Creating a curriculum vitae or CV is something every academic has to do sooner or later. In Latin, CV means “course of one’s life.” While there are no major right or wrong ways to construct a CV (disciplinary norms are most influential here), I want to provide some suggestions that may be helpful for knowing how to create your first CV.

Before discussing the specifics of how to create your first CV, it can be helpful to consider the differences between a CV and a resume. A resume is a short summary of your experiences with the primary purpose of getting a job.

In contrast, a CV is much more detailed catalog of your academic work and experiences where length is not a concern. Some CV’s may stretch 20 or 30 or even more pages long.

A CV captures the full range of work and activities that you engage in as an academic rather than boiling down your experience to a page or two as you would with a resume.

To reiterate, each discipline has different norms about how to put together a CV. Finding examples from your faculty or others in your field is the best way to learn what to do and not to do.

Although you have some creative license to do your CV a little differently, you should not make yours dramatically different from what is expected in your field. When people look at your CV, they will expect it to look generally like others and a drastically different format or information included can make it difficult to understand your accomplishments.

What are the major headings and areas to include in your CV?

• Name and Contact Information
• Education (all degrees listed including any currently in progress)
• Academic work experience (include all academic positions)
• Non-academic work experience (include major non-academic positions usually separate from academic ones and near the end of the CV).
• Academic administrative appointments (such as department chair or director of a center)
• Publications (typically broken down by type such as books, peer reviewed articles, book chapters, etc.)
• Presentations (include conference presentations, keynote addresses, and other major public speaking activities. Can break into categories if you have a large number of these)
• Honors, awards, and academic achievements
• Grants and contracts (list those awarded and under review. Sometimes also includes those that were not funded)
• Affiliations (scholarly organizations, units on campus, etc.)

A final note about how to create your first CV is in order. Your CV should be organized, complete, dated, and kept up-to-date. Creating your CV does not need to be time intensive, but it is an important aspect of being an academic.

From applying to jobs or just learning more about your work, the CV is the document that communicates about you as an academic. Take the time and effort to do a good job with it and keep it updated. Likely, no other document will be used as much or in the detail as your CV.

From my days as a graduate student, I have made updating my CV a priority. Not only is it satisfying to add a new publication to your CV when it comes out, but it is important that you always have it updated for anyone who might ask you for it.

If you don’t yet have one, I encourage you to use these tips to create your first CV. If you have let updating your CV fall behind, get on it today. You’ll be glad you did!