An academic resume is not your typical resume. Often referred to as a Curriculum Vitae (CV), an academic resume is designed to showcase your academic experience and accomplishments.
While crafting an academic resume isn’t difficult, you must include specific information to get the attention of hiring staff and help you land your desired position. You may only get one shot to impress, so having a top-notch academic resume is a must.
Below is the information you should include in your academic resume, academic skills, and how a resume writing service can help you create the perfect academic resume.
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What Is Unique About An Academic Resume?
An academic resume is also called a Curriculum Vitae (CV). Think of a CV as a more comprehensive resume that dives deeper into your experiences. An academic CV is often much longer than a traditional resume, typically several pages long.
University or college faculty roles or research positions are ultra-competitive. An academic CV is primarily credential-focused. Because of that, it should include a more detailed look at your past experiences, teaching experience, relevant associations, awards, grants and fellowships, and other pertinent information.
What Should Be Included On An Academic Resume?
An academic resume should include detailed information about your experience and credentials relevant to working in an academic setting. Below are some of the specific sections to include on an academic resume.
HEADER
Start your resume by including your name and contact information at the top in the header section. Include information like your name, address, email, and phone number.
SUMMARY
Use the resume summary section to share highlights of your academic and professional accomplishments briefly. Think in terms of the specific role you’re applying for and highlight the achievements that directly apply. You don’t need to include everything here since it’s only a summary.
EDUCATION
Since many academic roles have specific degree prerequisites, nailing the education section of an academic resume is crucial.
List your educational experience in reverse chronological order, starting with your most recent degree earned or experience. List the college or university name, location (city, state), graduation date, your major, and the degree earned with each entry. You can also include other relevant information like your GPA, academic honors, and dissertation or thesis title.
EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
List your employment history, starting with your most recent experience and work backward. Because this is an academic resume, only include academic-related tenure-track work experiences.
Depending on your specific experience, you could label this section as “Teaching Experience” or create a separate section for other teaching roles you’ve held.
For each listing, include your position, the institution, department, dates worked, and a description of your responsibilities or duties. Unlike a traditional resume, refrain from creating a bulleted list of your duties. In an academic CV, include more detailed information to provide more context of your experience.
PUBLICATIONS
Use this section to list any of your research that has been published, which helps to position you as an expert in your particular field.
Divide your publications into peer-reviewed and other publications, organized by publication date. You can break publications down further into subsections such as books, book chapters, journals, and other distinctions if desired.
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
Join The Break Community
Create another section on your resume If you’ve been awarded any grants or fellowships for research projects. Since receiving grant funding is competitive, including this information will showcase your accomplishments to the right people.
To list grants or fellowships, include the institution name, title, the grant or fellowship received, and the project dates. You can also include the amount awarded if you would like.
AWARDS AND HONORS
If you’ve won any awards related to your academic field, include them in a separate section. List the award name, the granting institution, and the date(s) received.
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
If you have experience as a research assistant, list any research projects in this section. Include the research project name, position held, institution name, and dates. Also, include a description of the research and any tasks you participated in on the project.
OTHER RELEVANT INFORMATION
Depending on your experience, there could be other information you’ll want to include in your academic resume or CV. Perhaps you’ve been invited to speak on your area of expertise or participated in conferences or events related to your field of study. If that’s the case, create a separate section to include this information.
REFERENCES
In a traditional resume, you typically don’t include references or make them available upon request. That’s not the case with an academic resume. It’s extremely helpful to include relevant references when trying to land an academic role.
Include the reference’s name, title, mailing address, phone number, and email address.
Related: How To List References On Your Resume
What Should Be Left Off An Academic Resume?
Just because an academic resume or CV is meant to be longer doesn’t mean you need to include every detail of your life. Work and other experience outside of the academic setting are out of place on an academic resume and shouldn’t be included.
Important Job Skills For Academic Resumes
An academic CV typically doesn’t include a skills section. If you end up including one, only include skills that directly apply to your field of study. Here are some academic skills you could include on your resume.
- Analysis
- Collaboration
- Critical thinking
- Design thinking
- Foreign languages
- Information management
- Interpersonal communication
- Leadership
- Oral communication
- Organization
- Peer review
- Planning
- Problem-solving
- Project management
- Public Speaking
- Research
- Scientific writing
- Statistical analysis
- Time management
- Web development
- Written communication
Frequently Asked Questions
How many pages should an academic resume be?
There’s no set length for an academic resume, although typically, they can be several pages or longer.
What are good academic skills?
Important academic skills include research, teamwork, analysis, project management, written and oral communication, and organization.
How do you write academic skills on a CV?
Although an academic CV typically doesn’t include a skills section, you could include this optional section towards the end of your resume. Typically skills are written as a bulleted list.
What should an academic resume include?
A professional academic resume should include a summary, education and work experience, teaching experience, publications, awards and honors, grants and fellowships, references, and other relevant information.
The Bottom Line
Having a professional-looking academic resume is a surefire way to get the right people’s attention when looking for a job in an academic setting. A resume writing service can help If you’re unsure exactly what information to include or how to format your academic resume.
