Sample CV’s

Below are four samples of CV’s from our Academic Work Search handbook – available for reference in the Career Resource Library. Doctoral candidates can get a free copy when they register for the Graduate Dossier Service.

• Humanities
• Social Sciences
• Life Sciences
• Physical Sciences

Creating Your CV

The weight placed on the CV means that you should have it critiqued by several people and, therefore, it is imperative to begin early. The process essentially involves five steps:

1. reviewing your academic and scholarly profile and conceptualizing how to order your CV;
2. drafting the actual document;
3. working on the formatting and visual appearance;
4. getting your CV critiqued by a placement officer, or faculty member
5. working on additional drafts, incorporating feedback from critiques, and polishing a final copy.

When drafting your CV and cover letter and preparing for the interview, it is crucial that you strive to articulate clearly why an employer should hire you. Every posting should contain a detailed summary of the materials the hiring committee is requesting. If you have any questions about what is required, follow up with the committee. After sending your materials you may also want to follow up to ensure their receipt.

The style

While the general format of the CV is fairly consistent across disciplines, you should consult the Academic Work Search Essentials for specific advice by discipline. Tailor your CV to each position, and ensure it doesn’t appear to be a generic template. Keep in mind certain visual and lay-out rules:

• use a font style and size that is easy to read (e.g. Times New Roman 11 or Arial 10);
• use no more than two fonts (one serif and one sans serif);
• use white space to highlight the distinct areas;
• ensure that your name appears in the header of each page after the first one, along with a page number.

Applying for graduate school?

Most programs will request a CV or resume as part of the application. Although some programs specifically request a CV, not everyone is in a position to write a formal CV due to lack of relevant teaching or research experiences (particularly common for students coming out of an undergraduate degree). In these cases the required cv will most likely take the form of a modified chronological resume targeted towards academia. For more advice consult Graduate School: Winning Strategies for Getting in with or without Excellent Grades

The Essential Components

The following categories can all appear on a CV, though you should pick the particular set of categories that are most appropriate to disciplinary conventions and your experience.

When organizing information within each category, particularly for categories that list degrees, publications, awards, etc., remember to list them in reverse chronological order, with the most recent information appearing first.

Personal information - The first section of any CV is always comprised of personal information. Name, home address, office address if you have one, email and phone number should be clear and up-to-date. It can be helpful to include your citizenship if it makes you eligible to work in the country in which the institution you are applying to is located. Information on marital status or dependents, religious affiliation, gender or ethnicity need not and should not be included anywhere on your CV when applying to positions in North America.

Academic information - This section is sometimes called Education or Academic Background. If applying directly from a doctoral program, this section usually comes first, whereas if you are applying from a post-doctoral or faculty position your experience can appear at the head of your CV Place the date of the degree at the left-hand margin, with the degree and the institution listed to its right. Below the listing for your doctoral degree comes the name of your supervisor and the title of your dissertation, and if relevant, a brief summary and further details can be included.

Academic Honours and Achievements - Here you can highlight the special commendations you have garnered for your academic work. If an honour will not be familiar to those who will be reading your CV, include a brief line explaining what the award is for. If including undergraduate awards ensure they are highly prestigious.

Experience - This category is presented in varying ways: you can choose to combine the two areas into Teaching and Research experience or simply, Academic Experience, which can highlight the cross-fertilization between your teaching interests and your research interests, or you can break this information down into two separate categories, which can be more appropriate when applying to a teaching-intensive institution. If you have very little to put in either category, it may be best to combine the two rather than have two separate, scanty categories.

Research Experience - For this section, list all research assistantships or research projects that you have worked on. For each listing, include information on the institution, the supervisor, the research group, the subject, and your specific role. This section is particularly important in the sciences where it is common for students to work in the labs of various research groups.

Teaching Experience - List relevant teaching experience including instructorships, teaching assistantships or experiences where you served as a marker. Include the course title, the course code/level, your title, and the date for each listing. Include other relevant information, such as class size, and a one-line description of your responsibilities. Further information about the classes can be included in your teaching dossier.

Teaching Interests - If you are applying to a teaching-intensive institution, you can include this section which would precede the Teaching Experience category. Here you state your area of specialization and areas of competence. If you aren’t including a separate Statement of Teaching Philosophy, you can include a brief summary of your philosophy here.

Professional Experience - If you have worked outside of academia then this should be included in the CV Including this information will explain any gaps in your academic work and, if highly relevant, it can show your continued engagement with your topic and demonstrate the diversity of your experience.

Professional Academic and Administrative Experience - Since any faculty appointment involves some administrative and committee work, this section can demonstrate to a hiring committee that you will be able to fulfill any commitments of this nature. Committee work for your faculty, membership on academic councils, and positions within a graduate student union, committee, or government should be included in this section.

Publications - This section typically appears near the end of the CV, followed only by the list of references. Consult the Academic Work Search Essentials booklet for conventions in your discipline and consult with your department for best practices. Since your publications are a key marker of your eligibility, it is imperative that you follow conventions and refrain from padding your list, as important publications can be overshadowed by material included as filler.

Conference Papers - It is absolutely vital that you separate conference papers and presentations from published works. However, you must use your own judgment to evaluate your personal profile: if you have only given a few of each type of paper, it may be better to group them together than to create multiple categories.

Conference Proceedings - Most departments recommend separating published conference proceedings from publications that appear in books or journals, since conference proceedings are often either non-refereed or reviewed with less rigour than is customary in other venues. If you have a long list of conference proceedings, you can list them as a separate category, otherwise conference proceedings can appear as a subcategory under conference papers.

Academic Associations, Affiliations, and Services - List any memberships of academic associations in your discipline, such as the MLA or APA. If you have done administrative work or helped organize a conference, this experience should be listed here as it demonstrates your engagement with your discipline and your contribution to the wider academic community. Any editorships at journals should also appear here.

Languages - This category is most common for scholars in the humanities and social sciences and allows you an opportunity to specify your reading, writing, and oral fluency in foreign languages.

References- A list of the people who are providing the reference letters that accompany your application is often included in the CV, though many people dispense with this category since the letters are solicited in the application advertisement and the search committee does not have to contact referees to request them. If you list your referees, include their title and department. Including a phone number or an e-mail address can be helpful to a search committee that wishes to follow up with a referee and obtain more information.

References

The Career Centre offers the Graduate Dossier Service (GDS), which is a confidential depository of letters of reference, transcripts, and CV’s for U of T doctoral students and graduates applying to advertised academic positions. This service is offered up to ten years following doctoral convocation. Inquire at the Career Centre for more details.

Bear in mind that hiring committees will check references. In cases where members of the hiring committee know your referees, they are particularly likely to speak to them directly. This can be to your benefit, since it affords your referee an opportunity to inform the committee in further detail about you and your work. This makes it all the more important to keep referees apprised of where you are currently applying.