CV/Resume Questions

[Penemonie]

Hi,

I'm an undergraduate student applying to graduate schools. I have two questions here regarding CV:

1. I did a couple community services (unrelated to my graduate study area) two years ago and have not done any since then. Should I still include these experiences?

2. I participated in a summer research program - should I call my title "research intern" or "undergraduate researcher"?

3. Should I put the date the same line with the title or the place? (I attached the two ways)

Thank you!!

[TakeruK]

For #1, it's up to you if you want to include it or not. I would include it if it helps to round out a section. For example, if you have a "service" section and currently only has 1 item in it related to your study area, then I would include these two so that you don't have a 1-item section. But if these two lines would be a separate thing all by itself, then no need to include. Either way, it's not a big deal---the nice thing about a CV is that people scan them quickly so they will just ignore things they don't care about.

For #2, unless you had an official title, you can feel free to call your position whatever you want. I prefer Undergraduate Researcher over "Research intern" but that's my choice based on the norms in my field.

For #3, do whatever will make your formatting more consistent with the other entries in your CV. For example, if you have the same position title but two or more locations elsewhere, you would want to put the date with the location, so then for entries with only 1 location, you still want to put the date with the location. If it doesn't matter at all in your CV, then it's just personal choice. I prefer seeing the date with the location because 1) all the not-bold text is on the same line and 2) if you have more than 1 undergrad researcher position, you can list them all here, instead of making new lines.

(side note, usually I would avoid months in the dates in an academic CV. To make it clear that it wasn't a year-long position, you could write "Summer 2016" instead of Jun-Aug 2016)

[Penemonie]

1 hour ago, TakeruK said:

For #1, it's up to you if you want to include it or not. I would include it if it helps to round out a section. For example, if you have a "service" section and currently only has 1 item in it related to your study area, then I would include these two so that you don't have a 1-item section. But if these two lines would be a separate thing all by itself, then no need to include. Either way, it's not a big deal---the nice thing about a CV is that people scan them quickly so they will just ignore things they don't care about.

For #2, unless you had an official title, you can feel free to call your position whatever you want. I prefer Undergraduate Researcher over "Research intern" but that's my choice based on the norms in my field.

For #3, do whatever will make your formatting more consistent with the other entries in your CV. For example, if you have the same position title but two or more locations elsewhere, you would want to put the date with the location, so then for entries with only 1 location, you still want to put the date with the location. If it doesn't matter at all in your CV, then it's just personal choice. I prefer seeing the date with the location because 1) all the not-bold text is on the same line and 2) if you have more than 1 undergrad researcher position, you can list them all here, instead of making new lines.

(side note, usually I would avoid months in the dates in an academic CV. To make it clear that it wasn't a year-long position, you could write "Summer 2016" instead of Jun-Aug 2016)

 

2

 

Thank you very much TakeruK !!!

1. If I only have one entry for, let's say, publications, do I use publication instead of publications?

  Regarding the usage of months, I agree with you and it looks much cleaner, but now I have some specific questions if you don't mind

   i) If I am graduating in May 2017,  do I put it as summer 2017?

   ii) I'm doing a research which I did last summer but now am continuing doing for the entire school year, so can I put it as Summer 2015, Fall        2016-Present? However, here, Fall 2016-Present doesn't make much sense since we are right now in Fall 2016 but I wanted to                        emphasize that I'm doing it for the whole school year...

2. And what do you think of this section (picture attached)?

I appreciate your help!!

 

Edited November 16, 2016 by Penemonie

[fuzzylogician]

- If you only have one publication, the combined "presentations and publications" section is a good solution. 

- Specifically, though: list paper/poster/talk titles, as well as co-authors. Listing co-authors in order will take away the need to explicitly say "first-authored abstract". Use whatever citation style is common in your field (check some of the leading journals if you're not sure, or browse your professors' CVs to see how they do it). Also, instead of "planned", it might be better to say "accepted" (assuming that's true! otherwise, this shouldn't be on your CV at all). It's customary to add dates (month, year) and location for conferences.  

- For graduation, you could simply leave it as "May 2017". If you want to have a season, that would be Spring 2017 at most schools. 

- For the position that is ongoing, you might do something like Summer 2015 - (Spring 2017); I usually just use the notation "Summer 2016 –" to indicate that the entry is current. Presumably you'll talk about this position in your SOP. It matters less precisely how long it'll last in the future and more what you've done so far and what you've learned. Concentrate on that. These other details aren't going to make or break your application and it's no use stressing over them. Any reasonably decision would be fine, just make it consistent. 

[TakeruK]

I agree with fuzzy's suggestions. Just a few things to add:

- Definitely list all coauthors in your publications and presentations. You should make your name bold in the author list so a reader can easily see where you are on the list without having to search for your name. In my field, the first author is almost always the presenting author, but if that's not the case, then a common notation is to use an asterisk to indicate the presenting author 

- For dates, May 2017 is fine, or Spring 2017, or even just 2017. I also think it's okay to put things into the future, so if you know your position is valid from now until Spring 2017, you can put Summer 2015 - Spring 2017, or even just 2015-2017. I don't think it matters that there was a break (i.e. it sounds like you only did this for Summer 2015 and then Fall 2016-Spring 2017). This level of detail isn't necessary in a CV. If you really want to indicate that it was two separate positions, you can list it as two positions under the same project.

