Academic CV
What is a CV?
CV highlights your skills, achievements and your goals. It sheds light on your past experience and how they prepare you for the present. In short, it’s crucial to have a CV drafted, if you want to pursue a career regardless of the field.
What sort of Experience:
You can not draft a CV if you do not have experience (in your field) to document. Thus, having experience in your field is crucial before you can draft a CV. Experience is very variable, no one demands that that a tender age of your professional career you should have a CV comparable to a Professor who has been in field for 20-25 years. But your personal experience even if it is of about 2-3 years if documented properly and highlighted appropriately can be very beneficent.
Methodology (How should I begin)
There are different templates, formats and different ways you can approach. But, if you have correct understanding of the content, you can simply shift from one format to another. There’s not just one methodology but having the right approach is important.
I will break this up into various points that can be considered. You do not have to follow all of them if they don’t apply to you.
Your Bio or Intro:
That is the easiest part but some important factors need to be considered. Make sure your Name is your Official Name, (If your Name is Muhammad Ijaaz Ali Kakar Noorani for example and that’s the name that appears on your CNIC, Passport and Gov. issued documents than that’s the name you will use). Don’t nick name yourself. Mention the Universities you acquired your degrees from and in which discipline. You can mention your GPA or not, that’s your choice. Write down your official email address, please keep your email address appropriate and official. Your current address, your Skype ID, Zoom ID and your active cell phone. Don’t mention if you are married or single, no need to mention if you are a Muslim or a Christian.
Professional Summary:
It’s important you have this section on your CV for it helps the recruiter to identify before reading the CV of your professional experience and your professional goals! Being said that, also make sure you write this section professionally by using the language of your profession. For example, as a researcher, you can say, “Proficient in conducting xyz experiments with strong research interest in conducting xyz” and whatever suits you more according to your field.
Work History:
That’s all the experience you have had working in xyz firms, working under professors as a RA, serving as a TA or GA. That’s a very detailed and elaborated part of the CV, make sure you write it clearly with enough detail. Arrange your work from your most current and onwards. If you served as a Research Assistant, you should highlight the project you worked and what you performed. For example, the Synthesis of thin solid films of organic polymer using electrochemical methods and go on with what you did. If you worked in various labs as RA, make sure you mention what you accomplished there as well. Like, using LDH assay to determine cellular cytotoxicity, primer design, performing plasmid purification and etc. so be very elaborative! If you served as a TA, make sure you mention how you taught the class, what Approach you used and etc. if you supervised projects, write down what your job was as supervisor, how your leadership allowed the team to flourish and finish the project in due time. If you served as an intern, make sure you mention what you accomplished there. So as you can see, it’s a very important and very detailed topic. So invest some time drafting this!
Accomplishment:
It’s a very important section, do not undermine it, if you have accomplishments don’t hesitate to mention. But don’t mention accomplishments that happened in 5th grade, like sport week award in cricket. Mention any Research grant you won, any full-ride scholarships, any government funded scholarships, any high achievement award, anything that shows your high academic achievements!
Don'ts
English Mistakes
Make sure your english is correct, your structure of writing is correct, I have seen a lot of CV, with a lot of spelling mistakes, grammar issues, and CV that were not in order at all very sporadic. You can mention your language proficiency as well, but if you say your English is perfect and you are having a hard time differentiating between there and their, forms of verb, tenses and vocabulary, It will be assumed you were not truthful.
Unnecessary Long
Don’t make your CV long by adding unnecessary detail that is irrelevant. Other than that, whichever format you follow, make sure your content and experience is worth mentioning!
if you share your CV, don’t share your badminton certificates, IELTS certificate, your debate awards. If appropriate just list your awards in accomplishments but please don’t send as attachments unless it is asked. You are just annoying the professor