In Part One, I promised to focus on storytelling - but didn’t manage to …
By stories, I mean what cues do you want to embed in your CV about your approach to research, teaching & service.
Every discipline uses diff cues, so take time to know your field.
Ok. So beyond norm referencing to your field, how do you tell your story? In a CV?
First, summarize.
Readers like simple, easy to access stories.
Do not clutter your CV with overly detailed information.
Don’t sum your teaching evals for the past decade.
Don’t list every talk in a class or guest lecture.
Give a representative sample.
By giving concise summaries, you create opportunities for someone skimming the CV to ask questions.
Second, your bio.
If you do a bio, how you describe yourself is important. emphasizing research and nothing about teaching, could signal you don’t care about students.
Carefully think through the signals you want to send bc it will frame how the remainder of your content is viewed by readers.
Third, coauthors.
The way you present them sends signals about your approach to collaboration.
I see some people list themselves and then us a a ‘with’ … making it difficult to discern author order.
I view this practice as shady. It feels like a signal something is wrong.
I see some people flag student coauthors.
It signals you are a mentor and student-centric.
My point here, is how you present your coauthored work send signals about you, that can be positive or negative - so think it through.
Fourth, papers.
Think through how you present the corpus of your work.
Some people list papers in chronological order.
Still others add cues of quality - such as pub in a ranked journal.
I break mine into two sections - major publications and additional publications.
I want to send a strong quality cue and help people easily find papers in more recognized journals.
Fifth, teaching.
You have to explain courses - bc names and content vary.
It is healthy to include more than one summary eval - so overall rating & effective communicator?
Sixth, external activities.
Here I reference press mentions, talks & outreach.
They tell readers the world is interested in your work.
I don’t mention consulting on my CV - in part bc I don’t do much & in part bc it creates assumptions about income.
Sixth, redaction.
You can always redact information to tailor your story.
I know several people who only list top papers.
I know others that leave off extensive service.
It is your right to actively shape the images evoked - as long as it is honest.
Finally, once done, take a step back & ask what do all these cues tell about you.
Do they suggest you are balanced? A service donkey? A research workhorse? A teaching machine?
If you want to evoke a specific archetype, ask a colleague for an opinion.
If mindfully constructed, a CV can help people know your story.
It’s up to you to tell it!
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