Curriculum Vitae – the blurb of your academic life

I can’t be alone when I say I’ve heard the phrase ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ a lot. While the principles behind this saying are warm and forgiving, it feels a little fairy tale-like and, at times, an idea that simply won’t cut it in the depths of reality.

Clare Brass, Employability Co-ordinator at Bangor University has given third year students advice on how to present themselves effectively on paper. Can chances of the blunt, cold stain of rejection be lessened by sharpening up the CV?

Answer – of course it can.

Studying in the School of Natural Sciences, I find it helpful to look at the process in a logical way. When you think about it, CV writing is just an example of natural selection coming into play.

Years ago, ‘beneficial characteristics’ involved more physical attributes in many cases e.g. strength for hunting whereas I feel we live in a heavily lexical-based world now.

No one has time to hunt anymore, and why should they with Tesco’s finest riding off into the forest on horseback? This means the selection pressure has become increasingly academic with people’s minds becoming less occupied by the day given the comforts of the modern lifestyle.

So what do we do with this extra brain power? We judge. Everything. It’s just a personal idea, I may be wrong.

To make matters worse, Brass informed students that the average time spent looking over a CV (notice I didn’t say ‘reading’) is 8.8 seconds. You could feel the career hopes in the room wilting.

A’s turned to C’s. Weeks of work experience dissolving into days on the sofa. It became clear that even climbing Everest for example, if presented poorly on a CV, would equal sitting on a mole hill. With ‘bad posture’ too probably.

Brass showed us the ideal layout of a CV and it was surprising to learn that it should be 2 A4 sides maximum. This seems like an incredibly short amount of text to sum up your whole academic career.

She suggested the composition of a ‘skills-based’ CV, clearly stating how the skills you’ve acquired from previous work experience make you the candidate they cannot afford to exclude on the interview shortlist.

Those who wished to apply for research positions etc were advised to use the ‘academic CV’ format. The good news is that these CV’s are allowed to be longer given the higher level of detail needed.

So don’t worry, you can tell them about that gap year spent in Egypt building a fourth great pyramid.

Brass provided further pointers on cover letters and the importance of showing that you understand the company’s goals and expressing your desired contribution.

This session served as a reminder of just how fine the margins of success are in terms of CV writing. Every word, punctuation mark and space counts. You don’t have to be perfect, but it helps if you appear so on paper.