Below are my notes from an academic workshop the UNL History Graduate Students’ Association had in September. This was the workshop that gave me the final push to start my own blog. You can see my notes in that section are a tad light – I was paying close attention! There were also some great tips on c.v. organization and building.

HGSA September 16th 2011 Academic Workshop

• c.v. as a “visual argument,” a representation what you’ve done (a visual representation of you)
• how to represent the material in a way that others will understand it → speak a certain language
• the language has to deal with your field (categories that people hire in); what the terms for the various stages of your graduate career mean and represent about you
• pay attention to what the job description point you to → what they are looking for influences ways you should arrange content in your c.v. (e.g. moving teaching experience up on your c.v. if the job description emphasizes that this is important)

• c.v. basics: emphasize organization and clarity
• who you are, what your position is, use department address for your address (but can still distinguish between department address and residential address), university e-mail
• Education section: e.g. “Doctor of Philosophy, History, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 2001” (could put advisor’s name here or move it to your letter of intent)
• section for “areas of teaching and research interest” (these can switch around depending upon the job description) → 3 or 4 is a good number – need to make your own decision here based upon how you wish to represent yourself depending upon the position
• section for “academic positions” → teaching and research assistantships here; teaching done at graduate institution and/or community colleges (may have a bullet point for duties for graduate assistant at OASIS under “service” section → put information about working directly with mentors and students)
• section for “grants, fellowships, and awards”
• section for “academic conferences and meetings” → can put forthcoming/pending items here; can put “did not attend” for something you were unable to attend due to sickness, emergency, etc. [also think of retitling things even if you give talks on very similar topics]
• What of guest lectures in classes? → include as many as is reasonable that shows support for your teaching and research interests (e.g. “selected guest lectures”); invited lectures count a bit more SO think of having a separate section for this
• section for “book reviews” → shows that you are active and engaged in your discipline; shows a professionalism (encyclopedia entries are “the same way” although they count a bit more than book reviews)
• think of having a “Professional Development” section (both for teaching and research) → shows that you are engaged and working to improve yourself
• teaching section: break it up by institution
• service section – consider breaking into “professional,” “department,” “college,” “community”
• section for “Professional Affiliation” → a good idea; you should do it to show that you are involved (subscribe, read, attend conferences)

• abbreviated c.v. – break it down into what you really need (contact information, education, selected grants and fellowships)
• also ought to have a brief professional biography
• keep a paper file of your c.v. and update as you go → give a paper file to your advisor as well (again, as you go); think also of getting a letter from someone you guest lecture for, just a summary of what you talked on and how you did (for your file and your advisor)
• put watermarks on the footer of your c.v. (both versions)

• think of getting a personal and professional blog (e.g. Linkedin and dougseefeldt.net)
• suggested readings: Job Search in Academe: Strategic Rhetorics for Faculty Job Candidates By Formo and Reed (or 2011 version) AND The Academic Job Search Handbook by Heiberger and Miller Vick

Jason Heppler and Brian Sarnacki:

• Building a Digital Presence:
• blog, faculty profile, twitter (if you make it public; but be aware of what you are posting)
• write online as a way to share your perspective and practice your writing skills (enrich the information that is online)
• consider a section on your c.v. for “open access writing” (Jason has this on his c.v.); or under contact information (It IS a part of your online identity)
• see Dan Cohen’s blog at dancohen.org
• WordPress, tumblr, blogger, SquareSpace