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[biopostdoc]

I am a postdoc in Biology and I have been working on my CV lately. I have a couple of content questions that haven't been addressed on this thread.

1. I have seen lots of CV's that list professional societies you belong to as well as journals you have reviewed for. Is that reasonable or filler?
2. Should I include my thesis and dissertation titles as well as the name of my advisor or just the degree, place, date?
3. How many presentations should I include? I have kept in my CV 6 of my most recent presentations under the heading "selected presentations" so I don't have to list all 25 and add an extra 1.5 pages. Would it be better to go long and include them all? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Kathryn

[case_insensitive]

I am a postdoc in Biology and I have been working on my CV lately. I have a couple of content questions that haven't been addressed on this thread.

1. I have seen lots of CV's that list professional societies you belong to as well as journals you have reviewed for. Is that reasonable or filler?

Reasonable, dates are also helpful on such things (i.e. if you reviewed for the Journal of Pignosed Dogs in 1998... listing it now looks like you have done it recently, so put dates where appropriate)

2. Should I include my thesis and dissertation titles as well as the name of my advisor or just the degree, place, date?

Depends on how long ago you earned the degrees.  If recent, include all the detail. If you have moved on into publishing articles or books (whichever is appropriate for your field) then the title of the dissertation (and even less so the thesis) isn't very important.  I haven't included mine in years, and certainly not my advisor.  But... depends on how recent these events are.

3. How many presentations should I include? I have kept in my CV 6 of my most recent presentations under the heading "selected presentations" so I don't have to list all 25 and add an extra 1.5 pages. Would it be better to go long and include them all?

Go long and include them all. Be as brief as you can with each item and still get all the relevant info.  Having 1.5 pages of presentations is not a bad thing.  A CV is not a resume, so you are not summarizing to make it short as a purpose in life. You are showing the depth and breath of your knowledge and experience.

Just my two cents. I'm not in biology...

[mango]

I think it's kind of upsetting that a university committee looking for professors is so concerned about age. OP, I hope your committee knows that it's illegal to discriminate against age in the United States....and that is usually the reason people leave off all the pertinent age related hints. It's nobodies business.

So maybe you should quit worrying about it so much? What country are you in? I know in Europe it's really important for new professors to be young, but in the US I think if you have a strong work history and a PhD, you can probably be a professor at any age (provided health allows it). In the US, what college student would respect a mid to late 20 something new professor with little work experience, however youthful they are? Seriously. As a graduate student I have had little respect for professors I knew had no work experience and had just finished school. Furthermore, it's important that professors remain connected to the outside world and they usually gain these connections before they start a teaching profession.

My age is still relatively young, but I think it's kind of insulting that the OP has pointed out "the age question" so immediately in their post.

[athena1]

3. How many presentations should I include? I have kept in my CV 6 of my most recent presentations under the heading "selected presentations" so I don't have to list all 25 and add an extra 1.5 pages. Would it be better to go long and include them all?

Go long and include them all. Be as brief as you can with each item and still get all the relevant info.  Having 1.5 pages of presentations is not a bad thing.  A CV is not a resume, so you are not summarizing to make it short as a purpose in life. You are showing the depth and breath of your knowledge and experience.

Yes, I've seen CVs 60-90 pp long, mostly pubs and presentations. Every one listed from the 70s on up.

[joey_fan]

I'm not taking issue with your post (I think it brings up valid points), I'm just curious about this bit:

I know in Europe it's really important for new professors to be young, but ...

Do you mean Europeans prefer their new profs to be young? Or is there some sort of policy that mandates they be of a certain age? (I don't have experience with the European system.)

[rodentmind]

I am a postdoc in Biology and I have been working on my CV lately. I have a couple of content questions that haven't been addressed on this thread.

1. I have seen lots of CV's that list professional societies you belong to as well as journals you have reviewed for. Is that reasonable or filler?
2. Should I include my thesis and dissertation titles as well as the name of my advisor or just the degree, place, date?
3. How many presentations should I include? I have kept in my CV 6 of my most recent presentations under the heading "selected presentations" so I don't have to list all 25 and add an extra 1.5 pages. Would it be better to go long and include them all? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Kathryn

Hi...you should use the search function to locate some applicable threads in the Job Search Experiences section of the forum. If your specific Qs haven't already been answered, you will get more advice by starting a new topic than posting this here,  in this thread...

