Research experience in CV

[Feyza Nur Arslan]

Hi all,

I was wondering how much detail you gave about your research in the experience part of your CV? Now, I have written the date, place and advisor that I worked with with a one sentence description of my project like "worked on the similarities of cats and chairs".

Do you think I should be adding more? I have a little more detailed explanations on what I did in my SoP also I have a methods section in my CV to show at which techniques I am a pro.

I would be happy if you could help, my CV is exactly two pages now, I don't to want to change it so much. As far as I saw, in some CV samples there are no explanations about the projects and in some of them there are 2-3 bullet-points on somebody's responsibilities.

What do you think?

Edited November 27, 2014 by Feyza Nur Arslan

[Crucial BBQ]

If your CV is thin with experience it is okay to expand on what you have done.  I would avoid bullet points as bullet points are more of a resume thing.  Otherwise, I would keep the descriptions to one or two sentences in the CV-in particular since you are already at two pages.  

[virus guy]

With the CV you want whoever is reading it to at least be intrigued by whatever research you were doing. It's a balance between too much and not enough. For my CV I put just enough to make it clear that I knew what I was doing. 

[peachypie]

CV's are not limited by the 2 page limit as resumes are, so if you have a lot of relevant experience and/or publications and posters you are free to go over that.  My old PI had a normal cv in the 100+ page range.  It is acceptable and becomes normal.  

For my CV when I have specific work places I have maybe 1-2 sentences on the type of work or projects I worked on as well as a few of the skills or techniques that were employed.  I kept it relatively brief, the more important or longer time spent at a place the more space I gave it, assuming it was relevant.  I used 1-2 sentences of explanation and then bullet points of information for each.  

Again, though I didn't live and die by 2 page maximum, however, my resume is no more than 2 pages and I essentially just use my up to date CV to edit to my resume.