In this post, our experts provided you with the details of preparing a CV to increase your chance of having a successful application.

How to prepare an eye-catching CV for academics?

In this post, our experts provided you with the details of preparing a CV (curriculum vitae) to increase your chance of having a successful application.

What is the best way to create an eye-catching CV for academic positions?

One of the first requirements for any application is a CV/resume. The contents of the CV for an academic career or study program are generally the same. Apparently, if you are applying for an MSc or BSc study program, you are not supposed to have peer-reviewed articles or lecturing experiences. However, for PhD, Postdoc, and Professorship applications, the latter is very required. Here we list some of the typical points that should be considered for an academic.

Besides the personal information that should be placed on the very first few lines of your CV, the academic background should appear in the second paragraph wherein you clearly write the degree, name, and place of the university (city, country), graduation year, your GPA and your rank in your class. The latter helps the person assessing your CV to have an idea of how good is your GPA in your place of study. Note that the latest degree should appear first. You should only include your records of education in high school if you apply for a BSc or MSc program.

The following video provides you with some practical examples of tense and sentences to be used for drafting your application or cover letter:

Your distinctions, achievements, and awards can be the next paragraph (section) of your CV in which you list any particular achievements that you gained in your previous course of studies and research activities. It can be for example, “best student award”, “best poster in conference XX” or “First rank in XX national/international competition”.  Please note that the value of the award might not be known to everybody, so it is necessary to provide a line about the award/distinction (e.g. the number of participants, award selection committee, the reputation of the award organization, etc.).

A list of peer-reviewed publications should be in the next section of your CV. Start by listing your first author publication followed by your contributing author publication (e.g. when you are the second, third, etc. author of the article). Make sure to include the name, volume, year of publication, and page number of the article that is intended. If the journal is not internationally known, it is practical to include the impact factor of that journal in parentheses. For example: “M.X. Johny, K.N. Juli, Z.j. Kumar, “how to apply abroad”, Journal of application abroad (Impact factor: 1.7) 2015, 2, 45-47.“.

Your skills should appear in the next paragraph of the CV wherein you list the top skills and competencies that you have. It is recommended that you name the expertise that matches the best with the intended position. For instance, if you are applying for a “PhD position in nanofabrication of 2D materials“, it is practical to write your experience in using electron microscopy in nanostructure characterization instead of your HTML competencies. Nevertheless, you should also write important software (computer) skills that you have.

If you have any teaching/mentoring/supervision experience, you should also list them. But please provide the necessary details of the course that you were in charge of. Your role (lecturer/assistant lecturer/Tutor etc.), name of the course, year, level of the course (High School/BSc/ MSc/ PhD), and University where the course is given (city, country).

At the very bottom of your CV, you can list the name of your previous supervisor, and the advisor who has known you for a long time and can (and wishes) provide comments on your qualifications. Make sure that the person you are writing his/her name and address (email) as reference agrees to write a letter of recommendation on your application otherwise exclude his/her name from the list. Never list the name of a student, lab assistant, or technician as a reference list instead at least a PhD holder should be your potential reference person.

Including your personal photo in the CV is optional and depends on the country to which you send the application. In German-speaking countries, for example, a photo on a CV is very common.

Various Application Help Services are available on our Website, such as finding the best-funded position or scholarship for you, preparing your CV, cover letter, or having our experts handle your application for you in our Golden Service.

The Fastepo website is an academic vacancy website with more than a decade of experience. In our section, we offer fully-funded PhD positions, open positions (postdoctoral positions), as well as various scholarships. Our social media pages and our YouTube channel will keep you up to date about all our recent activities.