Curriculum Vitae
The purpose of a CV is to provide a thorough but concise snapshot of your professional history. It should provide just enough detail to summarize your experience …and make readers want to find out more. Your CV will continue to evolve with substantial updates as you transition to increasingly independent roles. These updates can stir up some big questions such as where your priorities lie as well as emotions tied to evaluative processes and marketing yourself. Because your CV tells your own unique story, there is no one-size-fits-all template to follow, but the guidelines below might help.
- Sections to consider including are:
- Identifying info (name, pronouns, work address, email address, and phone number)
- Educational history
- Awards and/or honors
- Clinical experience
- Prior employment
- Grants & fellowships
- Publications
- Presentations
- Teaching experience
- Professional service
- Professional memberships
- Other sections might include ad hoc journal reviews, community volunteer roles, media, peer supervision experience, etc.
- Order sections according to your priorities and time investments. If you are primarily interested in a research-focused career, your grants, publications, and presentations should come before clinical practica (and vice versa).
- Be selective with formatting (i.e., bold, italics, indents, bullets). Use formatting consistently within sections and as consistently as possible between sections.
- Consider using tables with invisible borders to protect alignment.
- Present content in reverse chronological order.
- Do not list your graduate coursework.
- Proofread meticulously, and ask a mentor or a peer to give your CV a proofread before submission. Offer to do the same for them, too! You might realize you left something off or get a new idea for how to present certain experiences.
- Do not repeat content in multiple sections. Remember… a longer CV is not better.