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Dr. Karen’s Rules of the Academic CV

Today’s post is a long overdue post on CV s.

While the CV genre permits a wide range of variat ion, and there is no consensus on the value ordesirabilit y of one part icular style, I am going to present a list of expectat ions that govern my ownwork at The Professor Is In.

These expectat ions will produce a highly-readable, well-organized CV on the American academicmodel. Brit ish and Canadian CV-writers will note that the font is larger, the length is greater, themargins wider, and the white spaces more abundant than you may be used to. These are the typicalnorms for American CV s (again, admit t ing of enormous variat ion among f ields and individuals).

These norms govern the “paper” CVs that are submit ted as elements of a job applicat ion. The CVcan be created in a program like Word but submit ted as a PDF to ensure proper format t ing on thereceiving end.

These rules do not encompass online CVs, which may employ elements such as bullet points that Ireject .

Candidates seeking work in the UK or Canada might want to consult with experts f rom thosecount ries for opinions on whether this American model CV will work against candidates in searchesthere.

Without further ado: Dr. Karen’s Rules of the CV.

I. General Formatting Rules

One inch margins on all four sides.

12 point font throughout

Single spaced

No switching of font sizes for any element , EXCEPT the candidate name at top, which can be in 14 orperhaps 16.

Headings in bold and all caps.

Subheadings in bold only.

NO ITALICS OF ANY KIND EXCEPT FOR JOURNAL AND BOOK T ITLES (Brit s, I’m talking to you)

One or two full returns (ie, blank lines) before each new heading.

One return/blank line between each heading and it s f irst ent ry.

Lef t just if y all elements of the cv.

Do not full/right just if y any element of the cv.

No bullet points at all, ever, under any circumstances. This is not a resume.

No “box” or column format t ing of any kind. This interferes with the constant adjustments a dynamicprofessional CV will undergo on a weekly/monthly basis.

No “XXXX, cont ’d” headings. Page breaks will constant ly move as CV grows.

YEAR (but not month or day) OF EVERY ENTRY THROUGHOUT CV LEFT JUSTIFIED, with tabs orindent separat ing year f rom substance of ent ry. Why, you ask? Because candidates are evaluated bytheir product ivit y over t ime. Search and tenure commit tees wish to easily t rack yearly output . Whenyou produce is as important as what you produce. Year must be visible, not buried in the ent ry it self . (table format t ing another opt ion as described in comment st ream)

NO NARRATIVE VERBIAGE ANYWHERE. Brit s, I’m talking to you.

No descript ion of “dut ies” under Teaching/Courses Taught

No paragraphs describing books or art icles.

No explanat ions of grants/fellowships (ie, “this is a highly compet it ive fellowship…”).

No personal stories.

No “My work at the U of XX is dif f icult to condense…” etc. etc.

One possible except ion: a separate heading for “Dissertat ion” with a VERY short paragraph abst ractunderneath. I disapprove of this. Some advisors insist on it . One year beyond complet ion, it must beremoved.

II. Heading Material:

Name at top, centered, in 14 or 16 point font .

The words “Curriculum vitae” immediately underneath or above, centered, in 12 point font . This is at radit ional pract ice in the humanit ies and social sciences; it might be opt ional at this point in t ime, andin various f ields. Please doublecheck with a t rusted advisor.

The date, immediately below, centered, is opt ional. Senior scholars always date their cvs.

Your inst itut ional and home addresses, tel, email, parallel right and lef t just if ied.

III. Content:

1. Education. Always. No except ions. List by degree, not by inst itut ion. Do not spell out Doctor ofPhilosophy, etc.; it ’s pretent ious. List Ph.D., MA, BA in descending order. Give department , inst itut ion,and year of complet ion. Do NOT give start ing dates. You may include Dissertat ion/Thesis Tit le, andperhaps Dissertat ion/Thesis Advisor if you are ABD or only 1 year or so f rom Ph.D.. Remove this af terthat point . Do not include any other verbiage.

2. Professional Appointments/Employment . This must go immediately under educat ion, assumingthat you have/had these. Why? Because the reader must be able to instant ly “place” youinst itut ionally. These are cont ract posit ions only– tenure t rack or adjunct . Postdoctoral posit ions also

go here. Give inst itut ion, department , t it le, and dates (year only) of employment . Be sure and ref lectjoint appointments if you have one. ABD candidates may have no Professional Appointments, and inthat case the Heading can be skipped. TA-SHIPS, ETC. ARE NOT LISTED UNDER PROFESSIONALEMPLOYMENT. COURSES ARE NOT LISTED UNDER PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS.

3. Publications. Subheadings: Books, Edited Volumes, Refereed Journal Art icles, Book Chapters,Conference Proceedings, Book Reviews, Manuscripts in Submission (give journal t it le), Manuscripts inPreparat ion, Web-Based Publicat ions, Other Publicat ions (this sect ion can include non-academicpublicat ions, within reason). Please note that forthcoming publicat ions ARE included in this sect ion. Ifthey are already in the print ing stage, with the full citat ion and page numbers available, they may belisted the same as other published publicat ions, at the very top since their dates are furthest in thefuture. If they are in press, then they can either go into that sect ion, or into an “Publicat ions In Press”sect ion. The line is fuzzy and should hinge on the completeness of the citat ion you can provide.

4. Awards and Honors . Give name of award and inst itut ional locat ion. Year at lef t . Always in reversedescending order. List ing $$ amount appears to be f ield-specif ic. Check with a t rusted senior advisor.