[anthroid]

I think it's kind of upsetting that a university committee looking for professors is so concerned about age. OP, I hope your committee knows that it's illegal to discriminate against age in the United States....and that is usually the reason people leave off all the pertinent age related hints. It's nobodies business.

So maybe you should quit worrying about it so much? What country are you in? I know in Europe it's really important for new professors to be young, but in the US I think if you have a strong work history and a PhD, you can probably be a professor at any age (provided health allows it). In the US, what college student would respect a mid to late 20 something new professor with little work experience, however youthful they are? Seriously. As a graduate student I have had little respect for professors I knew had no work experience and had just finished school. Furthermore, it's important that professors remain connected to the outside world and they usually gain these connections before they start a teaching profession.

My age is still relatively young, but I think it's kind of insulting that the OP has pointed out "the age question" so immediately in their post.

I am not the OP.  But really, mango, read the thread.  OP has no intention of discriminating against older people.  In fact, that was part of the point:  in some ways many of us who are hiring want folks with experience, and, in the OP's field, professional non-academic experience is almost a requirement for a successful job candidate for OP. 

You have not been insulted by the OP.  You didn't read the original post, or the thread, very carefully at all.  You will have serious problems in your graduate program if you continue to be so sloppy in your reading habits, so I'd suggest taking a little more care with comprehension.

I am a postdoc in Biology and I have been working on my CV lately. I have a couple of content questions that haven't been addressed on this thread.

1. I have seen lots of CV's that list professional societies you belong to as well as journals you have reviewed for. Is that reasonable or filler?
2. Should I include my thesis and dissertation titles as well as the name of my advisor or just the degree, place, date?
3. How many presentations should I include? I have kept in my CV 6 of my most recent presentations under the heading "selected presentations" so I don't have to list all 25 and add an extra 1.5 pages. Would it be better to go long and include them all? Thanks in advance for any advice.

Kathryn

Yes, professional societies are a good idea (in my field of anthropology).  List them toward the end.  If you are currently reviewing for journals, yes, put that in, but I wouldn't list every single journal if you only did it for a short time.  I personally continue to list my thesis and dissertation titles even though it's over 10 years since I took my Ph.D., as they give information on my interests and expertise in addition to my publications list.  I never have listed my advisor.  I'd list all publications and presentations as long as they are serious ones (not "How to make origami paper clips" for the First Church of What's Happening Now).

[case_insensitive]

I think it's kind of upsetting that a university committee looking for professors is so concerned about age. OP, I hope your committee knows that it's illegal to discriminate against age in the United States....and that is usually the reason people leave off all the pertinent age related hints. It's nobodies business.

So maybe you should quit worrying about it so much? What country are you in? I know in Europe it's really important for new professors to be young, but in the US I think if you have a strong work history and a PhD, you can probably be a professor at any age (provided health allows it). In the US, what college student would respect a mid to late 20 something new professor with little work experience, however youthful they are? Seriously. As a graduate student I have had little respect for professors I knew had no work experience and had just finished school. Furthermore, it's important that professors remain connected to the outside world and they usually gain these connections before they start a teaching profession.

My age is still relatively young, but I think it's kind of insulting that the OP has pointed out "the age question" so immediately in their post.

Maybe you should read the thread. :o)

I am the OP and the original post wasn't at all related to age.  It was about errors of omission and comission in CVs (thus the title).

[leornigcniht]

Sorry, I've had good luck not listing the dates of my BA (1978) - age 33 and MA (1982) - age 37.  I DO list my PhD date (1996) - age 51.  The purpose of this is precisely to disguise my age and get me an interview, which it has a number of times. 

I don't about luck yet, but I'm in a similar boat. BA in 1981, age 22, MA in 2001, age 38, PhD in process, but hopefully before I turn 45.  I've been advised from our placement officer as well as other PhD jobholding type folk NOT to put the dates of the degrees on. and NOT to list 14 years worth of non-academic employment unless it applies to the position in some way.

[leornigcniht]

I'm glad it's worked for you. However, I feel that a candidate who is trying to hide things is... trying to hide things.  Makes me much less interested.  Though the PhD year is most relevant, the years of degrees along with the dates of employment give an idea of the applicant's working and intellectual development.  Big holes or unknowns are generally a red flag (applicants who know they have red flags, can, of course, combat that with more pertinent info).

