Resume
A curriculum vitae (CV) highlights an individual's academic and professional accomplishments. Unlike résumés, which tend to be concise and usually provided for job applications, CVs are much more comprehensive as they are supposed to explain an applicant's suitability for an academic program or career. A CV reflects involvement in research projects, working within one's respective field or attending relevant conferences. As you move forward in your career, you should update your CV to reflect new experiences that are noteworthy. Here are some general tips and suggestions to keep in mind as you begin constructing your own CV:
- Format your CV so your experiences stand out (work experience and research experience in particular). Your most recent experiences should be listed first.
- Be specific about your role in your work and research experience. For example, instead of saying "worked with Dr. XYZ….," be more descriptive and say something like "Conducted literature reviews on ABC topic, created and administered a survey, cleaned and analyzed data, and contributed to a conference presentation."
- Indicate your membership status on professional affiliations (e.g., student affiliate). If you have not yet become a member of a professional organization, consider doing so. For example, the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology offers membership to undergraduate and graduate students.
- Center your name and address.
- Proofread it. Just like any other document, you want your CV to be easy to read and free of grammar mistakes.
- They may print out your CV, so borders don't always show up like they do on your copy. If you can, create a pdf file.
- Keep the dates on the left. When reading left to right, the dates get lost on the right.
- Use larger font sizes (e.g., 11 or 12 point) and more traditional fonts. Make use of bold type particularly in your work and research experience sections (e.g., bold the project titles). Do not use different types of emphasis. Don't overuse emphasis in general (no underlining, no mix of underlining, italics, and bold).
- It's a good idea to list your references at the end of the document. Make sure that your reference people are aware that you listed them. If you had already asked them for a letter of recommendation, that's enough warning.
