Craft Your CV

Write your name centered at the top of the CV. It is also common to put your degree status (e.g., Candidacy, Ph.D. if awarded). Make your name stand out with a larger font size (size 16 or 18 recommended) and special formatting (bold). Below your name, write your department contact information (department name, address, website, typically on the left side) and your personal information (address, email, phone, located on the right). 
Pro-tip: include your website that has your information, whether it's your departmental website, Academia.edu or personal website.

This is almost always the first section. You should list your institutions and month and year of graduation or “expected graduation: Month Year.” This should be in reverse chronological order (most recent first based on end date). You can list honors awarded from each institution if it is not listed in another “awards” section. You can also add an emphasis or specializations here as well. Although optional, often students put the name of their advisor(s) here.

If you have completed a thesis or dissertation, you can add this under your Education section or in its own section. Consider putting an additional sentence or two if the title is not clear. If you create your own section, you can add one or two bullets describing your topic and what you did (avoid long descriptions).

We recommend using a header that includes one or two of these words (e.g., Awards and Honors) Use whichever words fit your successes best. If you have two or more awards, grants, scholarships and so on, you can create separate subsections to highlight them further.  Don’t be shy, this is your time to shine!

Pro-tip: You may choose to include award amounts or state competitiveness of the award if it distinguishes you further or would be something that your audience may not know. 

Include a publication section, if applicable, and bold your name (regardless if that is not how you would do it in a reference page). Consider adding subheaders to break up this section, or add asterisks to highlight key pieces of information.

Start by listing your role (e.g., Graduate Student Researcher), the title of the project, the institution, and dates, which are typically listed on the left side in a CV. Below this, add either a few bullets or a small paragraph to briefly indicate your technical skills and work done. Use bullet points sparingly. Instead, use other types of formatting (e.g. white space, bolding, italics) to set apart key information. 
Pro-tip: Be sure to add a section that captures your work as a graduate student when you worked on your dissertation. Often, students forget to add this and will only add positions where they were “paid” by their advisor. Remember that your work (paid/unpaid) is not what counts- you being a student is considered work and, often, it's a pretty significant portion of what you’ve done in graduate school.

Depending on the number of positions you've held, you can either group your teaching assistant/teaching associate positions together or create subheaders to split up each position. Consider where you will be applying and who will be reading your CV. For more teaching-focused positions, such as with small liberal arts colleges or community colleges, listing a robust teaching experience will be advantageous. List the course name (not course numbers), the dates taught, and the institution where you taught. If needed, you can include a brief course description if the course title is not sufficient.  

Pro-tip: Note on your CV if you developed course material or lectured extensively in any position.

Include university-wide groups, task forces, campus clubs, committees or other related work you were involved in. Consider department, university, or discipline-specific groups you participated in. Depending on your level of involvement, you can list position title, organization, or dates served, or you can add one to two sentences or bullets to describe the position.

List your references on a separate page. Include the references' name, title, address, phone or email (depending on contact’s preference). Three to four references are usually adequate, listed in the order of which you prefer they are called. You can attach this page as needed.

Professional Affiliations (include name and date you’ve been a member), specialized trainings (can be included under a technical skills section, education section, or its own section), languages (good to indicate your level of proficiency), technical skills (important to include subheaders that can help break up your skills), and relevant professional experiences (including non-academic experiences accompanied by brief explanations).