Why is "hiding things" not to mention it?  Does the hiring committee really want to know about my years on fishing boats?  Or at the height of Reagan's America and with little other job experience that I spent a year flipping burgers?  My 6 years in public and academic libraries might be more important to list, but then it draws attention to the 8 year gap of doing other things and isn't usually DIRECTLY related to the position.   I don't know, I would hope that the decision whether or not to interview me would result from my CV and my letters of reference, THEN ask me about my non-academic background.  I realize that this might be different for a 30 year old coming out of PhD programs who have little non-academic experience.

Further, without unnecessary padding, I already have a 5 page CV, add 14 years of other job experiences and I've made it 7.  Folk on these boards already have said that they tend to discount any CV from a newly minted PhD longer than a page or 2.  So adding what I deem, and I think you will too, unnecessary information seems counter productive at least in my case.

[betterslac]

I don't about luck yet, but I'm in a similar boat. BA in 1981, age 22, MA in 2001, age 38,

Must be nice to live 20 years and only age 16!

[case_insensitive]

I'm glad it's worked for you. However, I feel that a candidate who is trying to hide things is... trying to hide things.  Makes me much less interested.  Though the PhD year is most relevant, the years of degrees along with the dates of employment give an idea of the applicant's working and intellectual development.  Big holes or unknowns are generally a red flag (applicants who know they have red flags, can, of course, combat that with more pertinent info).

Why is "hiding things" not to mention it?  Does the hiring committee really want to know about my years on fishing boats?  Or at the height of Reagan's America and with little other job experience that I spent a year flipping burgers?  My 6 years in public and academic libraries might be more important to list, but then it draws attention to the 8 year gap of doing other things and isn't usually DIRECTLY related to the position.   I don't know, I would hope that the decision whether or not to interview me would result from my CV and my letters of reference, THEN ask me about my non-academic background.  I realize that this might be different for a 30 year old coming out of PhD programs who have little non-academic experience.

Further, without unnecessary padding, I already have a 5 page CV, add 14 years of other job experiences and I've made it 7.  Folk on these boards already have said that they tend to discount any CV from a newly minted PhD longer than a page or 2.  So adding what I deem, and I think you will too, unnecessary information seems counter productive at least in my case.

As I've said previously, in my field, we really do care about your non-academic work experience (if you have some).  So, leaving it off is weird in my field.  I would never discount a CV based on its length and  I've never heard of anyone else doing that in my field.   A newly minted PhD (in my field) with only a one page CV better be very young and have gone straight through school.

Your case may be very different from the case of a job applicant in my field, of course.  Different fields value different things and have differing norms.

Ps. You can list 14 years of job experiences in one page if you are brief. :o)

If I may cite the ever useful and never authoritative Wikipedia: "In the United States, a CV is expected to include a comprehensive listing of professional history including every term of employment, academic credential, publication, contribution or significant achievement. In certain professions, it may even include samples of the person's work and may run to many pages."

[leornigcniht]

I don't about luck yet, but I'm in a similar boat. BA in 1981, age 22, MA in 2001, age 38,

Must be nice to live 20 years and only age 16!

Indeed, and always worth proof reading even posts to fora!  BA started in 1981, finished in 1985 at age 22.

[betterslac]

Quote
I don't about luck yet, but I'm in a similar boat. BA in 1981, age 22, MA in 2001, age 38,

Must be nice to live 20 years and only age 16!

Indeed, and always worth proof reading even posts to fora!  BA started in 1981, finished in 1985 at age 22.

Darn, I was hoping you had a secret elixir you could share!

[losemygrip]

A curriculum vitae, by definition, should include everything.  (Somebody who knows Latin--what's the exact meaning?  something about life . . . .)  It's no a resume.  List ALL your presentations if they are significant (at professional conferences, invited lectures).  Not stuff like guest lecturing in someone's class.  Everything should be on there so that there's no question about what you've been doing.  If you've left the field for a while, you don't need to put your non-pertinent employment, but you might mention in your letter that you were employed outside the field from xxxx-yyyy.

There are lots of ways to keep your impressive accomplishments from taking up 25 pages.  For instance, for presentations just give title, conference, and city.  And date, of course.  No session title, no chair, no other info.  If you've received the same award more than once, list all the dates and do it on one line.  Fiddle with fonts.  Garamond, for instance, takes up much less space than most serif fonts.  And remains legible.