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MLA -8 : Resume/CV Advice
So for this week's article let’s talk about how to craft an effective CV for Grad School.
Q: Why Do I need a CV?
A: Your CV is a short autobiography (well almost!) which gives a holistic picture of what all
you have done and accomplished in your path towards Grad School. Not all universities ask
specifically for a CV though, but we strongly recommend that you devote sufficient time
towards crafting an effective CV. The reason for that is that your CV will be useful for.
1. Contacting profs.
2. To upload in the "Additional Documents" section of your application in case the school
did not ask for a CV explicitly.
Q: Ok. So what all do I put in my CV?
A: Well, everything you feel a person reading your application ought to know about you.
No, not that you are the lead singer of music club (which may go as a footnote though), but
everything academic that is relevant towards Grad School. Since professors read so
many resumes, they usually look for certain fields in your resume which makes sorting
easier for them (This holds good for jobs as well!). These are some fields which you should
certainly have in your resume.
1. The very first line of your CV MUST be your name (central aligned works well).
2. Contact Information: How can you be contacted? Provide your:
a. Address
b. E-mail ID (FOR SURE!)
c. Phone Number
d. Skype ID (This is a new entrant. If you have interviews, there is a high likelihood
that it will be a Skype interview.
Please keep all your IDs as professional as possible. It’s preferable that you provide an
institutional ID. But, it's ok to give your gmail IDs as long as they aren't on the lines
of [email protected] , [email protected]. Try to keep your last name/surname
in your ID.
3. Objective/Research Interests: This is a one line summary of your major research
interests or in case applying for an internship/job/writing to profs the main objective as to
what you are interested in. This is an optional field though, and you would do just fine if
you didn't have it as well.
4. Education: Very important! Provide details in reverse chronological order. It’s ok to
stop at your 12th Std grades. But go no more into the past than 10th Board exam marks.
Provide your CGPA (xx.yy/10) and Major GPA.
5. Research Experience: If you have experience of working on projects this is going to be
the MOST IMPORTANT part of your CV. Provide:
a. Your position/designation
b. The name of the research institute/university/company.
c. Duration: (ex: Aug 2013-Jun 2014 )
d. Name of your mentor
e. Title of your project (which is easy to read and not a long winding statement)
f. A one-two line succinct summary of your work.
6. Professional Experience: This includes internships and jobs experience(s) (if
applicable). The format for information in this field is pretty much the same as for the
previous field (except that you don’t need to mention your mentor and a title name for your
project in case you don't have one)
NOTE: You may interchange fields 5 and 6 based on what you feel have been more
impactful/relevant/better work.
7. Publications: If any. If you do put in publications, make sure they follow the IEEE
styleguide or any standard styleguide for referring to papers.
8. Teaching Experience: This is again an optional field and would include any
TAships/PAships or other teaching experiences (somewhat relevant to your field) you may
have had.
9. Coursework: Provide course names of only the relevant courses that you did. This is
not necessary if you have enough research/work experience. The importance of this field is
only to give the reader a good idea of your academic background.
10. Skill Set: Again, a VERY IMPORTANT part of your CV. Professors want to see this
clearly. What instruments and lab techniques/professional skills/programming languages
do you already know? This just means they spend less time training you which works for
them! Also, this can be THE distinguishing factor that sets you apart from others in the
pool. Make sure you do not oversell yourself. Saying that you know 10 different
programming languages along with spectrometry and CAD tools for VLSI and
Computational Fluid Dynamics makes it kind of easy to spot a lie!
11. Academic Honors and Achievements: This must come only towards the end of
your CV. Laurels sound nice but your work experience takes priority. Describe all
Scholarships, Fellowships, and Prizes. List in reverse chronological order. Do not go any
earlier than your 12th Std achievements.
11. Extra-curricular activities/leadership positions. If you still have the space, describe
some additional roles and responsibilities and other extra-curricular activities you may
have had. But if there is a space crunch and a section needs to go, it might just have to be
this one. We understand this can be annoying because we do so many extra-curricular
activities at BITS but this section may not be of direct consequence to the success of your
application. Mention it maybe, but limit it.
12. Miscellaneous:
a. Age/Sex/Nationality
b. Languages spoken
c. Other interests (non-academic)
There is no requirement for you to disclose any personal information like your
height/weight. Do not provide a photograph.
Q: If I put so much information, how long should it be? (Is it really an
autobiography!?)
A: Limit your CVs to nothing more than 2 pages. Some universities will have a page limit on
your resume/CV which may be upto 4; but anything more than 2 pages would be futile. A
professor reading your resume spends minutes if not seconds looking at your CV and 2
pages is all you got to leave a mark!
Q. Ok, Got it. Anything else I should know?
A. Yes. Be very clear about the formatting. These are some tips you may find helpful.
1. Font: Try to be professional and legible in your tastes here. We recommend
Verdana, Garamond, Helvetica, or Arial.
2. Font Size: Variation is nice. Play around with font size for the different parts of
your CV. Keep the headings 0.5-1 size higher than the text that follows. Nothing
more than 16 (which you should use only at the very top for your name) and
nothing less than 10 (people have to be able to read your CV!)
3. Margins: If space is an issue, consider using “Narrow Spacing”. Come what may, DO
NOT exceed 2 pages. No one has the time!
4. NO SPELLING MISTAKES EVER ANYWHERE. Think of spelling mistakes as
stammering, on a date with your crush! It is a huge TURN OFF!
Q. Is that all?
A. Well almost. To jazz up your application you can also build your personal website (ex.
google sites) and include the link in your resume. Include more technical details about your
projects/internships/work ex/publications etc in your website. You can find some good
examples online as well.
But make sure you give your CV its due importance. Get it reviewed by friends, mentors,
colleagues and even profs. Make sure it looks elegant, makes logical sense and well FITS
within 2 pages!
Once you have your final draft make sure you ALWAYS CONVERT TO PDF before sending
it out
So get cracking on this and do write to us to give feedback, suggest improvements or share
any interesting ideas you have regarding this group!