Writing CVs, Cover Letters, and other Academic Job Market Materials
CV Writing
Please read the following resources as you prepare your draft CV. Where there are excerpts from lengthier documents, the original has been included as an optional resource for your convenience.
Meant to stimulate awareness of important elements in a CV. This checklist is not designed to be comprehensive, nor to exclude regional and disciplinary variations. Think of it as a tool to help you think through what elements you will include in your CV.
- From MIT Career Advising & Professional Development:
This is a good starting point with an overview, formatting guidelines, and additional tips on preparing CVs.
- Excerpt from "CVs and Cover Letters," a guide from Harvard College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Office of Career Services:
In addition to presenting a brief intro as in the resource above, this excerpt is beneficial in providing a list of action verbs to use on your CV, especially in the bullet points you will want to include to highlight your achievements and the value of your experience. This resource also contains example CVs with annotations explaining the rationale behind different ways of presenting information. This will help you get a sense of what you need to do to customize your CV for different positions and to bring out your unique background and strengths.
See the full guide on the Harvard website here.
- Excerpts from "Pursuing Meaningful Work," a guide from Stanford Career Education:
Another presentation of much of the same information in the resources above. It's beneficial to see a few different presentations of the same information. These excerpts include a CV template you can use to aid in putting together your own drafts. It also contains additional samples, an overview, and more tips.
See the full guide on the Stanford website here.
- From Cornell University Graduate School:
The focus here is on comparing the differences between a CV and a résumé. The latter, which is usually the requirement for industry jobs, will be the focus of a workshop in a future series, but it is good to become aware of the differences early on. Be mindful of these differences when looking at different samples on the internet.
- From “Strategies for Obtaining a Faculty Position in the Biomedical Sciences:
Views from Both Sides of the Job Search Process,” (Snapp, 2016, p. 11). Recommended by The Career Navigator Network at Harvard Medical School.
"Prepare your CV" and "Important Tips," p. 11
A more personal view from a longer guide on a job search for a position in biomedical sciences. Most of the points here are relevant for other disciplines, too, but it is smart to pay attention to any disciplinary variations in conventions. Look at a wide range of CV samples from the discipline you are targeting in your search.
See the full guide here.
- Jobs in Science & Technology from Science Careers (link here)
A job listing and resource page from the journal Science. Job descriptions are listed by discipline in the center of the page and by region in the lower right portion of the page. Be sure to expand the list by clicking on "More Jobs >." Also, be sure to sign up for their job alert, which you can also do from this page. Job alerts like this are a great way to keep focused on new positions that are opening up. It's wise to browse job descriptions from time to time, even when you are not conducting an aggressive job search, to maintain your awareness of what skills are in demand.
Cover Letters
Please read the following resources as you prepare your draft cover letter. Where there are excerpts from lengthier documents, the original has been included as an optional resource for your convenience.
Meant to stimulate awareness of important elements in a cover letter. This checklist is not designed to be comprehensive, nor to exclude regional and disciplinary variations. Think of it as a tool to help you think through what elements you will include in your cover letter.
- From MIT Career Advising & Professional Development:
"How to write an effective cover letter (with samples)"
This is a good starting point given its concision, but please note that the sample used here is from an undergraduate cover letter targeting an industry job, not an academic job.
- Excerpt from "CVs and Cover Letters," a guide from Harvard College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Office of Career Services:
“Cover Letter Template,” p. 21, through the annotated examples of cover letters ending on p. 23
Provides a concise template as well as a couple more examples. Once again, however, note that the examples are not for academic research positions per se, but rather for other positions in academia. Much of the guide has valuable information on CVs and other good information pertaining to pursuing jobs. The pages on CVs were highlighted in the CV section above.
(Optional) See the full guide on the Harvard website here.
- Excerpts from "Pursuing Meaningful Work," a guide from Stanford Career Education:
A cover letter template and three samples, this time authentic samples for academic positions: the first a postdoc position and the second two assistant professor positions. The full guide provides extensive and excellent advice on industry positions as well as academic positions. The advice ranges over CVs, cover letters, and other application materials, in addition to LinkedIn profiles.
(Optional) See the full guide on the Stanford website here.
Research Statements
Please read the following resources as you prepare your draft research statement. Where there are excerpts from lengthier documents, the original has been included as an optional resource for your convenience.
"Research Statement Checklist"
Meant to stimulate awareness of important elements in a research statement. This checklist is not designed to be comprehensive, nor to exclude regional and disciplinary variations. Think of it as a tool to help you think through what elements you will include in your research statement.
- From Cornell University Graduate School Office of Career and Professional Development:
This well-developed webpage describes and defines what a research statement is before taking the reader step-by-step through each section. Works like a research statement template. It also includes many tips related to formatting and style.
- From University of Pennsylvania Career Services:
“Research Statements for Faculty Job Applications"
Similar to the Cornell page above but is a bit more concise. It's always good to see the same information restated in different ways.
- Excerpt from "Pursuing Meaningful Work," a guide from Standford Career Education:
A single page overview of the research statement with several helpful "questions to consider." The full guide provides extensive and excellent advice on industry positions as well as academic positions. The advice ranges over CVs, cover letters, and other application materials, in addition to LinkedIn profiles.
(Optional) See the full guide on the Stanford website here.
Teaching Statements
Please read the following resources ahead of the workshop and as you prepare your draft teaching statement. Where there are excerpts from lengthier documents, the original has been included as an optional resource for your convenience.
- Excerpt from "Pursuing Meaningful Work," a guide from Standford Career Education:
A single page overview of the teaching statement and teaching portfolio with several helpful "questions to consider." The full guide provides extensive and excellent advice on industry positions as well as academic positions. The advice ranges over CVs, cover letters, and other application materials, in addition to LinkedIn profiles.
(Optional) See the full guide on the Stanford website here.
- From Cornell University Graduate School Office of Career and Professional Development:
"Teaching Philosophy Statement"
This well-developed webpage describes and defines what a teaching statement is before taking the reader step-by-step through each section. Includes a helpful set of “dos and don’ts,” and many links to additional resources on teaching statements.
- From MIT’s Teaching and Learning Lab:
“Teaching Philosophy Statements”
Similar to the Cornell page above, but with additional pointers on format and style. It's always good to see the same information restated in different ways.
- From University of Minnesota’s Center for Educational Innovation:
“Writing Your Teaching Philosophy”
This page is especially helpful for the sample rubrics it provides that will help you assess the quality of your own teaching statement. The page also includes a few sample teaching statements.
- From University of Michigan’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching:
“Teaching Philosophies from U-M Your”
This page is based around the rubric that the University of Michigan’s Center for Research on Learning and Teaching has devised to evaluate the quality of teaching statements. There are many samples classified by discipline that each are considered excellent in one of the criteria on the rubric.
Diversity Statements
Please read the following resources as you prepare your draft diversity statement.
These resources from university professional development sites define the purpose and scope of diversity statements, with templates that can be used when deciding what to include in your own statement. Many of these links also contain samples of diversity statements from successful candidates. There is advice about what faculty hiring committees expect, what common errors to avoid, as well as helpful pointers about the writing process.
- "Diversity Statements," from the Center for Career Development at Princeton University
(link here)
- “Diversity statements for faculty job applications,” from Career Services at UPenn
(link here)
- “Developing and Writing a Diversity Statement,” from the Center for Teaching at Vanderbilt
(link here)
- “Six Examples of Submitted Diversity Statements,” from the School of Physical Sciences at UC San Diego
(link here)
- “GRAD Guide to Diversity Statements,” from UChicagoGrad at University of Chicago
(link here)