As I head into the final stretch of my PhD, there’ll be no avoiding the dreaded CV overhaul. I’ve admitted to myself that my current one is too wordy.
Younger students, who I help with PhD applications, share their academic CVs with me. I noticed that putting “narrative bio + goals” paragraphs at the top is becoming more common.
What I look for in CV is that what is says is verifiable. For example, claims to have mastered a specific technique? Point to the methods section of the paper where you are an author and execution of that technique is attributed to you. Or claims knowledge of a programming language? Put a link to an online repository where code written in that language is authored by you. Otherwise it's just words.
In my CV for tenure, I described my contributions to papers.
I put this below each citation.
I think that would be useful for a CV from a postdoc applicant so I could see, ah they did figure 3 or the biochemical experiments for this paper, or they just made a plasmid someone else used.
When I interview people for positions in my lab or for faculty, that’s a staple: pull our their papers, walk through every subheading of the Methods section, and ask them: did you do this? Tell me about it. Very quickly one finds out the strengths and weaknesses, and how the candidate handles them.
Add comment