For further information on Academic Career Advancements support and coaching book a free no-obligation chat with Dr. Loren M Hill at https://theacclivity.com/Consultation
This is Mark Kanty with release dynamics and we’re back again with Dr. Loren Hill and we’re talking about CVs today which is not a very exciting topic. Well we’re going to make it exciting it’s an important topic because your CV could actually be the reason that you’re not getting promoted and I thought this was a great article that I was reading that Dr. Hill had written and a perfect opportunity for us to talk a little bit about this and exactly what needs to happen in that whole formal process because as Dr. Hill outlined for me this one little thing could literally be the difference between being at the top of the pile and being at the bottom of the pile or maybe not being in the pile at all. So something as simple as a CV and it’s really not that simple it’s actually a very very important document. So welcome Dr. Hill thanks so much for being with us again today. Thanks Mark I’m glad to be with you here today talking about CVs. Let me ask you the question straight up, let’s dive right in. What are the key things? Give me the hit list, the top number of things that you think are important… Tell us a little bit about what a CV is and then maybe give us some key points that people need to be aware of so that they can really strengthen the odds of their CV getting noticed and also hopefully helping them get promoted.
Mark I would say that we should start at the beginning and sort of talk about why we are even having a conversation regarding CVs right? Sure over the years you know I’ve reviewed a number of applicants for positions, when I was department chair, when I was faculty on search committees, and what is often part of the application packet is a CV or resume. So people will apply for a position and sometimes they’ll submit a resume when they should be submitting a CV or they’ll submit a CV when they should be submitting a resume so they’re not exactly the same and I think that most of us are familiar with the term resume and fewer of us are familiar with the term CV. So a CV is Latin and it is curriculum vitae and it means the course of life. So what we’re looking for particularly in academia in the U.S is a CV so where have you gone to school, what have been some of your academic accomplishments and what sort of sets you apart from other people. Now I want to just briefly say that resumes are what you typically submit in the general workforce and they tend to be brief, maybe a page or two but CVs tend to be a bit longer and we want to be mindful that when we’re submitting our CV we’re aiming for about five pages or so and when you’re first starting off you probably don’t even have two pages right? But as you continue along your academic career you could have quite a few pages. At this point in my career for all of the things that I list and I do think that you should keep a running document and we’ll come back to that later, but at this point my CV is about 28 pages, my comprehensive CV. So imagine what that’s like to try to pare it down to five right but essentially that’s what we’re looking at. We are looking at the difference between a resume which is very brief and really just has your work history and then a CV which is longer. Fantastic so that that really boggles my mind the idea of a 28 page and Ican see why it’s important to understand this because you know a selection committee can imagine if they had you know 10 50 100 people applying for one position and they all had 28 page cvs that would be a real problem. So great advice on trimming it down and making sure that it’s condensed to no more than five pages; but also what I’ve just learned from this too is this idea that to me it was always resume, resume, resume, and yeah brief. Like if you could do a one page or a front and back the brief for the tighter the better so this idea that no the CV is this longer report and that is more popular, more common and more important in academic circles, oo great great tip.
What other things would you say with us that are common ,maybe mistakes, or things that people need to be thinking of or aware of when they come to you know applying and using their CV? Some things that people don’t do correctly is list their research, their teaching, their fellowships, their grants, their awards, their publications, their professional memberships, and other career-related information. They may just have a few things here or there but if I’m reviewing an application, I want to see all of those areas listed and as I mentioned before, over time you may have something lengthy because you’ve been in the field for longer, but we should be seeing something in most if not all of those areas when you’re applying for a position. Also the CV is highly structured. It should be in chronological order, it should be sectioned off and really formatting matters. We want to be mindful that there aren’t any typos or errors or misspellings and that your dates are correct. You mean people will be forgiving, but you want to really have it edited properly. So obviously what I’m getting here too is how important this document is. It is not something that you just want to whip through and preferably not on your own either.
What if you were thinking of, say somebody that’s looking for advancement and they’ve eyed up a particular institution what do you think happens in terms of or what would be important in terms of communications or questions that they might want to ask prior to submitting or putting a cv together?
