Commonly Included Sections
The following includes guidance on specific sections found in a typical CV format. For more information, schedule an appointment with Joan Anson.
Identifying Information
Name, address, phone number, and email. Leave off date of birth, marital status, number of children, or other information that is not job related or does not add to your qualifications.
Education
Begin with your most recent or expected degree and include post-graduate, graduate, and undergraduate degrees earned. List degrees, majors, institutions, and dates of completion (or expected date) in reverse chronological order. Also list minors, subfields, and honors.
Dissertation or Thesis
Provide the title and a brief description of your work, its theoretical framework, your conclusions, your committee members. For engineering and sciences, if you decide to describe your research more completely in the experience section, you may want to simply list the title of your dissertation in this section. For a new candidate in humanities or social sciences, the dissertation should be featured prominently in this section.
Publications and Presentations
Include publications and presentations in APA or another standard format. Be sure to bold your name in each.
Example:
Jones, S. (2005) "Exploration of air-borne disease in urban Wisconsin" American Journal of Public Health, 57 (4), 117-125.
Kassidy, B., Jones, S., Smith, J., El-Rahid, S., "Evaluation of Sexually Transmitted Disease Clinics in the Bahamas." Paper presented at the Global Health Conference, UCLA, May 2002.
Awards, Honors, Fellowships, Scholarships
Recognition of scholarship by a university or within your field is very important. Memberships in honorary societies belong in this section as well, unless they have already been listed within education.
Professional Experience
This category is often divided into several possible sub-categories such as research experience, consulting, fieldwork, teaching experience, or post-doctoral work, as well as many others, depending on your discipline. Reverse chronological order is again the rule.
Academic Service
List all departmental and university groups, committees, and task forces on which you served. Student groups are valid as well. You should demonstrate that you have exhibited leadership qualities, and you will assume certain departmental administrative duties if hired.
Memberships or Professional Affiliations
List all professional groups and offices held.
Languages
List all you read or speak, and note those in which you are fluent, proficient, or in which you have a basic knowledge.
Dossier or Reference File
States where your file is available. It may be useful to list your references as well so that they may be contacted by phone.
Curriculum Vitae Samples
- General CV Sample (good basic format for a CV)
- BCHS sample CV (for a PhD student)
- BIOST Sample CV 1 (hybrid CV/resume for an international MS student)
- BIOST Sample CV 2 (hybrid CV/resume for a current PhD student)
- BIOST Sample CV 3 (entry level CV for a current PhD student)
- EPI Sample CV (CV for an experienced post-doc candidate)
- HUGEN Sample CV (for a current PhD student – compare to same information in the HUGEN Sample Resume)
- IDM Sample CV (recent graduate of doctoral program, current post-doc)
- MMPH Sample CV (post-doc student with an MD from Brazil)