Curriculum Vitae

[rachelmanija]

Does a CV intended to be used to apply to teach at a college level really have to be around twenty pages long?

I am coming to the horrible realization that it is going to take forever to dig up the records I need to put this damn thing together.

I hope that my really quite good professional credentials will make up for my lack of actual teaching experience here. Though everyone I've ever taught or critiqued has seemed happy with the results, I've only ever taught at one workshop, critiqued privately, and guest-lectured for one college class session and two high school sessions.

...yeah, I need to make more money. Also, I enjoy teaching.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Not that I ever heard--it's usually a couple of pages of education stuff, and then long pages of publications.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Do you have one? Could you email it to me?

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

My CV was on typed paper, that's how old it is.

I just double-checked with P. He is willing to forward his, but he hasn't updated it in 12 years or so, and it's 45 pages long, because of all the committees he's been on and his publications.

He says, here's what's on it:

Educational data, including honors and awards as well as degrees. That would include any special programs one completed.

Service to the academy and community--so committees you've sat on, public service of any kind (you've got an awesome cred next week!), even stuff like Nebula Jury and the like. You could include organizing LiveLongnMarry, for example, as co-chair.

Academic and related publications.

Teaching experience.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And tell P his info is useful but I don't actually need a copy.

Can you ask him this, though: my pro experience is much more impressive than my teaching experience. Which should I put first?

Also, do I need to put in details about all the college classes I took? And if so, should it go after after my teaching experience and before my pro experience, or after both?

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Here's what P says (and he sits on hiring committees, so even though his CV is not current, he evaluates them all the time.)

Needed>

Name/address, NO birthday or age.

Education Data (degrees, where, if graduated with honors. Nothing about classes.)

Awards. "Winner of Snack P, Globue Screenwriting Award," or "Winner of Senior Playwriting Competition" Production of Winning Play, "title' type of thing. If you were picked for a prestigious scholarship, put that.

Then publications and productions

Teaching Experience

Community Service


---------------in that order

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Sherwood! Please thank P for me.

If he doesn't mind, I'd like to bring by the CV I've worked up for him to take a quick look at the next time I come by. (No in-depth analysis, required, just a glance to see if I'd made any awful mistakes.)

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

He says sure thing.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is why I don't really want to go into academia.

[umbo.livejournal.com]

Well, mine certainly isn't very long. Of course, I work in an area where my qualifications are in extreme demand, so that certainly helps.

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

Twenty pages? I hope not. If so, I'm doing it wrong.

I imagine it depends on the position you're applying for, though I can't imagine anyone would require a CV that long. All of the academic resumes I've seen (and I'm going on the job market in the fall, so I've seen quite a few) are closer to three or four.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Position: professor of writing or theatre.

Would you mind emailing me a sample one, if you have one on hand? Preferably someone who's published stuff? Or yours, if you've put yours together already.

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

Sure, I'll send you mine (it's the only one I've got that I wouldn't have to scan -- my scanner is currently borked).

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much! Rphoenix2 at gmail.

[angevin2.livejournal.com]

Sent!

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

It's not that it has to be long, but that it has to be comprehensive. You work in theater, don't you? I would think that's an area where professional experience counts for a lot. Are you looking for a fulltime teaching position or a parttime one? For parttime (a course or two) lack of prior teaching experience (as a TA) wouldn't make as much difference.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I'm ideally looking to teach writing part-time. I've written quite a lot professionally, but not taught much.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

Are you looking for a composition position or a creative writing position? Composition instructors are always needed, but you'll probably be given a syllabus to use.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Creative writing. Unless I get desperate.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

Professional experience counts for a lot with creative writing. In your CV separate out types of publications -- fiction from non-fiction and so on, so the breadth of your writing experience shows. Make that the major focus of the CV. Then use your cover letter to talk about how you would draw on that experience to teach.

[fmanalyst.livejournal.com]

I just emailed you a link to my CV.

[kate_nepveu]

The sample Chad has on hand is 6 pages; I've e-mailed it to you.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Did you send it to the gmail address?

[kate_nepveu]

Just now--we had a slight tech glitch.

[orzelc.livejournal.com]

The proper length of a CV will be highly dependent on the field. A Kate says, mine is currently 6 pages, and was considerably shorter when I applied for and got this job, but I was lucky enough to have a small number of high-quality publications, so I didn't need a big list with lots of padding. In fact, there are several things on the version that Kate sent you (which is from my tenure review) that I felt a little sheepish about listing.

The important thing is that you list everything relevant, and organize the information well. I've certainly gotten twenty-page CV's to read while we were hiring, but people who just indiscriminately list everything they've ever published, down to the last Usenet rant, aren't really doing themselves any favors. If I have to work to locate the last publiation in a reputable journal, I'm likely to decide that it's not worth my time.

Make sure that your education and employment history are clear and easy to follow, and sort publications in a way that makes it easy to tell what's really important-- for example, in science you would usually divide them up as "Journal Articles," "Invited Talks" and "Contributed Talks," from most to least significant. Lumping them all together (which I've seen done) just looks like padding.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

Thanks, Chad! Mine would be for teaching writing. I don't have a ton of credits, but several of them are fairly impressive. (Published a book, staff writer on a TV series, sold a series (in development) to the Jim Henson Company.) I think I'll go for short but substantial.