Standard Academic Resume: Format, Samples, Writing Tips

An Academic Resume, commonly known as Academic Curriculum Vitae or CV is a concise yet detailed description of one’s educational background, professional experiences, grants, awards, fellowships, research publications or other noteworthy achievements. Considered as a salient document while applying for academic jobs or universities, an academic CV is usually not very different from a regular resume.

Explore How to Write an Effective Resume

The key difference is however, the absence of a career objective statement, aim or summary. The most significant detail to keep in mind while writing an academic resume is to highlight your academic achievements in such a lucid manner that it elucidates how you would be an asset to any institution you are planning to join. Your ultimate aim should be captivating the admission committee with your incredible achievements, skills and qualifications that will eventually lead to your acceptance into the college of your dreams.

Before drafting your academic resume, it is important to understand what it should include and which format you should follow. Here are some tips that will assist you in writing a comprehensive academic resume.

What to include in an Academic Resume?

Given below is a list of details that you should include in your academic resume:

• Contact Information
• Academic Background
• Professional Experiences/ Volunteer work/ Internships
• Publications
• Grants and Fellowships
• Awards and Achievements
• Affiliations and memberships
• Research Projects
• Trainings
• Conferences
• Co- Curricular Involvement
• Languages Known
• Soft skills and hard skills
• References

Format of an Academic Resume

Contact Information: Include the following details:

1. Full name
2. Home and office address
3. Contact no
4. Email ID
5. Linkedin Profile

• Academic Background: Discuss at length about your academic profile and include all the critical details regarding the same. Note that the academic degrees should be listed in a reverse chronological order, i.e start with the latest degree that you have earned and gradually list the older degrees and qualifications.
• Professional Experiences/ Volunteer work/ Internships: Note that while writing down your work experiences, keep your full time, part time jobs and internships under separate headers in a reverse chronological order. In this section, highlight your key roles and responsibilities undertaken in your previous professional experiences along with the following details:
  1. Begin with your designation, organization, and city along with the years you have worked with a specific organization.
  2. Describe your roles and responsibilities briefly (in bullet points), Make sure that you are precise and to the point while writing these points
  3. Describe the details of any special project that you were a part of. Also, state any achievements or awards that you have received during your tenure.
  4. Try adding the experiences that add value and are relevant to the course you are applying to.
• Publications: Make a comprehensive list of all your noteworthy publications such as books or book chapters, peer-reviewed or non-peer journal articles, forthcoming publications, reports, patents, reputed contributions to edited journals, and so on. Don’t forget to choose one of the bibliography styles among MLA, APA or Chicago while providing citations for your publications. Stick to a uniform citation style throughout the article.
• Grants and Fellowships: The amount of funding that you have attracted towards your research is worthy of consideration as it shows how unique and valuable your work really is. Remember to list the contents in a chronologically descending order.
• Awards and Achievements: Mention all of your significant academic and non academic awards and recognition. Include the name of the organization that presented the award along with the year.
• Affiliations and memberships: Briefly list down the names of any professional network that you have been a part of in the recent years.
• Research Projects: Discuss the major research projects undertaken by you, its findings and outcomes. It is an important aspect of an academic CV. Thus, be explicit while writing down the specifics.
• Training: Industrial or academic training undergone in the last 5 years. Add details of where?, when? and what? Also, mention the learnings from the training.
• Conferences: List the seminars and conferences that you have attended or you have presented in the last 5 to 6 years.
• Co- Curricular Involvement: Some universities take active participation in extracurricular activities into consideration while accepting candidates. Mention any extracurricular activities where you have excelled and participated like article writing competitions, debate competitions, quiz competitions, etc.
• Languages Known: List the languages that you know along with your proficiency level in speaking, reading and writing that language.
• Soft skills and hard skills: Your skillset is the most integral possession that you hold. Describe in detail about your hard and soft skills that you think will add value to the institution that you are applying to.
• References: The final section of your academic resume is the references. Add a list of 2-3 people who can provide a recommendation for your previous work, and character.

Some Do’s and Don'ts to follow while drafting your Academic Resume

• Write your academic CV in a positive and confident tone
• Your Academic CV must not exceed two pages
• Don’t write the contents in a haphazard manner. Rather use bullet points to state the details.
• Be precise and to the point

Academic Resume Template

FULL NAME

Permanent Address, city, state, pin code

Contact no:______________, Email Address: _________

Academic Qualification:

Work Experience:

Publications: (if any)

Grants and Fellowships:

Awards and Achievements (if any), along with year of achievement, institution and recognition

Research Projects:

Title of the project:

Location
Team size: ____
Brief Description of the project (in 50-60 words)
Your individual role and contributions:
Findings and accomplishments

Industrial Trainings:

Conferences:

Co-Curricular Activities (along with accomplishments)

Languages Known (along with proficiency level)

Skills:

References: Mention the following details:

1. Full name and designation
2. Email ID
3. Phone number