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How to change your CV after a postdoc?

In our May “how can we help you?” thread, a reader asks:

How should I change my CV after getting a postdoc? In particular, which of the following should I delete from my CV?

– Graduate coursework
– TA-ing experience
– One-paragraph dissertation blurb
– One-page dissertation summary (stapled to the end)

I’m not sure! I have to confess that I’ve never quite understood including a one-paragraph dissertation blurb or full summary in a CV, and I’m curious what others make of it. In any case, I’m not sure what to advise the OP.

What do readers think? How do you think they should update the CV?

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10 responses to “How to change your CV after a postdoc?”

  1. Anonymous

    Once you have a few publications on your c.v., I am inclined to think the dissertation summary (long or short) is unnecessary. All the import content is contained in what is published. I would think that about two years out of the PhD your course work is irrelevant. Course work provides a weak indication that you have an interest and (lower level) expertise in a subject. But it does not compare with genuine teaching. And the same goes for TA work

    Reply
  2. Anonymous

    I did my phd without coursework, so don’t know about that. When I published more than half of my dissertation, I deleted the blurb. That’s because I thought published paper titles covers my research capacity much better than my dissertation. When I started to independently teach, and had two or three courses in my CV, I deleted all TAing experience for similar reasons.

    Reply
  3. OP

    OP here. Thanks so much for this feedback. To refine my question: I literally just finished my PhD. I have one chapter published but nothing else from the dissertation published. I am starting the postdoc in fall and going on the market at the same time. I worry that if I delete the dissertation summary, I am kind of tying my hands behind my back, and giving the reader strictly less info and making it harder to understand my research. But on the other hand, if I keep the summary, I worry that it makes me look more like a student and less like a future colleague.

    My postdoc doesn’t have much teaching, so I am thinking of leaving the TA-ing on there and removing the graduate coursework.

    Any other general advice (or feedback on this plan) would be much appreciated. Thanks again!

    Reply
    1. Anonymous

      When you apply for jobs, typically you will submit a research statement. The cover letter also tells readers about your research. I don’t think including a paragraph summary of the dissertation on a cv is ever necessary and it brings the risk of making you seem more like a student and less like a teacher/researcher/professional/professor/philosopher. If the search committee thinks of you as still a student, then they may be less inclined to hire you. Just my two cents.

      Reply
      1. OP

        Many thanks. My current plan is to leave the TA-ing on the CV but cut the coursework, cut the one-paragraph dissertation blurb, and cut the one-page dissertation summary (but move most of that material into the research statement). I will include the one-page dissertation summary at the end of the CV if an application gives me no opportunity to submit a research statement.

  4. Anonymous

    Including coursework on the cv was never valuable anyway. If you aren’t a freshly minted PhD with no other teaching or postdoc experience, I say leave that off. Same with the dissertation blurb. No doubt you’ll mention that in your research statement, so no need to duplicate. Forget the one-page summary altogether if you are a year or more past the PhD and have publications since. Again, whatever is still relevant from that will be in your research statement. Including those things makes you seem very junior, which might mean less competitive.

    Depending on how much teaching experience you have, you might let TA experience drop off, too, or at least give it much less space. (I could see leaving it on a bit longer if it involved a topic area that isn’t elsewhere represented in your materials, to show you could cover that as an AOC.)

    Reply
  5. Anonymous

    I think it’s ok to leave that stuff if you have just defended and otherwise have a shorter CV.

    Once I was going on the market as a postdoc, i.e. having already been in the postdoc job and published some stuff, I deleted the coursework and dissertation summary sections. However, my CV still lists my entire teaching experience, including courses I TAed for. I just haven’t bothered to and didn’t see a strong reason to delete these couple of lines.

    I’m now wondering if I should do so – do folks leave TAing on their CV forever or is it something that ought to be removed? In partial answer, I looked up the CVs of some friends who are recent assistant professors or have their own research grants and they still have TAing listed. So I guess this is not too important. After a certain amount of time you should definitely remove the other things, though, so as not to appear too much like you’re still a student.

    Reply
  6. Anonymous

    I think it’s okay to leave the short dissertation summary on. Most people won’t read it, but I don’t think people are offended by it.
    If you have any teaching experience at all, don’t include grad course taken. If you want it to indicate an AOC, just claim it as an AOC on the CV and briefly talk about it in your statements.
    Since independent teaching is strictly better than TA experience, I’d say slowly replace TA experience with teaching. So, e.g., if you’ve TAed intro to ethics and then taught it as solo instructor, then only leave the solo instructor experience on there. If you’ve also TAed logic but haven’t solo-instructed it yet, but want to say that you are capable of teaching it, then you should leave the logic TA experience on there. Organize TA experience by type of courses rather than tokens so it takes less space. Eventually if you manage to solo-instruct every type of course you’ve TA’ed (or if there are a few TA’ed courses you don’t see yourself teaching), you can leave TAing off entirely.

    Reply
  7. Anonymous

    There’s no way any job committee reads or even finds any bit interesting the graduate courses you took. I’ve never understood why this is listed on CVs.

    Reply
  8. Anonymous

    Okay, I’ll offer a counter perspective on the coursework: I’ve been on committees where it comes up. And certainly when I was newly on the market I had feedback from committees that it demonstrated things like teaching capacity in an area I don’t directly research in. It wasn’t gonna get me the job, but it was something committees sometimes liked to know about.

    But I agree that the dissertation summary should go once the dissertation has been through peer review in a couple of places (or just one place, if it’s a book). Before that, I think it’s useful. Lots of places don’t ask for research statements, and even if a job does ask for one or you have a good research paragraph in the cover letter – well, if I’m going through 120 applications, redundant information is not the worst thing in the world.

    Reply

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