We want to be mindful of what we are using the CV for. If you’re applying for a position your CV may be brief, could be the five-page one because that’s what’s going through HR and then ultimately the the committee or the department chair who’s going to be reviewing it, but if you are applying for a promotion in rank, if you are looking to advance in your career, that’s when you want to have the comprehensive. So as I was applying for and submitting my application for assistant to associate professor I had everything in there. The complete CV. The eyes on that from the committee and the department chair, whoever’s reviewing it, they want to look at your body of work versus if you’re applying for a position you just want to let folks know that I’m hitting all the marks and you can cover some of those other things in the interview while you’re speaking. You want to really understand what you are using this for and what are they asking for. So there are times when if you are applying for perhaps an administrative appointment they may want a resume. There are times when you can do a hybrid and it’s important to get some advice on which one you should be using. I’ve worked with a number of clients over the years who are coming from what we call ‘industry’ into academia. They’re professionals and they are looking for an adjunct position or they’re looking for a part-time position. They want to stay in their industry, but they want a teaching position and many of them only have a resume so I have to help them take the pieces of the resume and put it into the cv. And then help them put together a template of what a CV should look like. I also have folks who are in academia who are looking to go into industry or perhaps start their consulting and they need a resume. Academicians are very used to CVs which are detailed and lengthy. As you mentioned earlier you’re used to resumes that are brief, one page maybe two and so helping those folks put together a resume is something that I also work on. What’s coming to my mind is this is a journey I would not want to do alone. I mean there you’ve thrown a lot of things at me and all of a sudden there’s more questions coming up for me. Like what if I don’t know that and what if I don’t know this is definitely a journey or a path that I would want some help with… that I would not want to walk this journey alone or put something like this together and what the heck? Getting an extra set of eyes on things too can really really help enhance the probability of even getting an advancement.
Let me ask you about what you can do for people if somebody’s thinking about an advancement in their academic career whether they’re going for an associate professorship or maybe even a full professorship or any number of positions? Tell us about that Loren and how maybe you could help out?
Some of the ways that I could help out for someone who’s looking for advancement, looking to get into the area, looking to exit, is really just helping them review what they have and make sense of it. You’re somebody who’s looked at countless CVs Loren or you Dr. Hill, have been on search committees. What would you recommend? Is this kind of lining up correctly? Does this look like something that would pass muster or do I really need to work on this? I would say reach out to me! I have opportunities to do a free consultation and if this is a direction that I think we should be moving in then one of the first things I’m going to ask you is to send me your CV or your resume because I have to get my eyes on it to see what’s going on. The other thing that I would say is that even if you’re not thinking about promoting now, let’s talk because part of career advancement strategy is starting wherever you are. It’s never too soon and it’s never too late. So we need to be looking at what you have, what you’ve done over your career. What you plan to do and how we can help you put together your strategy for moving forward. Because at some point I’m hopeful that you will want to apply for that position or maybe you want to change. So putting your profile together and your portfolio is important and you know I wish I would have had somebody to help me early in my career do it but fortunately I had mentors along the way that helped me improve my CV and gave me feedback on it. So I want to let people know that you don’t have to do this by yourself. There’s me here to help you and I’m hoping that you’ll reach out to me. I can be reached at my website which is www.TheAcclivity.com. Fantastic www.TheAcclivity.com and you’ll be able to find Dr. Hill. Obviously I’ve been on the website that Dr. Hill has a contact form on there and it’s very easy to get in touch with her. So are you thinking about promoting to the rank of associate professor or any other rank in academia? Maybe you’re not sure if your CV is ready to include in your promotional portfolio. You know advancing through the ranks at an academic institution can be a difficult process and Dr. Hill knows, she’s been there, she’s been in your shoes, and she knows what happens on the other side. She’s also been a department chair and has reviewed numerous candidates for promotion as part of a selection committee, so you can’t come across a better resource than Dr. Hill to give you a hand. So get in touch with Dr. Hill today. Find out if your CV is ready for promotion. If you’re ready to take that step and other little things that maybe you’re not even considering, that could really improve your odds of getting promoted in academia. Dr. Hill thanks so much once again, any parting comments before we go today? Let’s look at that CV. Fantastic thanks Dr. Hill and we will look forward to seeing you on our next video interview with Dr. Hill as she shares her wisdom on how to get promoted in your academic career thanks so much for joining us today.
For further information on Academic Career Advancements support and coaching book a free no-obligation chat with Dr. Loren M Hill at https://theacclivity.com/Consultation