Professor Skills for a Resume

Hiring committees look for scholars who publish, win funding, teach well and contribute to the department. Show your methods and tools, your teaching range and the funding and output behind your research.

Updated

13 skills at a glance

Hard skills

What the work takes, how a hiring manager judges each skill, and a bullet point that shows it.

  1. Research design

    Show studies you designed and what they found.

    Example bullet pointDesigned a three-wave panel study of 1,200 renters that became the basis for two journal articles.

  2. Quantitative or qualitative methods for the field

    Name the methods you use and teach.

    Example bullet pointCombined survey analysis with 45 in-depth interviews to explain differences in housing outcomes.

  3. Statistical software (R, Stata, SPSS)

    Name the software, and any code or teaching you share.

    Example bullet pointPublished the R code and data for every paper, which other researchers reused in follow-up studies.

  4. Grant writing and management

    Give the funders, the amounts and your role.

    Example bullet pointManaged a federal grant's budget and annual reports, keeping the project on schedule over three years.

  5. Course and curriculum design

    Show courses you designed and how many students they serve.

    Example bullet pointRedesigned the introductory course around weekly data exercises, raising pass rates by ten points.

  6. Learning management systems (Canvas, Blackboard)

    Show how you used the platform for large or online classes.

    Example bullet pointBuilt a fully online version of a core course in Canvas for 150 students a semester.

  7. Academic writing and peer review

    Mention publications and reviewing for journals.

    Example bullet pointWrote a book proposal that a university press accepted after peer review.

  8. Student advising and mentoring

    Show the students you advised and where they went.

    Example bullet pointAdvised 25 undergraduate majors a year on courses, research and graduate school applications.

Soft skills

Shown through what you did, never claimed as adjectives.

  1. Clear lecturing

    Show teaching evaluations or awards.

    Example bullet pointKept teaching evaluations above 4.5 out of 5 in a required methods course.

  2. Mentoring

    Show students or junior colleagues who succeeded with your support.

    Example bullet pointMentored two junior faculty members through their first grant applications; both were funded.

  3. Collegiality

    Show service and joint work in the department.

    Example bullet pointCo-organized a department speaker series that brought eight visiting scholars a year.

  4. Persistence

    Show a project or grant that succeeded after setbacks.

    Example bullet pointRevised and resubmitted a grant proposal twice before it was funded on the third round.

  5. Public speaking

    Show talks to academic and public audiences.

    Example bullet pointGave public talks on housing research at city libraries and to local officials.

Keywords from professor job postings

Use the ones that are true for you, in your bullet points as well as your skills list.

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

Each posting has its own words. Our guide to tailoring your resume to a job description shows how to find them and where to put them.

Where to put your skills

  • In a skills section: a short list of the hard skills the posting names, in its words.
  • In your bullet points: every skill that matters should show up in something you did, with a result. That is where a hiring manager believes it.
  • In your summary: two or three of the skills the job asks for most.

More on choosing them in how to choose and prove the skills on your resume.

Questions

What skills should a professor put on a CV?

Research design and methods, statistical software, grant writing, course design, learning platforms, academic writing and peer review, and advising, with teaching and mentoring shown through results.

Should an academic CV have a skills section?

A short one for methods, software and languages helps, but committees read your publications, grants and teaching first.

How do I show teaching quality?

Mention evaluation scores, teaching awards, new courses you designed and the success of the students you advised.

Put them to work

Start from an academic CV that already uses these skills, for an invented person, and make it yours in the builder.

Use this exampleRead the academic CV example