CV Organization

[magnetite]

Hi all,

I was recently hired as an undergraduate TA, so I need to update my CV. Previously, I have had a section titled 'Experience' with subsections titled 'Research' and 'Occupational.' I will add a 'Teaching' subsection, but I need to know if another position I've held will qualify for this subsection.

I've been a peer leader in a program called Peer-Led Team Learning for a few semesters. The program hires students who've done well in a course, calculus in my case, to lead sessions where students currently taking the course work problems chosen by the professor. One of the state goals of the program is for the leaders to avoid teaching if possible. Therefore there's a lot of focus on having the students work the problems by themselves, without relying on the peer leader to walk them through the problems. In some cases, though, when none of the students pick up on a concept in lecture, some degree of teaching is required.

Anyway, my question is: Should I include this PLTL position under teaching experience? Currently on my CV, it's listed under a section titled 'Organizations.' Is PLTL close enough to teaching to belong in a teaching section?

Thanks.

[scarvesandcardigans]

I would make the choice to file it under the Teaching section. When I think "Occupational," my first thought is "non-related employment," but of course that could vary for everyone. I think the job that you mentioned requires a knowledge of how to work with students in a "teacher-style" role, as well as a mastery of the concept you are assisting with, which are both of course valuable for teachers. I hope that helps!

[SNPCracklePop]

If your CV is an academic CV, I HIGHLY recommend checking out this link.  Lots of great tips for building and formatting an academic CV:

http://theprofessorisin.com/2012/01/12/dr-karens-rules-of-the-academic-cv/

[fuzzylogician]

The professor is in has these very rigid rules that YOU MUST FOLLOW OR YOU WILL SURELY FAIL (visit the link to see what the all caps are about). Life is not really like that. There is more than one way to do most things. I suggest checking the format of the CVs of selected people in your field--e.g., a few POIs, a few recently hired assistant profs, and some students, both beginning and about to graduate--to get a feel for what people actually do, if this is a concern. I guarantee you some (or all) of those people will not follow Dr. Kelsky's advice on how to format a CV. 

Re: OP's question, the Peer-Led Team Learning experience sounds to me like it could go under Teaching, even though it's not the usual standing in front of the class teaching.

[rising_star]

I separate "teaching experience" and "classroom experience" on my CV, if that's helpful. I only list the courses where I was instructor of record under teaching experience plus my experience tutoring (this was tutoring done through a resource center for undergrads on campus, not on the side). The times I was a TA, I have under classroom experience because I don't want to imply that I did more than grade papers, answer questions, and give guest/substitute lectures. Maybe having different kinds of teaching headings will help you figure out how to break up your CV?

P.S. I don't follow a bunch of Kelsy's "rules" for the CV and no one has complained to me about it yet. I mean, I got/get interviews for jobs so it's obviously not totally offending people, you know? For example, I have italics for things other than journal or book titles, don't have all the years left justified, and have a description of my tutoring job (because it wasn't a standard tutoring job and I tutored like 4 different subjects), don't have my home address on there (why on earth would I put that on there??), and I give course numbers in addition to titles (to show that I've taught courses at a variety of levels). Kelsky is so rigid and it irks me.

[TakeruK]

I would also say that PLTL sounds like it should be teaching related. I don't think teaching needs to be limited to just standing-in-front-of-the-class type teaching.

You can organize your CV in the way that best shows off your experience and communicates your abilities. My CV has a section for Research, one for Teaching & Outreach (I chose to put these into one category because my field considers both activities in the same category for most evaluations) and one for Service (i.e. things I volunteer for that aren't teaching or research).