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Curriculum vitae (CVs)
A curriculum vitae (CV) is a detailed overview of your life’s accomplishments, especially those in the academic realm or research field. Just like a resume, a CV will need to be updated frequently as you gain more experience and complete more projects.
The most noticeable difference between most CVs and most resumes is the length. Entry-level resumes are usually limited to a page. CVs, however, often run to three or more pages and there is no limit on length as you gain more experience.
Sometimes, the application for a position will let you know whether or not a CV is requested. If you’re not sure, it never hurts to ask the agency whether a resume or CV would be more appropriate for the position.
Generally, CVs are used to apply for academic and research positions, awards, fellowships, and grants. In both CVs and resumes, information is usually organized chronologically within sections.
Examples
You’re welcome to use the following examples for ideas and inspiration.
Anatomy of a typical CV
Name and contact information Accordion Closed
Just like a resume, include your name, phone number, email, and URL or LinkedIn (if you have one). Some people include both personal and department addresses to emphasize their current academic affiliation. You can include your name and page numbers on subsequent pages as a footer or header. Do not include your date of birth, ethnicity, marital status, or other personal information.
Areas of interest Accordion Closed
List your different areas of academic interests.
Education Accordion Closed
A list of your degrees earned or in progress, institutions, and years of graduation in reverse chronological order with the most recent one being first.
Dissertation or thesis Accordion Closed
Include the title, a brief description, and your advisor and committee names. For engineering and sciences, if you decide to describe your research more completely in the “Experience” section, you may want to simply list the title of your dissertation in this section. For a new candidate in humanities or social sciences, the dissertation should be featured prominently in this section.
Grants, honors, and awards Accordion Closed
A comprehensive list of grants received, honors for your work, and awards you may have received for teaching or service.
Employment and experience Accordion Closed
This section may include separate lists of teaching experiences, laboratory experiences, field experiences, volunteer work, leadership, or other relevant experiences. List experience in reverse chronological order.
Publications and presentations Accordion Closed
A list of your published articles and books, as well as presentations given at conferences. If there are many of both, you might consider having one section for publications and another for presentations. List publications in a citation format that is appropriate for your field. You can combine these items under a “Publications/Presentations” section if you do not have many publications or presentations.
Scholarly or professional memberships Accordion Closed
A listing of the professional organizations of which you are a member. If you have held an office or position in a particular organization, you can either say so here or leave this information for the experience section.
Special training Accordion Closed
List any special, related training you have received through your university, department, or other professional organizations. Such training might include courses on teaching, research techniques, or computer applications.
References Accordion Closed
A list of persons who write letters of recommendation for you, which includes their contact information.
Learn more
For more in-depth information, explore the following Career Steps online lesson:
Developing application materials: Constructing resumes of a different sort