Academic CV Example

Also called Assistant Professor, Lecturer, Faculty.

Academic hiring runs on the CV, a longer document than a resume that records your research, teaching and service in full. Search committees scan it for publications, funding and teaching experience, in an order that depends on the kind of institution.

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Opens in the builder with this text in place, ready for you to replace with your own.

What this example does well

  • The summary covers research, funding and teaching in three sentences, the three things a committee screens for.
  • Teaching is described with course names and class sizes, which shows range from large lectures to seminars.
  • The grant is given with the funder, the amount and her role on it.

Updated

Dr. Helen Armitage

Assistant Professor of Sociology

Summary

Sociologist studying housing insecurity and neighborhood change in mid-sized American cities. Author of eight peer-reviewed articles and principal investigator on a $340,000 National Science Foundation grant. Teaches research methods and urban sociology to classes of 25 to 180 students.

Experience

Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Aug 2021 – Present · Madison, Wisconsin

  • Teach four courses a year, including Introduction to Sociology (180 students) and a graduate seminar in qualitative methods.
  • Principal investigator on a three-year, $340,000 NSF grant studying eviction and school mobility.
  • Advise four doctoral students and have chaired two master's thesis committees.
  • Serve on the department's graduate admissions committee.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Center for Urban Research, University of Michigan

Aug 2019 – Jul 2021 · Ann Arbor, Michigan

  • Led interviews with 85 tenants for a study of informal evictions in three cities.
  • Published three articles from the project and presented at four national conferences.

Education

PhD Sociology, Northwestern University

2013 – 2019 · Evanston, Illinois

  • Dissertation: "Moving Without Leaving: Forced Mobility in the Rust Belt"

BA Sociology and Urban Studies, Oberlin College

2009 – 2013 · Oberlin, Ohio

Selected publications

"Eviction Without Court: Informal Displacement in Three Cities", Journal article, sole author

2024

"School Moves and the Rental Market", Journal article, with two co-authors

2022

Skills

Qualitative interviewing, Survey design, Stata and R, NVivo, Grant writing, Course design, Graduate advising

An example: Dr. Helen Armitage is not a real person, and the details show the kind of thing to write rather than a real career. Shown in the Scholar template. Words that postings for this job often use are marked in yellow.

How do you write a summary for an academic CV?

Two to four lines at the top that say what you do, for how long, and what you are best at. Here is one for each stage of a career.

  • Entry level

    PhD candidate in sociology defending in May 2027, with two peer-reviewed articles and a dissertation on housing insecurity supported by a university fellowship. Taught Introduction to Sociology as instructor of record for three semesters with strong evaluations.

  • Experienced

    Assistant professor with five years of experience in teaching and research. Has published eight peer-reviewed articles, holds external funding as principal investigator and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in research methods.

  • Senior

    Professor with twenty years of scholarship on urban inequality. Author of two books and more than 40 articles, principal investigator on grants totaling $3.2 million, former department chair and advisor to 14 completed doctoral dissertations.

How to write a resume summary, with more examples

What are good bullet points for an academic CV?

Each starts with a verb and says what was done. Change the details and numbers to your own; a number you cannot explain in an interview is worse than none.

  1. Taught four courses a year to classes ranging from 20 to 180 students.

  2. Published eight peer-reviewed articles, five as first or sole author.

  3. Secured a $340,000 federal grant as principal investigator.

  4. Advised four doctoral students and served on nine dissertation committees.

  5. Designed a new undergraduate course in research methods that now enrolls 60 students a year.

  6. Presented research at 12 national and international conferences.

  7. Reviewed manuscripts for six journals in the field.

  8. Served on the graduate admissions and curriculum committees.

  9. Supervised ten undergraduate research assistants, three of whom went on to doctoral programs.

  10. Received the college's teaching award in 2024.

Which skills should a professor put on a resume?

Pick the ones the job posting asks for and that you can back up with an example from your work.

Hard skills

  • Research design
  • Quantitative or qualitative methods for the field
  • Statistical software (R, Stata, SPSS)
  • Grant writing and management
  • Course and curriculum design
  • Learning management systems (Canvas, Blackboard)
  • Academic writing and peer review
  • Student advising and mentoring

Soft skills

  • Clear lecturing
  • Mentoring
  • Collegiality
  • Persistence
  • Public speaking

Which keywords belong on an academic CV?

The words recruiters and applicant tracking systems search for.

  • peer-reviewed
  • principal investigator
  • grant
  • courses
  • doctoral students
  • graduate seminar
  • published
  • committee
  • conferences

Use the ones that are true for you, written the way the posting writes them, and put each where it shows something you did. A list of keywords with nothing behind it helps nobody. To keep them readable by software, choose an ATS-friendly template, and read how applicant tracking systems read a resume.

How is an academic CV different from a resume?

A resume is a one or two page summary chosen for one job. An academic CV is a complete record: every publication, course, grant, talk and committee, and it grows through your career. Five pages is normal for an early-career scholar and twenty is not unusual for a senior one.

The builder's example here shows the opening pages: summary, appointments, education and selected publications. Add sections for grants, teaching, presentations and service as your record requires; the Scholar template is built for long lists.

What order should the sections of an academic CV follow?

Put first what the institution values most. Research universities want publications and funding near the top. Teaching-focused colleges want courses taught and evidence of teaching quality before the publication list.

Within each section, list items in reverse chronological order and format citations in your field's usual style. Mark work under review clearly, and never list something as published before it is accepted.

What do schools look for in a resume?

  • Lead with what you are certified to teach and for which ages, because a school has to check that before anything else.
  • Describe results for learners, not only duties: reading levels, exam pass rates, attendance, or how many pupils you supported one to one.
  • Academic posts ask for a CV, not a resume. It is longer and lists publications, teaching, grants and talks in full.

All education resume examples

Questions about an academic CV

Should an academic CV include a summary?

It is optional. A short research profile helps in fields where committees read hundreds of files; in others it is left out and the cover letter does that work.

How do I list publications with many authors?

Follow your field's convention, keep the author order as published and make your own name bold so readers can find it.

Do teaching evaluations belong on the CV?

Summarize them in a line if they are strong, for example an average score, and keep the full reports for the teaching portfolio.

Can I use the same CV for jobs outside academia?

No. For industry, write a one or two page resume that translates your research into skills and results an employer needs.

Make this academic CV yours.

Start from the example, swap in your own jobs and numbers, and switch to any template without retyping a word.

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