CV formats?

[solar3000]

A week ago i spoke with an advisor ( who didn't major in psychology) and showed him my "CV" so he can critique it.
Well, he looked at it, told me it was "Too wordy, too long" my cv is 2 pages long with a good two paragraphs for every job i've had.
I told him my reasons ( I'm looking for a job as a RA so I can get Research exp). I am not sure, but it seemed as though he didn't understand this. He said I have to write my cv as a resume instead.....
The only good feed back I felt he gave was to write my cv with bullet points and make it shorter so I can get people's attention.

I am having a hard time deciding what to put on my CV. I have:
RA exp as a volunteer and as a job
been to a couple of conferences to talk informally with professors
graduated with a BA psych.
leadership experience with a job


I am worried because most cv's I've seen have: awards, pubs, grants...etc..

Anyone has any ideas, examples, sites to check out for advise? what works/doesn't for a recent U grad like myself?

thanks..

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[erg923]

CV and resume are totally differrnt things. All relevant experience should be on a CV, especially a student or aspiring doctoral applicant. Some faculty I know have CVs 10-15 pages long depending on the amount of pubs they have. I think with all my experiences, my CV is now at 7-8 pages.

 

[psychanon]

On the one hand, for most academic jobs (even early ones like BA-level RA jobs and applying to grad school) you should use the CV format and list all your relevant experience, and CVs don't have a page limit. On the other hand, you really don't need put two paragraphs for each research experience, so your advisor is probably right about the wordiness. Whether CV or resume, conciseness is important. If you don't have enough experience to fill up more than a page with concise descriptions, you could be better off sending a resume rather than CV. At your stage, you're really not expected to have a ton of experience, so it's totally OK to have something kind of short. The shift to CV really happens when you no longer can summarize yourself in a page or less without leaving off really important stuff like publications and grants.

PS- leave off stuff like informal conversations at conferences. That's not really resume-worthy. You can certainly put your conference presentations or memberships to professional organizations, or if you're really hurting for stuff I guess you could put that you attended a conference, but even that is a stretch.

 

[ohyeahright]

delete

 

[Ollie123]

I definitely wouldn't put anything about talking to people at a conference. Definitely not worth putting on there. You can put "Professional affiliations" if you want to list your organization memberships.

You shouldn't be writing in paragraphs to begin with, that's an enormous job application no-no. Short and concise, e.g.
- Entered and checked data
- Scored psychophysiological data (heart rate, skin conductance, startle response)
- Interviewed participants about alcohol use

etc.

In other words, something they can glance at rather than "read".

Its fine for it to be one page now. For senior faculty, it can get very, very long. Even the 10-15 pages mentioned earlier is probably on the shorter side for senior faculty - I've seen plenty that top out over 50 pages. Obviously those are people that have been publishing like crazy for 30 years, not undergrad research assistants

 

[solar3000]

hey everyone. I really appreciate your help. It does help to read what you guys have to say. I went ahead and did what you guys suggested.

one more question, I worked as an interpreter for different hospitals in the area. I basically interpreted for the doctor and patient.

Is this job something I should post on my CV? if so under under what category would it be? how would I label this job? "internships, clinical experience??" who knows..

Anyway,any suggestions would be appreciated!!!!