Academic CV feedback?

[samman1994]

Hello everyone,

I was just hoping you guys could give some feedback on my academic cv. Whether its missing anything, or anything should be changed. The formatting is a little weird because it didn't transfer properly from word over to google docs properly, but the information on there is the same. Thank you ahead of time!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1po-A7bowfwgtyRoK--im0ZsUOZcmGqfspqF5Js_sw4E/edit?usp=sharing

Edited November 10, 2017 by samman1994

[TakeruK]

Just a few small comments:

- Typically I'd expect to see things listed in reverse chronological order (i.e I'd put Integrity Bio above CSUN position)

- I'm not knowledgeable about your field so I don't know if all of your acronyms and abbreviations are specialized jargon or standard for your field. So as long as you think any chemist (if applying to chemistry programs) can understand what your abbreviations are then they might be fine. If not, consider rephrasing to avoid so many acronyms/abbreviations and/or spelling some things out

- I would work on making all of your bullet points have the same format. Right now they are all over the place. Some of them are past tense verbs (Ran... Analyzed... Tutored...) while others are statements ("Bacterial....")

- I know you said the formatting is screwed but half of the CV is how it looks. So what I think are poster titles should be formatted in a way that makes it look like poster titles and not descriptions of what you did (e.g. like the notes under your research experience(s). Similarly, what I think is the title of your undergrad thesis should be formatted to make it clear it's a title and not a note.

- Perhaps reconsider word choices to avoid extra words (e.g. "Ran and analyzed..." ? unless "running" is a jargon term for a very specific action in [bio]chemistry). Similarly, perhaps the specific protein(? or molecules?) names are not useful. Again, the CV is for a non-expert to scan and get the main idea of your skills

- Finally, given what you have, I would switch the order of Presentations/Awards and Teaching.

[samman1994]

18 hours ago, TakeruK said:

Just a few small comments:

- Typically I'd expect to see things listed in reverse chronological order (i.e I'd put Integrity Bio above CSUN position)

- I'm not knowledgeable about your field so I don't know if all of your acronyms and abbreviations are specialized jargon or standard for your field. So as long as you think any chemist (if applying to chemistry programs) can understand what your abbreviations are then they might be fine. If not, consider rephrasing to avoid so many acronyms/abbreviations and/or spelling some things out

- I would work on making all of your bullet points have the same format. Right now they are all over the place. Some of them are past tense verbs (Ran... Analyzed... Tutored...) while others are statements ("Bacterial....")

- I know you said the formatting is screwed but half of the CV is how it looks. So what I think are poster titles should be formatted in a way that makes it look like poster titles and not descriptions of what you did (e.g. like the notes under your research experience(s). Similarly, what I think is the title of your undergrad thesis should be formatted to make it clear it's a title and not a note.

- Perhaps reconsider word choices to avoid extra words (e.g. "Ran and analyzed..." ? unless "running" is a jargon term for a very specific action in [bio]chemistry). Similarly, perhaps the specific protein(? or molecules?) names are not useful. Again, the CV is for a non-expert to scan and get the main idea of your skills

- Finally, given what you have, I would switch the order of Presentations/Awards and Teaching.

Thanks for the feedback!

1) Thank you, I have made the change.

2) Some of them are protein names acronyms (they can get very long if spelled out), and some of them are general instrumentation any Chemist or Biochemist should at least know (e.g. HPLC, NMR, SPR etc.), although some of them are a little lesser known (MFI, DLS) so I think I may write them out

3) I changed all of them to past tense (used X for Y, or utilized A and B for C)

4) So how should I indicate titles, say for my undergrad thesis or poster titles?

5) Running in that sense means I physically was the one who set up the instrumentation and conducted the experiments. Analyzed means I took the data from the instrument and intepreted it. Often times many people either only conduct the experiment, and have someone else look at the data from it, or vice versa (especially for more advanced instrumentation). The specific names of the proteins aren't as important, but I felt like it would be very bland without it. I.E. Conducted binding experiments and mutagensis studies. That statement I feel like doesn't mean much, but saying "Conducted binding experiments between X and Y and mutagenesis studies on X and Z" I feel like sounds a lot better. 

6) Made the change

I could email you the actual word document so you can see it in its proper format (e.g. what's actually bold, what texts are centered and which ones aren't, etc.), but regardless, thank you for taking a look at it!

Edited November 11, 2017 by samman1994

[TakeruK]

Titles can be in italics or within quotation marks. Do whatever works well for your field's citation style. For thesis titles, you can write "Thesis title: Blah blah blah". This also signlas that you completed a thesis.

Whether you should include protein names is something that people in your field would have to answer. If you were writing a CV about exoplanets, I would say that naming the planets themselves is not necessary but the type of planet would be okay. "e.g. Observed atmospheres of hot Jupiters" is good, "Observed atmosphere of HD 189733 and HD 209458" isn't as helpful even though an exoplanet scientist would recognize these "famous" planets. So maybe you can find some in-between for you, where you don't have to write out long protein names but can use a few descriptor words to help the reader understand what types of proteins.

The verbs "use" and "utilize" aren't very descriptive so hopefully you picked something else. 

For the run/analyze example, maybe there's another way to say it. Perhaps writing it as two separate notes. Or is there some other word commonly used in your field to indicate a work where you led the project from start to finish. In my field, the equivalent would be collecting the data with telescopes vs analyzing the data with software. I would probably write it as two separate items if I was including this on my CV. Something like "Led 6-night observing campaign on XYZ telescope" followed by "Computed photometry using python and calculated Bayesian statistics" (this is all non-sense, just showing example wording).

[samman1994]

Thanks for the feedback! I'll use Italics (I don't think quotation marks will make it stand out as much). I think I get what you're saying, I'll state the type of proteins they are instead of their specific names (although, since the protein names are in my thesis title, won't that make it look a little odd)? For that section, I think I may go into a little bit more detail, and rather than say used machine x for y. I'll state something like, observed y using machine x, or measured z using machine x. Instead of focusing on the instrumentation, I'll focus more on what I used it for.