CV descriptions redux

[futureapppsy2]

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I know this has been discussed a bit on this board before, but I can't seem to find the thread. Is it acceptable / standard practice to put (briefly) descriptions of duties on a grad applicant CV for teaching, research, and clinical experience? It seems like it would be more helpful to write a brief description of the lab and my duties than just write "research assistant" ten times, especially as my duties vary from lab to lab (from lit reviews to running assessments to interviews to analyzing data to writing manuscripts and so on). But maybe this isn't how it's done...?

Thanks.

 

[cmuhooligan]

I know this has been discussed a bit on this board before, but I can't seem to find the thread. Is it acceptable / standard practice to put (briefly) descriptions of duties on a grad applicant CV for teaching, research, and clinical experience? It seems like it would be more helpful to write a brief description of the lab and my duties than just write "research assistant" ten times, especially as my duties vary from lab to lab (from lit reviews to running assessments to interviews to analyzing data to writing manuscripts and so on). But maybe this isn't how it's done...?

Thanks.

Yes, I would say the standard practice would be to very briefly list or describe what duties you were responsible for in a given role.

 

[deadmau5]

I have a small paragraph (max. 5 lines) outlining my work at each (only 3 major ones, so doesn't take up much space).

If you have a lot of positions - possibly find the 2-3 most unique things about the experience, other than "lit search" or "ran experiments".

 

[futureapppsy2]

^
Thanks. I've done that, I think, in what I've written.

 

[deadmau5]

hey what are your headings?

I am having problems filling in Awards...
I will be applying for a research grant for sept '10, so I will be putting that on there.
Also I graduated with distinction which is like top 20% i think... so I put that on there... not much else :S

Are you also putting a short profile at the beginning?

I think I have currently:
Contact info, Education, Research Interests, Research Experience, Volunteer Experience/Work Experience, Awards and Training, and References...

 

[cmuhooligan]

hey what are your headings?

I am having problems filling in Awards...
I will be applying for a research grant for sept '10, so I will be putting that on there.
Also I graduated with distinction which is like top 20% i think... so I put that on there... not much else :S

Are you also putting a short profile at the beginning?

I think I have currently:
Contact info, Education, Research Interests, Research Experience, Volunteer Experience/Work Experience, Awards and Training, and References...

The only thing I may leave out is "research interests"; I don't believe that is traditionally included on one's C.V.

 

[krisrox]

hey what are your headings?

I am having problems filling in Awards...
I will be applying for a research grant for sept '10, so I will be putting that on there.
Also I graduated with distinction which is like top 20% i think... so I put that on there... not much else :S

Are you also putting a short profile at the beginning?

I think I have currently:
Contact info, Education, Research Interests, Research Experience, Volunteer Experience/Work Experience, Awards and Training, and References...

I also have Relevant Coursework, Extracurriculars (clubs and running teams I've been on) and Poster Presentations. I don't have a profile at the beginning; I figure my SOP will serve that purpose.

 

[JockNerd]

"Research interests" should be on the CV. It should be two or three sentences that make it clear how your research experience/publications/posters/POI's research intersect, and articulate your research program goals.

On my grad school apps I included my GPA and GREs. That was probably unnecessary, in retrospect.

 

[Ollie123]

I'll just echo JN, I also have research interests on mine and see it quite frequently on others.

Obviously its not a personal statement, and shouldn't be a paragraph. Bullet points with "Bipolar disorder", "Psychophysiological measurement of emotion", etc. should be fine, or short sentences that highlight the key issues and dominant questions you want to answer.

Probably less critical for senior folks since if you have 20 pages worth of publications, your interests should be fairly obvious. For an undergrad CV, there might be nothing there that gives a strong indication of what their interests are. Either way I don't think its a bad thing to be able to glance at the first page of someone's CV and know what their focus is, regardless of what level they are at.

 

[deadmau5]

I also have Relevant Coursework, Extracurriculars (clubs and running teams I've been on) and Poster Presentations. I don't have a profile at the beginning; I figure my SOP will serve that purpose.

I put extracurricular under volunteer.

I have no posters, i only have a little informal lab presentation, which I think I am going to remove. 🙁

 

[krisrox]

I put extracurricular under volunteer.

I have no posters, i only have a little informal lab presentation, which I think I am going to remove. 🙁

Maybe you can add a "Presentations" section if you think it's worth noting.

 

[Ollie123]

If this was just something during a lab meeting in a lab you were an RA in I'd recommend against listing it - that definitely seems like "padding". That would be like listing presentations you gave in class for a grade.

 

[futureapppsy2]

I have:
-Contact info
-Research experience
-Theses
-Peer-reviewed publications
-Posters and presentations
-Awards and Honors
-Teaching experience
-Clinical and child* experience

*applying to school psych, so child experience, even non-clinical experience, is relevant

On extracurriculars:
I thought that you weren't supposed to put non-psych/non-academic extracurriculars on your CV...? Is this not the case?

 

[krisrox]

On extracurriculars:
I thought that you weren't supposed to put non-psych/non-academic extracurriculars on your CV...? Is this not the case?

My post-doc never told me to take them out, she even commented on some of them in my CV. I figure after I get into grad school I can take out the ones that aren't relevant to my field of study. Formally, I believe even foreign language knowledge is considered a no-no to include in a CV, but I was never told by anyone to get rid of them.

 

[krisrox]

I didn't want to start a new thread for this question, so I'll just ask it here.

How should you list poster abstract that have been submitted but not accepted/denied for a conference yet? Should I just list them under the research lab I submitted it under? Should I give "submitted abstracts" their own section? Or should I list them with my other posters, but just say "pending" or something like that?

 

[erg923]

authors. (year). Title. Abstract Submitted for Poster Presentation at ...name of conference...City, State.

Thats the way I do mine anyway

 

[krisrox]

authors. (year). Title. Abstract Submitted for Poster Presentation at ...name of conference...City, State.

Thats the way I do mine anyway

Thanks! That makes it easy for if and when it gets accepted, too.