CV Template (for Graduate Students)

If you're like me, I didn't have a C.V. when I first applied to graduate school. And, if you're also like me, you get overwhelmed with all of the types and formats of C.V.'s. But you know that having a well-structured CV is essential for applying to graduate school, grants, awards, fellowships, and (eventually!) academic positions.

In this post, I'm going through the C.V. template that I created after researching and compiling 20+ C.V. from some of my favorite geography professors. This template is tailored for students and professionals in fields that have a balance of research and teaching. If you're a graduate student, you may not have any content yet for some of these sections -- and I don't either! At the end of the blog post, you can find the link to my template. Delete anything that isn't relevant to you, and make it your own. Remember there isn't necessarily a "best" template or C.V... but there are definitely bad ones.

C.V. Template Break Down

Here's the first page of the C.V. template. You'll notice in my template that each major heading is in bold, bright pink! I'm personally not afraid of color, and I like to incorporate it where appropriate. I think using an interesting color helps break up some of the monotony of long documents like this.

Here is where you put all of your degrees. If any of them are not yet complete, put "anticipated" before the month and year.

If any of your degrees involved a final written thesis/dissertation/capstone, include those, and any faculty that assisted you!

This next section is for any jobs, titles, or positions that you've held at a university, college, educational institution, or school.

Because I'm still in graduate school, under "Academic Positions" I include my current job as a Graduate Assistant.

Prior to graduate school, I was a high school teacher, so I include my titles and positions here too, where appropriate. Under the subheading, "Pedagogical Development, Training, and Outreach" I include my volunteer-based roles related to the advancement of the teaching of my field. For example, I have been an AP Human Geography exam reader for several years, and I include this work under this subheading.

This section is long -- and is mainly pre-written for myself for the day when I will publish my own book. My suggestion to graduate students is to get involved in book reviews! They're a great way to stay current with literature in your field, and also fantastic writing practice.

This section is for any funding you may have (or will!) receive. I've broken them down into two common categories. Under "External" the subheading is further broken down into two fields. For "Internal," you'll notice the next line is the university the internal funding is affiliated with.

Right now I have yet to receive any external funding, so all of my funding is under "Internal" and two institutions.

If your funding for graduate school is through a grant or maybe a university fellowship, this is a great place to put that information. If you can, include the total funding amount.

Speaking of awards...

If you receive any awards for your original research, this is the section to put it!

Following, if you have any teaching experience and have received any recognition for your work, put it here. If the award is considered extremely competitive/prestigious, I've seen people put awards that they were nominated for and then they denote that they were nominated or a finalist.

This is specifically a section for any talks, lectures, or workshops that you were invited to. I broke these up into "larger" events like keynotes and then "smaller" invited speaking opportunities. In included potential and various scenarios and how to go about citing them, per se.

"Uninvited" speaking engagements... aka submitting papers to CFP's for conferences.

I've organized all things related to conferences below based on the role.

If you've volunteered at a conference, make sure to include that! Your time, service, and dedication to your discipline is important to highlight anywhere you can.

These two sections are where you can put any collaborative work or membership to any entities where you participate in a research capacity.

Below is the "Teaching" section which is broken down to highlight any relevant grants and training, and then what courses you've taught and when (and in what capacity). If you worked on the curriculum for any of these courses, make sure to include that too!

The next section for me personally is completely blank, but I'm including it here for your reference!

Finally, the last section(s)!

The "Service" section is again broken down by the discipline itself, and the institutions you are affiliated with, and the potential respective roles for each.

Lastly are your professional memberships that you belong to. I put mine in alphabetical order because I'm just like that.

And that's it! That's the breakdown for my C.V. template.

If you're like your own copy, here's the link to my template on a Google Doc.

If you liked my template, you have suggestions, or maybe questions about how to include certain information in your C.V. -- let me know in the comments!