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COMPILING YOUR CV

Your CV is a formal record of your experience and accomplishments. The CV differs from a resume in that it is complete rather than selective. Resumes highlight select aspects of your background and almost always fit on one page. Vitas are as long as necessary.

People reviewing applications may or may not spend much time looking at your CV. Therefore, it is wise to make your CV easy for people to read quickly (for example, members of the committee selecting a new assistant professor who have several dozen applications to read). Meanwhile, it can also give significant details about your experience for people who will want to review your CV very carefully (for example, the professor with whom you might want to study as a doctoral student). The following are some tips and guidelines about putting together your CV.

People will expect to find several sections on your CV in the following order...

• Name

Some people choose to list their birth dates and marital status, but these are optional.

• Address

Include email addresses and telephone numbers, and your personal web page if you have one.

• Education List your college and graduate degrees, the years in which you received them, and the subject in which you specialized.
• Honors List awards that you have received, grants you have received, fellowships you have received, the year that you received each one, and the department or institution that gives each award.
• Research List the research projects with which you have been affiliated. Do include the field schools and contract firms for which you have worked, and what kind of fieldwork or analysis you performed in those roles. Do clarify the projects for which you have served as principal investigator or supervisor of some kind, but always make sure it is clear what your role was in each of the research projects listed.
• Teaching List any teaching experience you have had at the college or university level. Do not itemize every undergraduate course for which you have been a teaching assistant...just list the years and the department for which you have served in that role. Do specify which courses you have taught on your own as an instructor...and specify in what department at which school you have been a teacher.

• NOTE: Depending on their particular backgrounds, many people may have one section listing "employment history" or "archaeological experience" rather than separate categories for teaching and research.

• Publications List all the papers you have written. You may want to create different sections for conference papers and journal articles. If you have given the same or very similar versions of a paper at more than one conference, list only one of them. If you have published a revised version of a conference paper, list only the written publication. You should put book reviews in their own section as well.

• NOTE: Many students, especially college students, will not have publications to list...this is OK because earlier sections of your CV will make it clear that you are a student and a promising candidate for adding publications and other accomplishments in due time.

• Service List positions of leadership you have held on committees and in groups related to your academic interests, and the years in which you served in those roles.
• Memberships List the academic and professional societies of which you are a member, concentrating on those that are closely related to your background and interests in archaeology.
• References List the names and contact information for professors or supervisors who can give thoughtful recommendations about your background and your potential.

The following are some additional tips on putting your CV together...

• Don't double-dip. List each honor received, position held, or other accomplishments once. Sometimes these milestones fit in more than one of the categories you include on your vitae. List them once rather than listing them in each of the sections in which they might fit.
• Keep adding to your vitae as you reach new milestones. Add your degrees and your awards as you get them, and add your conference papers and publications as they happen. This way your current CV is always close to being ready to send to somebody. The look of your CV will evolve with you as you move from student status to other positions.
• Tailor your CV to each application. Applying to graduate school?...focus on your educational background and publications. Applying for a position with a cultural resource management firm?...focus on your experience in doing fieldwork and artifact analysis.
• Make sure your CV conveys your areas of expertise. Can you conduct specialized studies such as archaeobotanical or zooarchaeological analyses? Are you an expert in lithic or ceramic analysis? Experience with GIS is often significant to people reviewing your CV. Experience directing CRM or academic archaeological projects is good material to include on your CV.

This page was originally compiled by Chris Rodning, but thanks to Ken Sassaman and Dawn Ramsey for their contributions.

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