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Curriculum
Vitae Q & A
Who should have a c.v.? Any graduate student pursuing an academic career will need a c.v. Anyone who has so much as gone to a conference can start a c.v. It's easy to set up in a word processing file. You can then simply add to it as you present papers, develop new courses, get publications, win teaching awards, etc. Having a c.v. file will not only save you time when you start applying for jobs, it will give you an opportunity to think about and record the development of your professional credentials. What kinds of categories should I include on my c.v.? The holy trinity of academic evaluation is Research, Teaching, and Service -- with the first two of these heavily weighted in significance. Your c.v. should address your experience, skills, and accomplishments in all three of these areas, if possible. The categories you use to organize the information should be broken down so that they are easy to comprehend, but you should also manipulate them to signal your strengths. Here are some typical categories of information in a suggested order of presentation. 1-7 and 11 are required; 8-10 are more or less optional.
When you apply for academic jobs, you can plan to send a full-length c.v., which includes whatever information you consider it important to convey -- including the kind of info you might not have room to put in a job application cover letter (e.g., that you had an interesting career before going to grad school, or that you have major technical skills working with computers). In other words, there is no practical limit to the length of a full c.v. You can edit down this full-length c.v. to accommodate the occasional requests you may get (for example, with a call for papers) for a "brief" c.v. (usually 1 to 2 pp. in length). How fancy should a c.v. be? Academics are relatively conservative when it comes to the aesthetics of professional credentials. I don't advise being too fancy with the graphic and typographical elements, or departing too radically from the standard format. Also, don't bother to buy gorgeous 20lb mauve paper. It's a waste of money, and not too impressive. What can I include under the heading "Publications"? You can include anything under this heading that has been published, or that has been accepted for publication. In the latter case, you need to describe it as "forthcoming" or "in press." It is not wise to include in this category anything you have submitted for publication but haven't received a decision on yet (wouldn't it be embarrassing to have to tell a prospective employer that your essay isn't "forthcoming" from Journal X after all?). You can, however, include a separate category called "under consideration," or "submitted for publication," where you list articles that you are currently circulating, but that haven't yet been accepted for publication. If you have multiple types of publications, you may want to consider breaking down this heading to reflect that fact, or to emphasize your most important publications. There is a rough hierarchy of kinds of academic publications. In descending order of prestige they are as follows: books, edited collections, articles in refereed journals, articles in books or unrefereed journals, long reviews, short reviews, encyclopedia and reference book entries. Non-academic articles or reviews, fiction, poetry, etc. should be listed in categories separate from academic publications. This
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updated 8/17/07