Academic CVs

[Nowconcerned]

Hello,

I am quite senior (have been in my current role quite a long time) and looking for a change. I've dusted off my CV and realised it probably looks like something about of the dark ages (all reverse chronological posts and education). Has anyone found good templates for writing academic CVs that make your experience sound like a more progressive evolution? Someone younger than me (I'm over 50) might be much better at this? Any thoughts or advice? Thanks

I left academia after a short academic career (PhD, one short project, one Research Fellowship, three publications) to return to the third sector. I found that a single paragraph at the top of my CV describing myself was useful both in focusing my mind and imposing a narrative on something with a bit too much random walk in it. I used the heading "Profile". I began with a strong declarative which was aimed at the work I wanted to get: "As a statistician, I am passionate about..." It contains sentence starters like: "My research embraces..." And "My policy focus is..." And "Having spent ten years in..." Look at LinkedIn for examples. Stalk a few people you might like to emulate and see what they say about themselves.

For academic jobs you'll still need the list of publications, but the profile will take care of the narrative. You could clump the jobs by employer to get rid of the list of posts. E.g. Lancaster University: research roles in whatever area, culminating in an appointment to whatever your most senior role was. But I'm an acad-exiter, so probably not the best placed to advise on that part!

I'm not under 50, but I'm on FTCs so keep having to apply again & again.

Don't most seniors have a "Research Esteem" statement at top, now? All the WHO panels or national commissions you're on, the keynote address you gave to Natural England annual conf, the 6 former PhD students who went on to jointly get nominated for a Nobel prize, the 25 times you reviewed for the BMJ, that article you wrote that got cited 2000 times in 1st year, the editorials you were invited to write for QJof Econ etc.

Being more junior, My CV is a hybrid style, maybe. Has a 2 column "skills" summary at top (about 1/4 of the top page). Left side is a simple phrase summary, right side is detail, no more than 3 types of attributes. This section I tailor to the specific job essential attributes. Like you might have sections that say

() Research Esteem: All the commissions & panels & history that makes strangers defer to your opinions in 2nd column
() Accomplished PI (detail about big grants you were PI on, include specific £££££ in 2nd column)
() Leader, mentor and lecturer (detail about admin roles, things that add kudos to internal Uni operation, course convening experience)

After that I have things like employment history (& duties, get the buzzwords in), my qualifications, extra skills (foreign languages) etc. Pubs start on 4th or 5th page.

I also (re)organise my publications section (it's hitting 11? pages now & spans multiple areas so it needs structure! ) by types of publications relevant to the audience or context, so 1st author in target topic at top, joint author in target topic next, then other publications in peer review, than the rest maybe.

I'm an RG prof. I have a big CV which is 20 pages with every paper, talk, admin committee, teaching role etc in 25 years. then I cut it down to 2-3 pages tailored to each position / application that needs it. So for a grant, I'll be focused on the grants & papers. For a admin / teaching role, it will be focused on those etc.

it is still the basic list of stuff in reverse chronology, but normally only the highlights from the last 5 years make it onto the tailored version. For some roles, I also add a 1 para summary that highlights the topics / contributions that are most important. That paragraph normally gives a sense of the development of my research interests & theories. But a cover letter is also a good point to give that information.

Thanks for suggestions!