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[hollow_man]

Ok, folks.  I'm gonna throw out this line, what the heck...

Was on a panel for a conference.  Presented my paper, but ended up also "chairing" the panel as the panel chair never showed.  There was no contact with the panel chair before or since, from either end, though there was of course contact with the larger organizers who were informed. 

Classifying as "chairing" experience -- "officially" yay or nay?

I think I know the answer, I'm just gonna see if I can attract some crazy fish...  ;-)

If you were specifically invited by the conference organizers, I see no reason not to include it under "Professional Service."   But it's not going to make a difference, I predict.

--Crazy Fish

[jammer]

I wouldn't.  I don't know what your conferences are like, but in my social science discipline, all chairing entails is being able to read your watch and passing a note down the table that the presenter has two minutes left.  Not much to brag about, really.

If you are at a school where this actually counts for something, you still can't prove it.  You're not on the program.

[mended_drum]

Generally, I'd including organizing a session or panel, but not chairing one.  If you gave a paper, that's best in any case.

[westcoastgirl]

Given that I've been perusing CVs of applicants to our open positions... I've noticed some really stupid things on CVs.  So, here those of us who are older and wiser, or at least looking at many applicant CVs and seeing obvious problems, can share with those on the job market: What not do do...

Some suggested don'ts...

• Do not omit dates from your degrees. Do you think the search committee isn't going to find this stuff out? If you omit, it calls attention to it and makes the committee wonder... don't make the committee wonder unnecessarily.
• Do not include lots of detail for unrelated non-academic employment. Yes, list it, especially if it fills in a timeline to show what you were up to.  But, just the organization, job title, and dates are enough for most non-academic unrelated employment.
• Do not include details that scream Conceited! to the committee. No one cares of you are a member of mensa (do you know what that means in Spanish?).  No one cares what your GRE or GMAT scores were when you are applying for an academic job. No one cares what a high percentile rank you achieved in much of anything.  In fact, your GPA in  your PhD program is pretty irrelevant.  Summa cum laude, magna cum laude, and cum laude only apply to your undergraduate degree.  Period.
• Do not forget to run the spellcheck.  Search committees are pretty forgiving of the occasional typo that isn't easy to catch. But, typos that the spellcheck can easily check are a sign of real sloppiness.  Mispelling the name of something important, such as a heading or the name of journal, is also a big no-no.
• Do not provide incomplete information.  For example, do not mention teaching evaluations at a school that isn't listed in your employment or educational sections. That's a red flag. Don't leave the search committee with more questions about you than good feelings about your accomplishments and abilities.
• Do not send your CV out until you've had a few other folks look it over. Likely people include your dissertation advisor, a couple of colleagues, someone who has good English skills but isn't necessarily knowledgeable about your field, etc.

Anyone want to add?

Thanks for this. I'm going to apply a couple of these to my C.V. I'm omitting my PhD program G.P.A. And, I need some other folks to look it over.

[walkingtree]

My CV is 2-3 pages in length and my colleague's is over 8 pages. We are pretty much at the same level, finished at the same time, won similar awards, and similar number of publications. I was advised to keep things concise and didn't list unpublished articles or articles in preparation. Now, which one reflects better in professional domain? He didn't make up anything, but I don't know how he could fill 8 pages as a recent graduate. Does it make him seem more productive?

[systeme_d_]

No, it makes him seem like he has not been taught how to write a CV, and has not been properly socialized into how academia works. 

There is absolutely no excuse for someone just out of grad school to have an 8 page CV. 

(And incidentally, Westcoastgirl, your decision to remove your GPA is very well taken.  That doesn't belong on your CV.  It's pretty much assumed that you have a 4.0 or thereabouts, or else you wouldn't have finished grad school.)

[anon99]

(And incidentally, Westcoastgirl, your decision to remove your GPA is very well taken.  That doesn't belong on your CV.  It's pretty much assumed that you have a 4.0 or thereabouts, or else you wouldn't have finished grad school.)

I agree that GPA doesn't need to be on the CV, but I wouldn't assume that people finishing their PhD would have a 4.0 GPA.

