A Quick Overview About Curriculum Vitaes
A curriculum vitae is best defined as a document that emphasizes more about one’s academic and professional accomplishments. In Latin, it means “course of life” or “course of one’s life.”
Compared to resumes which are commonly used when applying for the business industry, curriculum vitaes are more effective when applying for research or academic positions.
A curriculum vitae or CV includes information such as the following:
Education
Internships
Scholarships
Grants
Certificates or Licenses
Academic awards
Areas of specialty
Teaching or Research experience
plus other relevant information with regards to one’s academic or professional experience.
Compared to resumes that usually have one or two pages only, the length of curriculum vitaes varies from candidate to the other. An experienced researcher or professor could have a curriculum vitae composed of five or more pages while someone with a master’s degree could have a curriculum vitae of one to three pages in length. Although lengthy, one should always write their curriculum vitaes concisely and as much as possible, one should give it an easy to read or “skimmable” format similar to how resumes should look like.
With regards to the format we all know that resumes have three standard formats; chronological resume format, functional resume format and combination resume format. However, cirriculum vitaes have no standard format because the preferred writing style and content of each document varies from one discipline to another.
Before writing yourself a CV, it is always a must for candidates to do some research about the requirements of the field or position that you are targeting. You can always do this by visiting the websites of the academic departments that you are interested in. Usually, these websites are also good sources of information such as the one you are seeking in particular which is CV or curriculum vitae advice.
As far as seeking help in improving your document is concerned, it is best for you to seek the help the help of people whom you are working with you or someone who shares the same field or department with you. If possible, seek the help of your own academic or professional advisor for they most likely know the ins and outs of your chosen field. This is very effective especially if you are to share the very same fields or departments with them.
