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CV norms for different career stages?

In our April "how can we help you?" thread, a junior faculty member asks:

What are the norms around what to include on your CV at different stages of your career? I recently got a TT job after a couple of postdocs and received my Ph.D. 2ish years ago. My CV still has a number of grad-school related things on it: dissertation abstract, coursework, TA appointments, grad student service, etc. I don't want to give the impression that I'm still at the grad student stage, but I also don't know whether any of these things are still helpful or important for giving a picture of me as a scholar.

Good question! I'd definitely take grad school stuff off once in a TT job, but beyond this I'm not sure. 

What do you all think the norms are for CVs at different career stages, and why?

 

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7 responses to “CV norms for different career stages?”

  1. Lisa

    The older you get, the longer a “normal” list-based CV gets, so at some point it starts to make sense to prioritize (e.g. with “key publications”). Also, the criteria of success change – e.g. grant applications can become rather important from mid-career upwards in many European countries, so you bring these to the front. I would just check out a few examples from similarly-positioned scholars and then see which version makes sense for you.

    Reply
  2. whatever

    This is a great question. I’m two years removed from my Ph.D. and have thought it appropriate to now remove dissertation information and graduate coursework from my CV. Does that sound about right for folks?

    Reply
  3. cv

    Yes, remove dissertation info as soon as you have a full time job – indeed, you should be mining it out and publishing papers from it, so the dissertation will be redundant.

    Reply
  4. TT

    I removed all of that stuff basically as soon as I got a TT job. I figured that all the grad-studenty stuff is just for the purposes of getting a job (and even then, I was actually advised against including graduate coursework on there). Other stuff that’s longer-lasting or notable, like teaching awards, fellowships, and so on, should probably stay up.

    Reply
  5. more cv questions

    What about conference presentations at grad conferences? Should these stay once one gets a full-time job, or a TT job?
    And I’m assuming courses taught (as sole instructor) while in grad school should stay even after getting a full-time job, that is, assuming one has a section for teaching experience, no?

    Reply
  6. cv

    At one point conference papers at grad conferences should probably not be listed – you are wanting to position yourself as a faculty member. If it is listed prominently on your cv when you are going up for tenure, then it looks like you do not know that you are no longer a graduate student. But keep courses taught listed until you go up for tenure. But, again, when you go up for tenure, no one is going to think what you taught BEFORE your current job is relevant to that decision.

    Reply
  7. Bill Vanderburgh

    Yes, once you have a TT job, remove the dissertation abstract and coursework (which is better in a different part of a job app anyway) from the cv. Probably remove AOS and AOC too, since that is only relevant in hiring. You can decrease the level of detail for some other entries, too. For example, instead of listing every course and professor you TA’d for, just have an entry (under appointments or teaching) “Teaching Assistant (x courses, date-date).” Ultimately, e.g., after you have a couple of years of independent teaching experience, you’ll decide to drop that, too.
    Eventually you need two vitas–one that is an utterly complete record, and one that is appropriately shortened and includes only the stuff relevant for whatever purpose you are using the cv.
    At some point you’ll have enough entries under various headings to create subheadings (Conferences–Refereed Papers, Conferences–Refereed Abstracts, Conferences–Invited Commentaries, etc.). Once those sub-lists have a lot of entries, you can list the best or most relevant or most recent ones and truncate the list, adding a note at the end of the section to the effect “Seventeen additional invited presentations” or similar. So it probably isn’t about what career stage to rotate off grad conferences, but when you have enough to truncate the list.
    The one exception is publications: always list all of those. Some people suggest that by the time you are tenured, you can move your publications list to the last section of the cv, so people can quickly flip to it. That is less relevant in the age of pdfs, I think.

    Reply

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