[monsterx]

I wouldn't.  I don't know what your conferences are like, but in my social science discipline, all chairing entails is being able to read your watch and passing a note down the table that the presenter has two minutes left.  Not much to brag about, really.

If you are at a school where this actually counts for something, you still can't prove it.  You're not on the program.

Actually, this seems to be more than some people can handle - I can't count the number of times I've seen a chair let a speaker go on too long...

[westcoastgirl]

No, it makes him seem like he has not been taught how to write a CV, and has not been properly socialized into how academia works. 

There is absolutely no excuse for someone just out of grad school to have an 8 page CV. 

(And incidentally, Westcoastgirl, your decision to remove your GPA is very well taken.  That doesn't belong on your CV.  It's pretty much assumed that you have a 4.0 or thereabouts, or else you wouldn't have finished grad school.)

True. True. My poor husband (who is superman in all other senses of productivity, etc.) is the only person I know who received a B in coursework. At first this worried him until we realized that not one person has asked for his transcripts.

[westcoastgirl]

(And incidentally, Westcoastgirl, your decision to remove your GPA is very well taken.  That doesn't belong on your CV.  It's pretty much assumed that you have a 4.0 or thereabouts, or else you wouldn't have finished grad school.)

I agree that GPA doesn't need to be on the CV, but I wouldn't assume that people finishing their PhD would have a 4.0 GPA.

Really? In our program, most people have all As. It's the humanities. I wouldn't assume the same to be true in science.

[scampster]

(And incidentally, Westcoastgirl, your decision to remove your GPA is very well taken.  That doesn't belong on your CV.  It's pretty much assumed that you have a 4.0 or thereabouts, or else you wouldn't have finished grad school.)

I agree that GPA doesn't need to be on the CV, but I wouldn't assume that people finishing their PhD would have a 4.0 GPA.

Really? In our program, most people have all As. It's the humanities. I wouldn't assume the same to be true in science.

It's mostly the same in the sciences. I have one rogue A- on my grad transcript. My undergrad transcript on the other hand is littered with unsavory blemishes :-)

[anon99]

(And incidentally, Westcoastgirl, your decision to remove your GPA is very well taken.  That doesn't belong on your CV.  It's pretty much assumed that you have a 4.0 or thereabouts, or else you wouldn't have finished grad school.)

I agree that GPA doesn't need to be on the CV, but I wouldn't assume that people finishing their PhD would have a 4.0 GPA.

Really? In our program, most people have all As. It's the humanities. I wouldn't assume the same to be true in science.

It's mostly the same in the sciences. I have one rogue A- on my grad transcript. My undergrad transcript on the other hand is littered with unsavory blemishes :-)

Okay I see where the difference is, but in the sciences there are still students who get a B (or more likely a B+) on their grad courses.  I was thinking overall GPA, not just grad courses.

[scampster]

Since this thread has been revived recently, I figured I would ask here instead of starting a new thread. Would you put declined fellowships on your CV under honors/awards? Right now I don't have the postdoc fellowship I declined on my CV anywhere (it was from NSF, so nationally competitive, not institution specific). It was just a random thought that maybe I should have it somewhere and I have seen other people do that, but I didn't know if it looked lame.

[greyscale]

Since this thread has been revived recently, I figured I would ask here instead of starting a new thread. Would you put declined fellowships on your CV under honors/awards? Right now I don't have the postdoc fellowship I declined on my CV anywhere (it was from NSF, so nationally competitive, not institution specific). It was just a random thought that maybe I should have it somewhere and I have seen other people do that, but I didn't know if it looked lame.

I do list a declined fellowship under Honors (noted as declined). My advisors (grad and postdoc) both said I should do so. In biology at least, it seems quite common to list declined fellowships.

[lahainalulu]

I'm in biology, and I've wondered whether to list a declined postdoc fellowship on my CV.  The advice I received from my postdoc advisor was not to do so, in part because it cannot be easily verified.  Instead, my advisor mentioned in his reference letters for me that I was highly successful in obtaining external funding and suggested I include a similar sentence in my cover letter and research statement.