Your academic CV

If you’re a graduate student who doesn’t have a CV yet, this is for you (especially if you are a PhD student). Academic CVs are very different from industry CVs (they’re usually much longer). In fact, even within academia, different areas, subareas, and universities may follow different standards as far as CVs go. That being said, take this as a rough template, which will naturally be adjusted as needed (note that this is the type of CV we use in Linguistics more generally). If you haven’t already, take a look at the CVs of professors in your field or subfield, as that should give you a more detailed idea as to what you should include in your CV. Finally, bear in mind that different people will have different opinions about dos and don’ts when it comes to CVs.

General structure

This is a non-exhaustive list of what you normally find in a CV:

Personal info (name, current position, affiliation, email, personal website)
Research interests (R)
Education (R)
Publications (R)
Conference presentations (R)
Teaching experience (T)
Extras (skills, languages)
Memberships (which associations are you a member of?)

Except for your personal information, the order of the remaining parts can be flexible. For example, if you focus more on teaching (T) than on research (R), and will be applying for positions that value teaching above research, then promote teaching in your CV by moving it up (e.g., below Education). If you have won grants, prizes and awards, add a new category, and place it above the extras but (probably) below publications.

It’s normal to have little to add to your CV when you’re starting—don’t worry about that. If you have written a paper or presented your work somewhere, however, make sure you have a CV which people can check out online. If you don’t, it will be impossible for people to find you, which means they won’t read what you’re writing and your ideas won’t circulate—and circulating ideas is really the whole point!

Format

Your CV should be in pdf format (or in html, if you’re into more interactive/dynamic formats). You can use Microsoft Word to create a CV that you like, but make sure you save/export it as a pdf. Do not circulate a CV in doc format, of course. If you’re a perfectionist, you can learn how to use $L A T E X$ (read more here).

Where to find your CV

Once you have a CV, you may want to make it available so that people can find you online. A simple website will do: these days, you can literally create one in minutes without any programming knowledge. Here’s a question: if I google your name, will I be able to find what you have written? Will I be able to find out who you are (academically speaking)? For me to be able to do that, you need a website—unless, of course, you have a university page, but remember that once you finish your program that page will vanish (and so will its URL). The bottom line is: have a website and update it every time you do something new.