Academic job market

Curriculum vitae (CV)

The curriculum vitae (also referred to as the vita or CV) is a comprehensive record of your educational background and academic-related experiences, and is used when applying for teaching, research, and administrative positions in academia or for fellowships or grants. The CV is the key document in securing an interview with an academic search committee.

Your CV should be long enough (2 to 4+ pages) to thoroughly present all your qualifications in specific categories, which should be listed in order of relevance for the position you seek. Within areas of study, there may be preferred formats for your CV. You will want to research the preferred formatting for your discipline before writing. While there is no universally accepted way to write a CV, here are some of the common components across disciplines.

What to include on your CV

• Contact information: Include your full name (at least 2 sizes larger than the rest of your contact information), phone number, and a professional email. On secondary pages, be sure to include your last name and the page number on each page of your CV. Omit items such as age, marital status, children, and state of health, since this information is irrelevant when discussing the job and your qualifications.
• Educational background: List all earned academic degrees beginning with the most recent (exclude high school). Include name of institution, location, and dates of completed degrees or certificates. You can also provide a brief description of your dissertation here.
• Teaching experience: List the courses, institutions, and dates where you have taught, and also include courses you are prepared to teach. Use 1 to 3 bulleted phrases to describe the course and your role in teaching it (for example, assisted, lectured, administered grades). If your background would allow you to teach in several fields, you may want to include a list of graduate courses taken as an appendix to your CV. The format and depth of this section will depend on whether you are targeting a teaching college or research institution.
• Research experience: Include the name and location where the research took place and the advisor or faculty member that led the project. Use 1 to 3 bulleted phrases to describe the research and your role in it. This section could include graduate research assistantships, post-doctoral fellowships, research projects, and similar work.
• Professional and work experience: List any full-time or internship experience that is relevant to your field. Related, significant consulting or volunteer activities may be included here rather than with civic or service involvement.
• Publications: Include full bibliographic citations of your articles, monographs, research, and book chapters, with bold-faced font to highlight your name in the citation. The terms “Under Review” and “In Press” may be used if appropriate. If applicable, this category may be modified to read “Papers and Publications,” “Programs and Workshops,” or other titles which reflect production of professional work in your discipline.
• Presentations: Describe the talk title, name of conference, dates, and location. It is important to distinguish between presentations to which you were specifically invited and others.
• Academic service: List all departmental and university groups, committees, advisor positions, or task forces on which you served. Student groups are valid as well. You should demonstrate that you have exhibited leadership qualities and that you will assume certain departmental administrative duties if hired.
• Awards and honors: List all fellowships, scholarships, grants, teaching or research awards, and the name of the related institution and dates. For grants, include how much they were worth and for how long.
• Professional affiliations and memberships: Include any memberships in professional organizations and significant appointment or election to positions on committees. The emphasis should be on current activities except where you have changed your field of work and want to show earlier organizational activity.
• Optional categories: Other areas that could be included under separate headings include skills, foreign languages, foreign travel, thesis or dissertation committee responsibilities, academic advising, research activities, relevant skills, and grant writing or participation. The key is to make sure the information is relevant to the type of position you are pursuing.

Order matters: Tailor by position

Unlike a resume, a CV does not drastically change from position to position. As you gain more relevant experience you will make additions but rarely exclude experiences. However, a CV can still be tailored based on the desired role. Sections can be placed in a new order or broken down into subtopics to provide emphasis on skills or relevant content knowledge. A teaching college emphasizes teaching experience higher; an R1 institution emphasizes research experience and publications higher.

CV templates and examples

Start from the downloadable CV template, then review a filled-in example for a sense of structure and emphasis.

Download the CV template

These are shortened examples of a CV. Depending on your experience, academic discipline, and institution type, you may follow a different structure and emphasis. Please seek examples from your department, career coaches, and mentors in addition to this one.

Geography Sample CV

Philosophy Sample CV

Teaching philosophy statement

“Just because you have never written a statement of your teaching philosophy does not mean that you do not have a teaching philosophy. If you engage a group of learners who are your responsibility, then your behavior in designing their learning environment must follow from your philosophical orientation … What you need to do is discover what [your philosophy] is and then make it explicit.”

