CV Question

[isilya]

Hi all! It's application season and I'm obsessively editing my CV and of course I have a few questions...

 

1. I will be part-time lab manager for the lab I'm doing my honors thesis in. Should this just be an extra line under "[lab name]" in my "Research Experience" section, or should it be in a different section altogether? It's mostly doing admin stuff so putting it under research seems misleading...

 

2. I presented a poster at a biology conference back in high school (yes, an actual professional conference and not just some special high school thing). Should I list this on my CV? It's totally irrelevant to my field and I feel like it might make me look weird and desperate since I don't have any other presentations or publications in undergrad.

 

3. Should I include a "Skills" section on my CV? I don't elaborate on any of my research experience in that section (I just list lab name/position/duration), so there's no way to know what kind of specific research I'm capable of doing. Plus I feel like noting my programming experience might be beneficial since I have more than the average Linguistics/Cog Sci student.

 

4. Should I include a "Relevant Coursework" section? I know that admissions committees will have access to my transcripts, but I feel like it might be easier to give a nice list of all my Linguistics/Cog Sci coursework, especially since I can note which classes are graduate-level.

 

Thanks everyone!! Also, if anyone wanted to directly look at/critique my CV that would be great! 

[lewin]

1. Headings with only one item underneath them look dumb. Put it under Research Experience.

 

2. No, leave out everything from high school.

 

3. If you have actual skills like programming or technical knowledge, sure, list them. Don't put "Excel and Word". Do put "SPSS and Javascript" (or whatever)

 

4. Skip anything that's redundant with your transcript.

[fuzzylogician]

I'm with lewin for 1-2. For 3, it depends on the skills and whether they are (i) something anyone would care about, and (ii) something that it's not already clear that you know based on other parts of your application. For 4, I agree it shouldn't go on your CV, but when I was applying I created a list of relevant coursework for an application that required it and then submitted it as a supplementary document whenever an application allowed it. I don't know if anyone looked at it, but I don't think it hurt. It's especially helpful if your transcript shows courses like "LING 288" or "Special Topics 2" which the adcom has no way of interpreting. However, if your transcript shows informative names and the list is not adding anything new, I'd leave it out. The idea is to only provide helpful/useful information and not anything redundant. 

[lewin]

Good clarification for #3 and I agree. In my research statement describing my experience I said things like "I used SPSS to analyze data..." so it wasn't necessary to list "SPSS skillz" somewhere else.

[Crucial BBQ]

At this point in time, and with a "thin" CV, I would include that biology poster since it was at a legit conference. Just because it was during high school, and of a different discipline, should not mean much.  The bottom line is that you had the experience of presenting a poster at a professional conference; use it.  

 

As for #4, my current CV lists all relevant coursework; partially because I do not list my GPA on my CV and partially because I took an excessive amount courses above and beyond a typical biology major.  Then again, I have four different versions of CV depending on what I am applying to and the relevant courses are those that relevant to the position.   

 

I have yet to hear one person mention my course lists or presentations in non-relevant areas as negatives.  Perhaps they were simply ignored, but I tend to get positive feedback on my CV (typically, that it is "strong").  

 

Do what you want, but don't sell yourself short.  There does come a point when something that is irrelevant truly is irrelevant, but some experience is better than "no" experience in the beginning. 

 

Just my 2¢.