5. Grants and Fellowships (if you are in a f ield where these dif fer categorically f rom Awards andHonors). Give funder, inst itut ional locat ion in which received/ut ilized, year span. List ing $$ amountappears to be f ield-specif ic. Check with a t rusted senior advisor. Year at lef t .

6. Invited Talks. Give t it le, inst itut ional locat ion, and date. Year only (not month or day) at lef t . Monthand day of talk go into ent ries.

7. Conference Activity/Participation. Subheadings: Panels Organized, Papers Presented,Discussant . These ent ries will include: Name of paper, name of conference, date. Year (Year only) onlef t as noted above. Month and date-range of conference in the ent ry it self (ie, March 22-25). Noext ra words such as: “Paper t it le:” Future conferences SHOULD be listed here, if you have had apaper or panel of f icially accepted. The dates will be future dates, and as such they will be the f irstdates listed.

8. Teaching Experience. Subdivide either by area/f ield of teaching or by inst itut ional locat ion, or byGraduate/Undergraduate, or some combinat ion of these as appropriate to your part icular case. Givecourse t it les BUT NEVER GIVE COURSE NUMBERS! Course numbers are meaningless outside yourcampus. If your quant it y of courses taught exceeds approximately 15, condense this sect ion. TAexperience goes here. No narrat ive verbiage under any course t it le. No list ing of “dut ies” or“responsibilit ies.” There is one small except ion to this rule, as noted in the comment st ream (nearcomment #100). If your department is one that has it s “TAs” actually design and sole-teach courses,then this needs to be clarif ied. Language to be added can include, “(Inst ructor of record)” af tercourse t it le, or “(As TA I designed and sole-taught all courses listed here),” etc. Keep it short andsweet .

9. Research Experience. RA experience goes here, as well as lab experience. This is one locat ionwhere slight elaborat ion is possible, if the research was a team ef fort on a complex, mult i-yeartheme. One detailed sentence should suf f ice.

10. Service To Profession. Include journal manuscript review work (with journal t it les [mss. reviewCAN be given it s own separate heading if you do a lot of this work]), leadership of professionalorganizat ions, etc. Some people put panel organizing under service; check convent ions in your f ield.

11. Departmental/University Service. Include search commit tees and other commit tee work,

appointments to Facult y Senate, etc. Sorry to be a pain, but here the convent ion is that the Tit le orCommit tee is lef t just if ied, with the year in the ent ry. Don’t ask me why, and only a convent ion, not ast rict rule.

12. Extracurricular University Service. [Opt ional. ] Can include involvement in student groups,sport ing clubs, etc.

13. Community Involvement/Outreach. [Optional.] This includes work with libraries and schools,public lectures, etc.

14. Media Coverage. [Optional.] Coverage of your work by the media.

15. Related Professional Skills. [Opt ional.] Can include t raining in GIS and other technical skillsrelevant to the discipline. More common in professional schools and science f ields; uncommon inhumanit ies.

16. Non-Academic Work. [Opt ional—VERY opt ional!] Include only if relevant to your overall academicqualif icat ions. More common in Business, sciences. Editorial and publishing work possibly relevant inEnglish and the Humanit ies.

17. Teaching Areas/Courses Prepared To Teach. [Opt ional]. You can give a brief list of courset it les (t it les only!) that represent your areas of teaching preparat ion. No more than 10 courses shouldbe listed here.

18. Languages. All languages to be listed vert ically, with prof iciency in reading, speaking, and writ ingclearly demarcated using terms such as: nat ive, f luent , excellent , conversat ional, good, can read withdict ionary, etc.

19. Professional Memberships/Af f iliations. All professional organizat ions of which you are amember listed vert ically. Include years of joining when you are more senior and those years recedeinto the past—demonst rates length of commitment to a f ield.

20. References. List references vert ically. Give name and full t it le. Do not refer to references as “Dr.xxx,” or “Professor xxx.” This makes you look like a graduate student . Give full snail mail contactinformat ion along with tel and email. To do otherwise is amateurish, even though we know nobody isgoing to use the snail mail address. Do not give narrat ive verbiage or explanat ion of these references(ie, “Ph.D. Commit tee member,” etc.). The only except ion is a single reference that may be ident if iedas “Teaching Reference.” This would be the fourth of four references.

IV. Principle of Peer Review.

The organizing principle of the CV is priorit izing peer review and compet it iveness. Professionalappointments are ext remely compet it ive, and go f irst . Publicat ions are highly compet it ive, and gosecond, with peer reviewed publicat ions taking place of honor. Awards and honors reveal high levels ofcompet it ion, as do fellowships and grants. Invited talks suggest a higher level of individual recognit ionand honor than a volunteered paper to a conference—this is ref lected in the order. Teaching in thiscontext , ie, as a list of courses taught , is not compet it ive, and thus is de-priorit ized. Ext ra t raining youseek yourself , voluntarily, is fundamentally non-compet it ive. Etc. Etc.

What is never included:

Overseas t ravel

Career goals

Anything you’d see on a business resume.

[This post will be added to later; I've run out of t ime just now! In the meant ime, please feel f ree toadd your thoughts on anything I've missed.]

About KarenI am a former tenured professor at two inst itut ions--Universit y of Oregon and Universit y of Illinois atUrbana Champaign. I have t rained numerous Ph.D. students, now gainfully employed in academia, andhandled a number of successful tenure cases as Department Head. I've created this business, TheProfessor Is In, to guide graduate students and junior facult y through grad school, the job search, andtenure. I am the advisor they should already have, but probably don't .