, you'll want to emphasize any experience you have teaching in Japanese (or another language) if you can as that's likely how many students are funded. My sections are similar to Eigen's but differ a little. They are: education (so degrees, thesis titles [though not for my BA thesis and no, I can't explain why], dates, minors), research grants/fellowships, other funding (so travel grants for conferences and that sort of thing), teaching (courses taught, courses TA'd), publications, conference presentations, service, other skills (so for me, language skills). I change the order of the categories around depending on what I'm using my CV for.

 

If I were you and using my structure, I would move presentations and language skills way up as they will be important to people looking at your stuff, especially when you're relatively junior.

[lotuspetal7]

Just wanted to say thank you so much for these later suggestions. I forgot to check this forum for a couple weeks, sorry. This stuff will really help me a lot!