Brian Coppola

A statement about your teaching philosophy is typically required for academic positions. It is a narrative that is used to convey your teaching values, beliefs, and goals to a broader audience, as well as your conception of teaching and learning, a description of how you teach, and justification for why you teach that way. It provides concrete examples of your teaching effectiveness through samples of course syllabi, teaching evaluations, or even videos of you lecturing. Like the rest of your application materials, it will be important to consider what is appropriate for your academic discipline. Be sure to have a professor or a mentor review and comment on your teaching philosophy.

Brainstorming questions to get started

To get started with drafting your philosophy, consider some of the following questions:

• Why do you teach?
• What do you consider effective teaching and a successful class?
• What are your goals for student learning in your classes, and why?
• What are your instructional methods and how do they connect to your teaching goals and conceptualization?
• What are your strategies for evaluation and assessment?
• How do your research and disciplinary context influence your teaching?
• What are your own and your students’ backgrounds and identities, and how does that affect the teaching and learning in your classes?
• How do you create an inclusive environment in your classes?
• How do you create a student-centered, active learning environment?
• How do you feel your discipline contributes to the larger goals of general education?
• What assignments or activities have worked particularly well in your classes? How did you measure their effectiveness?
• How do you use technology in your classroom to support student learning?
• How do students learn and how do you facilitate that learning?
• How do you know that your instructional methods are working?
• What are your future goals for growth as a teacher?

As you draft

Provide specific examples that relate to your overall philosophy as well as the institution. Research the department you are applying to and indicate which of their courses you are prepared to teach. This information might work better in your cover letter, but you want to make sure that your teaching statement reflects your willingness and capacity to teach the courses you will be expected to at the institution. Lastly, it will be important to demonstrate your commitment to teaching and how that translates into your classroom practice.

Do’s and don’ts

Do

• Keep your statement brief and follow any instructions about length included in the job ad.
• Make it personal, reflective, and in the first-person narrative.
• Make sure you discuss goals, methods, and assessment.
• Give specific examples.
• Ground your statement in your discipline.
• Connect your teaching and your research.

Don’t

• Reiterate what is on your CV.
• Use jargon or abstract language. Try to define terms like “critical thinking” within your disciplinary context.
• Be generic. Tailor your statement to the institution and position you are applying for.
• Talk about teaching as a burden or as less important than research. In your tone and language, convey an enthusiasm and commitment to teaching.
• Include quotations from teaching evaluations or secondary references.
• Use cliched or overly emotional language. Avoid reiterating your “love” of teaching, for instance.

Teaching statement examples

University of Michigan CRLT: teaching philosophy statements

Letters of recommendation

At this point in your search, especially after carefully crafting your CV, cover letter, research statement, and teaching statement, and filling out the job application online, you might be wondering what else a search committee could need to make their decision. While you can do an excellent job discussing your background and skills, the committee wants to hear about your skills and qualifications from those who know you best: professors, supervisors, and mentors.

Whom to ask

It will be critical for you to choose individuals who can positively talk about your qualifications to write your letters of recommendation or serve as references. Decide on a list of potential faculty members including your dissertation chair, committee members, and a teaching mentor, all preferably tenure-track. In some disciplines, recommenders from industry collaborators or outside your department are also appropriate; check the norms in your field.

How to ask: prepare a packet for each recommender

• Prepare a packet that includes a letter or email requesting they serve as a recommendation or reference, your CV, a list of graduate coursework that highlights courses you have had with these faculty members, a waiver of rights sheet or the recommendation form (if any) appropriately signed, and a sample recommendation letter.
• If possible, visit the faculty member in person to request the letter. This ensures a timely response and a chance to go over where you are in the process and what direction you want them to take with the letter.
• Give the faculty member a due date that is before your actual due date, and follow up about one week before the deadline you gave them.

Letter vs. reference: what is the difference

If the application asks for a letter of recommendation, this will usually be a physical letter that is submitted to the institution. These can also be submitted electronically if the institution collects letters that way.

If someone is serving as your reference, it is likely that they may receive a phone call or form to answer predetermined questions. You will just need to include their information on a separate References page. Once you have asked them to serve as a reference for you and provided them a packet, collect the following information from them:

• Name
• Position title
• Institution
• Email
• Phone number
• Relationship to you

This will be used by the hiring committee to contact them if you move to the reference portion of the search.

Sample recommendation letter language

University of Washington Bothell: reference letter template