The C.V. Doctor: C.V. For a Community College Instructor

This candidate is currently teaching at a community college and is looking to teach at another community college for higher pay. She is committed to community-college teaching, but as she is also looking to start a doctoral program, location near a university is important. With more careful proofreading, the candidate could correct format inconsistencies throughout the CV and improve its overall look. Little things make a big difference. For instance, she skips a line under the "Education" heading, but not after any of the other ones. She uses periods with B.A., but none with M.A. A consistent format helps readers, particularly those who may give the CV only a few seconds of attention.

-- Mary Morris Heiberger and Julia Miller Vick

Examples:

• C.V. for a dean
• C.V. for a Ph.D. in the social sciences
• C.V. for a Ph.D. in the humanities
• C.V. for a Ph.D. in the sciences

• Community College, A and B Campuses, State
  Sociology Instructor. Fall 1997 to Present
  
  Taught International Studies, Introduction to Sociology Online (Fall 2002), Introduction to Sociology, Marriage and Family, and Social Problems on two campuses. Other duties³ included advising students, assisting with registration, developing ways to enhance Sociology curriculum, and maintained 15 hours of professional development credits a year. Duties have also included two years as a Phi Theta Kappa Advisor, and the current coordinator for the recycling initiative for the Jackson/ATC and Rankin campuses.
  
  
• State University, City, State.
  Temporary Full-Time Instructor. Fall 1995 to Spring 1996
  
  Taught Introduction to Sociology, Marriage and Family, and Social Problems. Other duties³ included assisting with registration and acted as advisor for Sociology club.

• Community College, City, State.
  Fall 1996 to Spring 1997, and Spring 1995
  Taught Introduction to Sociology, and Marriage and Family
  
  
• State University, City, State.
  Summer 1995, Fall 1996 to Spring 1997.
  Taught Introduction to Sociology.
  
  
• Western Community College, City, State.
  Fall 1994. Taught Social Problems
  
  
• Southern Community College, City, State.
  Fall 1992 to Spring 1993. Taught Introduction to Sociology.

• Association for International Educators. Funded seminar, International Customs, Traditions, and Cultures: Poland and Mississippi, a three-day conference that increased the awareness of the college's new international studies course. The conference enhanced the experience of US student's involved in the course who will study abroad in Poland in the summer 2002.

• Name, Name, Name, and Job Candidate. 1989. "Gender Differences in Self Advertisements for Dates." Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology. 17:45-50.

• Social Science Conference, March 2002. Chair and Discussant for Issues in Community College Teaching.
• Social Science Conference, March 2001. Presenter in Community College Teaching.
• Sociological Association, February 1999. Chair and Discussant for Innovative Teaching Strategies.

• Sociological Association, Committee on the Professions, and Committee on Membership.
• Sociological Association
• Sociological Association

1.) The candidate holds a master's degree. If she wrote a master's thesis, it would be a good idea to include the title here, or if she did some kind of special project, it should be listed.

2.) Dividing her teaching experience into two sections -- full-time and adjunct positions -- makes sense for this candidate as it emphasizes her several years of full-time teaching, and that could balance out her lack of a doctorate if the search committee was looking for that. If she developed any of the courses, she might want to indicate that. The course she taught called "Introduction to Sociology Online" may be of particular interest to other institutions. A little description would be helpful. Also, italicizing the titles of courses, or listing them, would help them stand out.

3.) Her teaching experience would also stand out more if she separated out the information she provides on some of the nonteaching activities she did at each campus. Those activities could stay in this section or have their own section. A CV for a research institution or a selective liberal-arts college would have these items in another section.

4.) In the candidate's message to us, she indicated that she is interested in teaching in a community college with international studies. She might be helped by having a section called "Teaching Competencies" that would follow "Teaching Experience." In this new section, she could list areas or course titles that she could teach and include some that indicate international themes.

5.) In the "Grant" section, the title of the seminar should be italicized, and more description of the conference would be interesting.

6.) The heading "Presentations (limited list)" is confusing. It probably means that the candidate has not listed on her CV all of her presentations. Without seeing the list here, we have no way of knowing how many she's done or what they were about. If some of the presentations were on sociological topics, as opposed to on teaching, she might want to have a separate section of those presentations.

7.) It would be a good idea to include the e-mail addresses of the references if they agree to it. Much communication by search committees is now done by e-mail.