Career Center

Your Guide to CVs

What is a CV?

A CV, or curriculum vitae, is a document that provides an extensive record of your academic and professional achievments. "Curriculum vitae" is a Latin phrase that means "course of life", so you can expect your CV to be very detailed.

You will need a CV if you are pursuing a role in research or academia. The purpose is to show your history and qualifications as a researcher, teacher or scholar.

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CV Guidelines

These guidelines are general suggestions, not hard and fast rules. CV content, format, and style may vary according to career fields (e.g., the categories a Mechanical Engineering student includes may differ from the categories a Counseling student includes).

When to use: When applying to academic & research positions.

Purpose: To provide an exhaustive list of not only professional experience but also academic accomplishments, service and associations.

Length: Length varies according to field. Your resume will remain 1 or 2 pages, but your CV will continuously grow.
Format: Stay consistent in format throughout the entire document (use of bullet points, boldfaced type, italics, etc).
Font: Use a standard font and keep your font size 12.

What to include: All of your academic accomplishments. See below for suggested content.

CV Content

Education - schools, degrees and graduation dates. Recent graduates may included thesis/dissertation title.
Teaching Experience - positions held and courses taught.
Research Experience - project name, sponsoring organization and dates.
Publications - name of journal and article, co-authors if any and publication date. Consult the format of your field.
Presentations - name of presentation and conference, co-presenters if any and date.
Awards - name of award, who awarded it and date.
Honors - name of honor, who awarded it and date.
Professional Associations - membership/roles and dates of membership/service.
Grants - name of grant, name of granting agency, date received, and title or purpose of research project.
Academic Service - committees, offices held, academic projects, mentorship and any other academic functions not covered above.

Tips for Getting Started

Make a list of all your academic endeavors (teaching, awards, organization memberships, publications, etc).
Use the examples below as a guide.
Look up your favorite professors at UVM and check their CVs to see if there are field-specific items that should be included.
A good goal is to add one line to your CV per month. If your CV is not growing, seek advice from professors, the Career Center or other colleagues/mentors in your network.
More advice on CVs from an academic’s perspective.

Examples

Below are just a few CV examples from different fields. Check out your favorite professor's UVM profile page or LinkedIn page to see how they completed their CV.

Applied Linguistics

Anthropology

Business Administration

Electrical Engineering

English and American Literature

Environmental Studies-Agroecology