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Converting a CV To a Resume
Students may seek additional assistance from the Center's Associate Director for Graduate Student Career Services, Rosanne Ecker. Contact the Center at 443-3616 to explore an appointment or a chance to just drop in for a quick critique
Why would I convert my CV to a résumé?
For most career paths, you need a résumé. While a CV (curriculum vitae) is necessary for an academic job search, it is not appropriate elsewhere. A résumé focuses on your experience and skills in a concise, clear manner, whereas a CV is much more detailed.
How do I do it?
A good résumé demands preparation: you should research the fields, employers, and jobs you are targeting and address your résumé to the specific skills and experience that they demand. Often your résumé is your first introduction to a prospective employer, so it should be persuasive and compelling. Therefore, you need to find out what particular employers want. Do they require certain key skills or competencies?
What about specific qualifications? Are there personal qualities that they look for in their employees? Once you have this information, you will be able to determine what material from your CV you should use for your résumé. Remember: a good résumé emphasizes the qualifications and skills that are appropriate and relevant to a given position.
Do I have any transferable skills?
Yes! To begin to determine what skills you can offer a new employer, make an inclusive list of characteristics and abilities that are important to you as a graduate student. (Some examples to get you thinking: you can persuade people, cope with uncertainty, maintain meticulous accuracy, synthesize information, explain complex concepts....). These skills are useful outside the lab, library and classroom: tell prospective employers what you can do! Read up on the fields in which you are interested. What kind of language prevails, and what skills are important? For example, consider grading, a form of evaluation and assessment. You can recast your experience as a grader in managerial and supervisory terminology that is appealing to prospective employers.
What about formatting?
Make your résumé pleasant and easy to read. It should not be cute, nor should the page seem crowded. Résumés divided into sections on “experience,” “education,” and “skills” are most common, as is reverse chronology. Look through résumé books at SU’s Center for Career Services and browse different types of résumés on line. Be aware that items appearing on the far left and at the beginning of sections tend to receive the most attention. Order is also important: you may want to list your experience first, and then your education. Capitals, bold, and italic type can clarify your résumé, but they can also make it confusing. Keep it simple.
Transforming Your CV to a Résumé in a Few Simple Steps
- Research and identify skills and qualifications sought by your prospective employers.
- Generate a list of your transferable skills, jobs, and other relevant experience.
- Choose headings and organize your information to present your most relevant experience first.
- When you describe your skills, achievements, and experiences, use action verbs.
- Make sure your formatting is clear, your content concise, and your usage consistent.
- Meet with a career counselor to receive feedback and suggestions.
- Proofread, proofread, proofread – and ask other people to proofread too.
- Revise your draft and print the final copy on quality résumé paper.
Key Points
- Education: For the purposes of a résumé, the education section should be kept to the facts of degrees earned and dates. Thesis, Dissertation, and Fields of Concentration should be omitted unless specifically relevant to the jobs you are seeking. If the education section is too long and detailed, employers will see your focus as academia, rather than industry. Also, you can include an additional description in your cover letter if your research relates to that particular job.
- Awards: While honors that you have received are important, they generally do not have much impact in securing a non-academic job interview. If there are any commendations that are particularly meaningful to you, it is appropriate to include them if there is room; however, limit this section to a few select awards.
- Experience: It’s common to separate teaching and other experience on a CV to emphasize experiences that are appropriate for academia. For your resume, bring these sections together in reverse chronological order. If there are particular skills or experiences (i. e., “Research Experience”), create a new heading and list them here. This will be the most relevant section to potential employers.
- Publications/Presentations: These are not appropriate for a résumé unless it is to be used for a research position. They can be listed on a separate sheet of paper if requested. If there are specific publications that relate to the particular job position, you can put them under the heading “Selected Publications.”
- Languages: Rather than limiting this section to language abilities, titling it “Skills” enables you to demonstrate computer proficiency as well.
- Memberships: Save this space for any organizations with which you were very involved and have held leadership positions. You can title this section “Leadership.”
Example
Review this typical CV and then see how it could be converted to a resume.
* Our thanks to Columbia University Center for Career Education for their permission to allow us to adapt this material.
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