“CV” is short for “Curriculum Vitae” -- a formal kind of summary of one’s activities, accomplishments, interests.  It is longer than a resume, which is usually no more than two pages.

A technical CV is used to apply for technical jobs, admission to graduate school, and scholarships and grants. 

A technical CV informs the reader of all relevant technical skills, work experience, honors and awards, and intellectual goals.  It usually does not contain much non-technical personal information.

Below is template for starting your own CV.  Get in the habit of updating your CV every time you do something new (technically) or something (technical) new happens to you.  You may at first have nothing much to fill in the template, but as time goes on there will be plenty to add.  In fact, as your CV grows you should prune out less important stuff.  For example, no one will care after awhile what high school you went to. 

You can download the template as a .doc file here. 

You can also download an example (albeit, goofy) filled in CV here. 

Technical CV of YOUR NAME

YOUR EMAIL

Education

•YRS – UNIVERSITY, CITY, STATE; MAJOR

(others)

•YRS – HIGH SCHOOL, CITY, STATE

(others)

Skills

•Programming and computer skills (what languages can you write code in and what software packages are you familiar with)

•Hands-on skills (can you solder and/or weld, what shop machines are you familiar with, have you designed an electronic circuit)

•Data analysis skills (what statistics and/or numerical analysis do you know)

•Foreign language skills (what language(s) and what level of facility)

Significant work experience

•Tutoring (what level, what courses, how many students)

•Research or similar out-of-the-classroom experience (brief description of work plus what you did)

Courses taken (or taking)  (or attach a transcript)

•Science, Math, and other technical

Publications and presentations

•AUTHOR, FIRST, AUTHOR, SECOND, … , “TITLE,” BIBLIOGRAPHIC DATA, PAGES (YEAR)

(plus a brief description of content and your part in the work)

Honors and Awards

•YR – TITLE

(plus a brief description of what it was for)

Organization memberships  (office held)

•YR – TITLE OF ORG (TITLE OF OFFICE)

Other interests

•Here you can put quilting, rock climbing, amateur astronomy, singing in the shower, etc.