3
Now that you have established your competencies and
skills, transfer them to a working draft of your curricu-
lum vitae. This preliminary draft will reflect, in the
broadest sense, the essence, structure, and components
of your experiences as a graduate with credentials from
institutions of higher education. Your CV will also include
experiences that you have pursued after such study.
Naturally, there are some common experiences that
students and professionals in a wide range of occupations
share and which should be reflected in a CV. After you
prepare the working draft of your CV, read the remaining
chapters of this book and carefully review the sample CVs
in Chapters 5, 6, and 7. Then take a break, revise your
working version, and prepare the final draft.
The following list comprises the major components, or
defining characteristics, of a CV:
Preparing Your
Curriculum Vitae
19
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• Professional/Career/Vocational/Research Objectives
• Education
• Coursework
• Honors/Achievements/Awards/Kudos
• Thesis/Dissertation Abstract
• Research Interests
• Research and/or Laboratory Experience
• Teaching Interests and Experience
• Instrumentation Experience
• Specialized Skills

detail and later refine them through careful revision.
3. Ignore any overlap among components because some
duplications or redundancies will be eliminated as
you work through the drafts. Others can be edited or
revised in consultation with your academic advisor,
professor, or mentor.
4. Consider using one of the two options discussed below
to organize the information in each component.
The first option is the self-teaching résumé, which can
be used for curriculum vitae and provides templates for
use with standard word-processing programs. Yana
Parker has developed one such program that is a compre-
hensive approach to the preparation of templates. Parker
describes the templates as detailed structural outlines of
documents that provide a starting point and some graphic
assistance in visualizing a finished product. These self-
teaching templates also provide explicit instructions
about the nature of the material to be entered in a partic-
ular section or location, along with instructions that link
the various parts to form a focused, coherent, and concise
document. She warns that your résumé will not look
exactly like the templates and must be customized in the
curriculum vitae format. In fact, she offers alternative
wording for some components as well as optional compo-
nents that are clearly appropriate for CVs.
1
Preparing Your Curriculum Vitae 21
1
Parker, Yana. Resume Pro: The Professional’s Guide. Berkeley,
CA: Ten Speed Press, 1993. Parker’s “Self-Teaching Templates for

Final Version
Preparing Your Curriculum Vitae 23
The objective of this component, as well as the component
that describes your coursework, is to provide graduate
and professional schools and prospective employers with
a brief but thorough understanding of your academic
background. In this section you should indicate the
following:
• graduation dates
• degrees and the dates they were received
• diplomas
• certificates
• names of universities, colleges, professional schools, or
other institutions you have attended
• your majors and minors along with your grade point
average for each
• your cumulative grade point average for each institu-
tion attended as well as for each degree
Place all graduate degrees, as well as all completed
coursework toward a graduate or professional degree,
before your undergraduate degrees.
Highlight significant academic achievements, such as
strong grade point averages in specific courses, as well
as any extensive background you might have in areas
of study outside your major and/or minor. If you are an
undergraduate and a candidate for honors or high honors
in your major, indicate as much in this component.
Education
24 How to Prepare Your Curriculum Vitae
Education

Coursework
Preliminary Version
Revised Version
Final Version
Preparing Your Curriculum Vitae 27
List and briefly describe all special recognitions you have
received, including study group participation, community
and institutional service, departmental awards, athletic
awards and/or lists, dean’s awards, scholarships, fellow-
ships, community awards, professional awards, academic
awards, and memberships in academic organizations.
As a general rule, do not list high school awards or
achievements since they might diminish the importance
of undergraduate and graduate honors, achievements,
awards, and kudos. If, however, you have significant
high school awards or achievements you want to high-
light, discuss with your academic advisor, professor, or
mentor whether or not to include them.
Honors/
Achievements/
Awards/Kudos
28 How to Prepare Your Curriculum Vitae
Honors/Achievements/Awards/Kudos
Preliminary Version
Revised Version
Final Version
Preparing Your Curriculum Vitae 29
Summarize your thesis or dissertation in a brief abstract.
Include the full title and date or term of completion.
Consult your academic advisor, professor, or mentor

Final Version
Preparing Your Curriculum Vitae 33
Provide detailed descriptions of your research and labora-
tory experiences. Include information about the ways in
which your research fits into a given profession or into a
particular laboratory’s ongoing research. Be sure to give
the title of each project as well as information concerning
its actual or potential publication. Also, list the names
and titles of professors or other individuals who have
supervised or are currently supervising your research.
Research and/or
Laboratory
Experience
34 How to Prepare Your Curriculum Vitae
Research and/or Laboratory Experience
Preliminary Version
Revised Version
Final Version
Preparing Your Curriculum Vitae 35