The CV Doctor Returns

A new hiring season is upon us in academe, which means that it's time to get your CV in order if you are going on the job market this fall.

Since 1999, we have asked readers to send in their CV's and then selected several for an online critique. We try to focus on different fields each year. This year, we chose to evaluate three faculty CV's: one for a Ph.D. in the humanities, one in the physical sciences, and one in a field with significant online teaching. We also selected the CV of a department head looking to move up into academic administration.

In reviewing the dozens of CV's that were submitted, we spotted a lot of minor problems -- and we'll share some of the most common ones shortly. But first let us look at some larger issues that often left us less than impressed with a CV:

• If your CV includes a narrative profile describing your skills, it should be short. A profile is a brief summary. It's a few lines; it's not a two-page detailed list of your skills.
• It's common for résumés to start with a "Career Objective." But if you're on the faculty market, you don't need to include that on your CV at all; the people who will be reading your application materials already know your career objective.
• We saw a lot of CV's that were longer than necessary. Think carefully about the value of the information you include. If you have attended 100 technology workshops, don't list each and every one. Create a section called "Selected Workshops" -- note the key word "Selected" -- and list only the most relevant ones.
• If you want a job in online education, don't put your experience in online education on page 10 of your CV. That information should be somewhere up near the top.
• We suspect that some people have had professional résumé writers prepare their CV. Don't. You are the only person who can write your CV. Consult one of the many books on the academic market -- including our own, The Academic Job Search Handbook. Or look for guidance to the sample CV's posted on the Web sites of many campus career-service offices. But don't let someone who doesn't understand your work or the academic world create the one document that you most need to gain entry to that world.
• If you had another career before getting your Ph.D., mention that only briefly. The only time you might go into detail about your previous career is if it is practically related to your academic field. For example, if you were an architect and are now working on a Ph.D. in architecture, you should include some information about your professional career. But, generally speaking, you will be evaluated on the basis of what you can offer your new field. Your former career in sales is irrelevant.
• The description of your current book-length project or your dissertation abstract should be separate documents. Essays involve too much text to be part of a CV.
• Radical mixing of information doesn't work on a CV. For example, if you have an "Administrative Experience" section on your CV, that's the obvious place to list that you were director of admissions, but don't put your work as coordinator of cheerleading in that section.

Some otherwise well-designed CV's falter due to mistakes that could be prevented with a little extra proofreading. Here are a few such dos and don'ts:

• Don't include your birth date.
• Omit all zip codes, except where you list your own contact information and that of your references.
• When you are formatting your CV, avoid using justification on both sides of the page because you can end up with some weird spacing.
• One CV started out with "My principle research ... ." There's no excuse for that. If you are a poor speller and don't know the difference between "principle" and "principal," find someone who does who is willing to proofread for you.
• Don't use boldface type in a random way. It will confuse the reader. Be consistent.
• If you have changed your name, explain why as simply as possible.
• Spell curriculum vitae correctly.
• When you list some of the courses you have taught, don't include the course numbers. They vary from institution to institution.
• Use an acronym only after you have first spelled out what it stands for.
• Put your last name and a page number on the second page of your CV and on all subsequent pages. But be careful. If your numbering system doesn't align with your formatting, you will see some strange page breaks. A good way to avoid that problem is to use the header/footer function.

A final word of advice: Print out your CV and look carefully at it before you send it anywhere. Better yet, e-mail your CV to a friend, and have that person print it out so you can see if anything unusual happens to the CV's formatting during its electronic journey. We think many of our readers would be surprised to see how their CV's look by the time we receive them.

We appreciate that so many people submitted their CV's for public online critiques. It was not easy to select only four to review. We have removed the names, contact information, and other identifying details from the four that we received permission to use. We provide a brief introduction to each CV and offer suggestions for improving it in footnotes.

If you need more help, we recommend consulting previous columns of The CV Doctor. (See also the pulldown menu on this page.)

We would also like to note that we received CV's from people at institutions that we know have very capable career-services offices that can give excellent feedback. When seeking career advice, try your Ph.D.-granting institution first. Even if you have moved away from the university, its career counselors may be able to help you.

Have a question you'd like answered in Career Talk? Send it to careertalk@chronicle.com

While we are unable to answer letters personally, we will consider them as material for future columns. Confidentiality is assured.

Julie Miller Vick is associate director of career services at the University of Pennsylvania. Jennifer S. Furlong, who earned her Ph.D. in Romance languages from Penn in 2003, is a graduate career counselor at the university. Vick is one of the authors of The Academic Job Search Handbook(University of Pennsylvania Press), along with Mary Morris Heiberger, who was associate director of career services at Penn.

You can order their book directly from the University of Pennsylvania Press or from either of the online booksellers below.