HOW TO WRITE A CV FOR POST GRADUATE STUDIES
Many colleges and university admission and scholarship process require the submission of this very important document called CV
Are you supposed to go by the regular CV rules?
The procedure for creating a CV for post graduate studies isn’t the same as the conventional CV.
Here’s how to write a CV for post graduate studies.
- Focus more on academics
- Consider the framework
- And what not to include
Focus more on academics
Like I mentioned earlier, the guidelines for writing an academic CV is totally different from the conventional one.
For example, emphasis on professional achievements would not be top priority here, except if they are relevant to your academics or shows your work ethic/ tenacity.
Focus mainly on your studies and academic background.
Spend time writing up a detailed account of your academic experience.
The framework of CV for Post graduate studies
Here’s how to structure your academic CV;
- Contact details
- Educational background
- Teaching experience
- Research Interests
- Publications
- Fellowship and Grants
- Honours and awards
- References
Contact details
Start off with your contact information.
- Your full name
- Phone number
- General address
- E-mail address
- LinkedIn profile
Your full name should be boldly and clearly written. The remaining details should follow, and this time with a much smaller font size.
Educational background
Enter your educational qualifications in reverse chronological order. (From most recent to the older ones)
Now, just like the conventional CV, you should tailor your CV to the department or area of study you’re applying for.
Say, if you want to apply to a mathematics department, make sure that you deliberately highlight your experience as a math student or teacher. Talk about the history of your grades in the subject and so on.
Anything that can point the reader to your achievements in that field should be included
Teaching experience
While a lot of first-time applicants may have little or no teaching experience, any experience at all you have in this regard will be useful and should be included here. Say as a teacher’s assistant, a private tutor and so on.
Highlight all these using bullet points.
Add the relevant details, such as the course, the institution, and dates.
Research Interests
This section should include your area of research. The path you hope to take once admitted into the school. Be specific.
Give as much information as possible in this regard, so as to convince the admissions board of your readiness for graduate level work.
Publications
If you have published works, they are to be included in this section.
For those who may not have published any work before, it’s okay to input less formal publications such as newspaper articles, blog posts, LinkedIn write-ups, newsletters, and just basically any write-up that highlight your skills as a knowledgeable person and logical thinker in your field.
Fellowships and Grants
List any professional bodies you belong to and also include works in which you were awarded funds.
Honours and awards
Any awards you have should be listed here.
Start from the most important (relevant)
Write the title of award, from where, and dates.
References
Very important section in an academic CV is references, quite unlike the conventional CV.
You are to include at least 3 contacts within your professional and academic area.
Write the name of the referee, professional title, institution, and contact information.
Remember to obtain permission from them before using their information on our CV
WHAT ARE THE BASIC ELEMENTS OF A CV?
While the structure of a CV is essentially flexible, tailored to your unique skill set and abilities, there are key elements that make up a CV regardless.
This is an academic focus CV, yet you need to play by some basic or should I say standard CV rules.
- Start strong
- Use power words
- Honesty
- The format
- Error free
Start strong
Experts recommend to give more attention to the first half of the page than the remainder.
Whatever you do, no matter where your creativity leads you, keep this in mind.
Listing your skills certainly isn’t the same thing as (the very hard task of ) proving you have them.
Do well to completely avoid CV cliché such pace-setter, team-player, go-getter, and you know the rest. I mean they’re great, but really don’t convince anyone.
The first half page of your CV should leave a lasting impression.
Use power words
You’re familiar with them right?
Engaged; Drive; Managed; Leveraged; Designed; Adaptable and the rest of them.
Some institutions and multinationals use database software to filter out applications that don’t include certain keywords. So now you know.
Honesty
Don’t tell lies.
This is not the place for it.
A lie will only bring you the kind of image you don’t need for your career success. So be honest.
Honesty is the best policy.
The format
There are different kinds of CV formats, each serving different purposes.
Formatting and spacing is just as important as content, so pay attention to its every detail.
If you don’t know how to format your cv, you can easily download cv templates from the internet. They’re free.
The following guidelines can be helpful in formatting your CV;
- Use bold headings to introduce each section
- Use double line spacing
- Compress your CV into 1 page or 2 pages at most.
- Use a clear font like Times New Roman or Arial; they’re easy to read
- The body of your CV should be between 10 to 12 font size and 14 to 18 for headings.
- Your page margins should be kept around 2.5cm but not less than 2cm, else your CV will look cluttered.
- Avoid unnecessary charts and graphs
Error free
It’s just as well. Don’t spoil all your efforts with typographical errors and inaccuracies.
CV should be error free as much as possible
Proof read more than enough before sending out any CV.
Everything from your spellings to grammatical usage should be on point.
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