- What do you mean by "planned" abstract? Have you submitted it to the conference yet? If not, then you should not include it. If it is submitted but not yet accepted, then you have two choices depending on how your field works:

1) In my field, for our major conferences, every abstract is always accepted (unless it's not actual science)---there is a competition for an oral presentation but everyone else will get a poster presentation. In this case, you can just list it like:

Smith, J., Wong, K., "Abstract Title", IEEE Medical Imaging Symposium, Feb. 2017, London, UK.

i.e. I would just list as a future item because it's a sure thing

2) However, if your field does not auto-accept every abstract and you may not even be able to present a poster, then you can indicate that it's a submitted abstract:

Smith, J., Wong, K., "Abstract Title", IEEE Medical Imaging Symposium, Feb. 2017, London, UK, (submitted).

[[ Of course, format these lines the way that your field does it. In these examples, I dropped the "2017" from the conference name because i) this sounds like this is an annual meeting and ii) the year is indicated in the date already. But do what your field does!]]

Finally, I also agree that at this point, you may be spending more time than necessary on your CV. Avoid making serious mistakes and using unusual conventions (e.g. the "planned" abstract listing). However, a person is probably only going to scan your CV so your effort is better put into your essays and other components. People will not remember if you wrote "May 2017" or "Spring 2017" or "Summer 2017" or just "2017".

[Penemonie]

On 11/15/2016 at 9:24 PM, fuzzylogician said:

- If you only have one publication, the combined "presentations and publications" section is a good solution. 

- Specifically, though: list paper/poster/talk titles, as well as co-authors. Listing co-authors in order will take away the need to explicitly say "first-authored abstract". Use whatever citation style is common in your field (check some of the leading journals if you're not sure, or browse your professors' CVs to see how they do it). Also, instead of "planned", it might be better to say "accepted" (assuming that's true! otherwise, this shouldn't be on your CV at all). It's customary to add dates (month, year) and location for conferences.  

- For graduation, you could simply leave it as "May 2017". If you want to have a season, that would be Spring 2017 at most schools. 

- For the position that is ongoing, you might do something like Summer 2015 - (Spring 2017); I usually just use the notation "Summer 2016 –" to indicate that the entry is current. Presumably you'll talk about this position in your SOP. It matters less precisely how long it'll last in the future and more what you've done so far and what you've learned. Concentrate on that. These other details aren't going to make or break your application and it's no use stressing over them. Any reasonably decision would be fine, just make it consistent. 

 

 

 

On 11/16/2016 at 11:17 AM, TakeruK said:

I agree with fuzzy's suggestions. Just a few things to add:

- Definitely list all coauthors in your publications and presentations. You should make your name bold in the author list so a reader can easily see where you are on the list without having to search for your name. In my field, the first author is almost always the presenting author, but if that's not the case, then a common notation is to use an asterisk to indicate the presenting author 

- For dates, May 2017 is fine, or Spring 2017, or even just 2017. I also think it's okay to put things into the future, so if you know your position is valid from now until Spring 2017, you can put Summer 2015 - Spring 2017, or even just 2015-2017. I don't think it matters that there was a break (i.e. it sounds like you only did this for Summer 2015 and then Fall 2016-Spring 2017). This level of detail isn't necessary in a CV. If you really want to indicate that it was two separate positions, you can list it as two positions under the same project.

- What do you mean by "planned" abstract? Have you submitted it to the conference yet? If not, then you should not include it. If it is submitted but not yet accepted, then you have two choices depending on how your field works:

1) In my field, for our major conferences, every abstract is always accepted (unless it's not actual science)---there is a competition for an oral presentation but everyone else will get a poster presentation. In this case, you can just list it like:

Smith, J., Wong, K., "Abstract Title", IEEE Medical Imaging Symposium, Feb. 2017, London, UK.

i.e. I would just list as a future item because it's a sure thing

2) However, if your field does not auto-accept every abstract and you may not even be able to present a poster, then you can indicate that it's a submitted abstract:

Smith, J., Wong, K., "Abstract Title", IEEE Medical Imaging Symposium, Feb. 2017, London, UK, (submitted).

[[ Of course, format these lines the way that your field does it. In these examples, I dropped the "2017" from the conference name because i) this sounds like this is an annual meeting and ii) the year is indicated in the date already. But do what your field does!]]

Finally, I also agree that at this point, you may be spending more time than necessary on your CV. Avoid making serious mistakes and using unusual conventions (e.g. the "planned" abstract listing). However, a person is probably only going to scan your CV so your effort is better put into your essays and other components. People will not remember if you wrote "May 2017" or "Spring 2017" or "Summer 2017" or just "2017".

 

 

Thank you both for the insight! I'm done with my CV now. Looks much nicer and I deleted the "future" publication part as you suggested. I am just a little OCD in formatting. Thanks.

Edited November 17, 2016 by Penemonie