CV Tips: Do's and Don'ts - 2016
Susan D. Wall, MD
Professor and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs
September 2016
IMPORTANT: Heads up regarding your CV. The following information is important for your proposed academic increase (Merit, Appraisal, Promotion). These details are more than mundane and picky. The Vice Dean’s Office and the Vice Provost’s Office have indicated that academic packets with the following “Common Omissions” will be returned for revision.
The “CV Tips: Dos and Don’ts” that follow are equally important.
Note: We want everyone to put his/her very best possible CV and academic packet forward. Remember, once it leaves our department for review by the Dean’s Office, the Vice Provost’s Office and CAP – NO ONE has a clue as to what you do and why it matters. We want it to be easy for them to understand. A clean, clear, complete and consistently formatted CV without redundancies and sloppy errors will ensure that. (Note: CAP is the Committee on Academic Personnel – the University level review committee).
Common omissions in CV that will cause delay by the Vice Provost's office:
1. Narrative Summaries (do one for each of the following:
a. Clinical work and national professional activity (1 paragraph each)
b. Service (means “Committee” work)
c. Teaching
d. Mentoring
e. Research
2. Grant information:
- be sure "Current" grants are not expired
- “Pending” means currently under review (mailed; no score yet)
- state your role
- identify the PI if not you
- indicate % salary support if there is some.
3. List five (5) “most significant recent” publications (not 6 or 10, etc.)
- Describe your “role” for each (even if you are 1st author).
- Full citations, no "et al".
4. Identifying information:
a. Current position with dates
b. Professional Education (college through fellowship)
c. Licensure and/or Board Certification
d. Employment history with dates
- begins after training
- no gaps
CV Tips: Dos and Don’ts
Do:
- Use the Narrative Summaries to explain what you do and why it matters. Remember reviewers who are not in our department have no clue as to what a Radiologist does or what a PhD scientist in Radiology does. Tell them.
- Use the following lecture format (avoid run on phrases, information). For example:
“Lecture Title”
Institution or Organization
Location
“Lecture Title”
“Lecture Title”
Institution or Organization
Location
- List upcoming invitations
- List award nominations under Honors
- Repeat Teaching awards in Teaching Section (also listed under Honors). Note: This is the ONLY thing that can be listed twice.
- Name formal Assigned Mentees as part of the Junior Faculty Mentoring Program (and explain what you do).
- Chronology – the past is listed first and current is listed last – for all sections of the CV
- Bold your name
- Identify first authors who are trainees. (Use an asterisk then explain the asterisk at the end of the publication list.) For example:
* First author was a trainee mentored and supervised by me. Add “I was the corresponding author” - If you were (I advise this).
Don’t
- Don’t use acronyms
- Don’t include months and days in dates - anywhere (just the year)
- No gaps in chronology work history
- No chronological “out of order” listings (esp. publications). Looks sloppy
- Don’t mix up Formal Teaching vs Informal Teaching:
Formal Teaching
- Is didactic
- Has a lecture title
- Is listed on a calendar somewhere
Informal Teaching
- Is in the Reading Room or Laboratory
- Service:
Service should have “Committee” in the title (maybe “Taskforce”)
Don’t list administrative or teaching activity under Service.
Being a RIG leader is professional activity, not service.
Being a Section leader is professional activity, not service.
If it doesn’t have “Committee” in the title ask the Vice Chair for Academic Affairs for advice. ()
Don't omit the "Public Service section. These may not have "Committee" in the title; for instance, "______Fund Raiser" or "______Campaign for Blood Donations", etc.
- Don’t mix up “UC System-wide” vs “UCSF Campus-wide” vs “School of Medicine”
UC System-wide: more than one UC campus
UCSF Campus-wide: more than one UCSF School
School of Medicine: more than the Department of Radiology
- Don't be REDUNDANT.
For example, under Departmental Service, do not list the “Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging”. That would be redundant. ESPECIALLY don’t list it over and over and over again.
For example, list an activity once with inclusive years rather than multiple listings for multiple years.
- Don’t list posters under “Invited Presentations”. List them after Abstracts.
- Don’t list teaching under “Formal Scheduled Classes for UCSF Students” unless there is a “Course No. & Title”.
- Don’t list the number of articles you review. Either it will be a small number which will be unimpressive or it will be a large number which will suggest poor judgment.
- Don’t use more than one font. Arial 11 is recommended.
- Don’t procrastinate on this. Your CV is your academic currency. It’s worth doing this correctly and on time.
DO ASK FOR HELP SOONER RATHER THAN LATER.
Email me: .
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