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[paradajs_i_paprika]

I have what I think is a somewhat unusual situation, and I'm mainly looking for opinions on my CV.  I also have a specific question about including  a particular comment in my personal statement.

My graduate school goals: I'm applying to four programs, two in international Affairs with a communications/media concentration, and two in International Public Service / Non-Profit Management.  I'll summarize my career goals here as "working for or with an organization that supports or strengthens independent media in developing or transition countries."

My background: BA in Sociology (2002) with distinction, 3.9 GPA, and work experience (and basic certification course in) teaching English as a foreign language in Sarajevo and two other cities in Eastern Europe.  I've done freelance proofreading work for NGO's and sought out internships in Sarajevo (mostly informal ones with smaller NGO's as organizations like Unicef tend to want current graduate students or people with specific professional qualifications and not English teachers).

Application so far: I have my letters (1 from a former professor, 1 from a Bosnian/Canadian internship supervisor, 1 from a supervisor of a recent independent project I did who is a professor but who knows me only from that project); GRE scores of 620 Verbal, 750 Quantitative, statement/s of purpose I've been working on and have confidence will be at least "good".

The complications as I see them:
- Teaching English is a great way to gain overseas work experience in order to decide whether a graduate degree with an international focus is the next step.  Many people outside the field (and unfortunately some in it and some language schools employers) regard it as kind of a throw-away job.
- I have moved around a lot.  I also have gaps in my CV where I traveled, or came back to the US for Christmas and worked in a bookstore, etc.
- I'm intelligent, I think I can articulate my goals and strengths well, but as an undergrad, I was not thinking about graduate school at all.  My school was a mediocre state school and I worked 20-30 hours a week throughout (in retail, assistant manager, etc.; I'm not putting it on my CV for grad school).  I got good grades, I wrote a 20-page paper on a theme relevant to what I want to study now, but I didn't get involved beyond doing the work well and going to class.
- If I can say so, the experience and insight I've gained from doing things my own way, traveling independently, etc. is fairly rare and has been infinitely useful in helping me gain a unique perspective of international aid and so on.  It has also helped me clarify my goals.  I wouldn't go so far as to say "in retrospect I shouldn't have done it", but I do realize that many people at first glance will not see it as positive.

My questions:

Generally speaking - because I'm not posting my CV - would you advise erring on the side of avoiding gaps (and so include more jobs of a shorter duration) or on the side of avoiding a string of short term jobs?  I've been doing different freelance projects for three years but is that going to be a hard sell?

My thought so far has been to focus on the positive and describe how my experiences have helped me define my goals and the skills I've gained.  Is it unwise to try and address (in a much more formal way) : I did well in school but could have done better by getting more involved, I think my experience abroad was great, but, yeah, that trip to India with my boyfriend at the time, even with a month of volunteering, may not have been the best way to spend five months.  I realize that now.

I can address what I gained from some of the experiences I've had in the past five yeas in the statement but certainly not all of them.

I'm sorry this is so long. I've been reading these forums for a while and have found them useful. Thanks for reading - please be nice, but I'd appreciate any comments even if they are not exactly answers to my questions.

[dr_prephd]

Wow, that's a lot of information.

I worked 30+ hours a week as an undergrad. as well, had a mediocre gpa, and wasn't significantly involved in campus life. I used a few years after undergrad. to get some valuable experiences, and now I'm at a top-20 RU / VH (my program is top-10).

The transition can be made; but you need to reign in your writing much like you need to reign in your travel. Give it a purpose and make it clear. Don't make the admissions committe try to piece together every little thing you've done. They won't do it. Play up your international public service and fill out those gaps with something. 

[polly_mer]

I have to second Prephd, don't inundate the admissions committee with every detail.

Are you aware that you don't have to have a chronological CV?  It sounds like you would be much better off with a CV that is organized by activity.  Foreign travel and overseas work should be great qualifications for entry into an international studies program.  Nobody cares about that month you spent working at the bookstore, but they would love to read that you have done some teaching in various places and spent time living abroad.  For the freelancing, just put down that category along with a couple of sentences describing what that means.

Don't worry about your undergraduate activities.  You have moved on since then and done things that indicate you are serious about international affairs.  It sounds to me like you should be in fine shape as long as you don't get distracted and start apologizing for being young and stupid years ago.  Focus on your strengths and why you are an excellent fit for the programs to which you are applying.

Good luck!

[dr_stones]

"rein," not "reign"  BTW.

Dr_Stones, AKA "Pedant."

[dr_prephd]

"rein," not "reign"  BTW.

Dr_Stones, AKA "Pedant."

Unless used as a verb meaning "to control." Hell, it could work, I guess.

Thanks for being so aware.

[miss_m]

OP,

First, as polly_mer pointed out, a CV is not just a resume used by academics.  Have you checked out the CV Doctor here at the Chron?  Many of the samples I have seen won't look like yours, but you can get a better idea of what CVs tend to look like.  (Bookstore work, for example, doesn't seem to have anything to do with your field, so I don't understand what it would be doing on a CV.)  You might also look at some of the other recent CV threads in this forum.  A couple of them suggest possible section heads.

Now, as for personal statements, it is rarely advisable to point to things readers might view as negatives but won't necessarily.  How, for example, would they know you traveled to India with your boyfriend?  Those details shouldn't appear in anything you send with the app, so they wouldn't know to "read" your experiences that way unless you told them.  I have only ever seen a few statements where students knew certain questions would arise from their materials and addresses them--but not just as "I have learned from this" but more in the "value" arena.  Your job in the statement is to provide them a way of reading you as a potential student.  Do your homework on the programs, show that in the statement, and otherwise be clear with them about what you want to do and why.

Finally, if you haven't shown your CV/statement to any of your recommenders, I suggest you try it.  Otherwise, you might ask a friend who is farther along in your field OR the career center at your alma mater.  These are all people and places who are supposed to know more about the expectations of your app readers than you are at this point.

Good luck!

MM

[paradajs_i_paprika]

Thank you all for your ideas.  It's really helpful to get other people's perspectives on my own situation.

As for brevity - or at least not overwhelming people with all the details - yes!  This is something I need to be very aware of in my statement and CV (and, well, generally) :) Good points.

I have not looked at the CV doctor here but I will, and the point about having freelance work as its own category is a good one.  My CV is already organized with headings like "teaching", "other international experience", and one school even asks for a section on foreign travel, but a heading for freelance work will probably be a good thing.

I think the two comments about not pointing out or apologizing for the possible negatives answer one of my questions well.  I think there are enough strong points to focus on those, so this should work out.

As far as the India example - you make a good point and I definitely would not mention my boyfriend in any capacity in my CV or statement :)  Very generally speaking, one of my concerns is that people may well perceive me as kind of a drifter.  It's still an advantage to have spent time in a developing country, and it probably just depends on how I present it and the outlook of the person/people reading it.

Anyway - I usually feel like my situation is weird enough that it's hard to use general advice I find in books or online - so the replies here are really useful for me (and I don't mean to nitpick with the my paragraph above!).

Thanks.