Northcentral University

What you will not see in this article is a manipulative tactic to sell you a magic trick to creating a successful curriculum vitae (CV). Nor will you consume a half-hearted attempt to make you believe that if you just put in more effort and work harder that you can leave your PhD program with a wholesome CV bursting with endless publications, academic honors, and professional development awards. You will not see such things, because not only would they be lies, but they would gaslight your unique journey, struggles, and modern socio-economic barriers. Instead, the goal is to help you understand the foundational differences between resumes and CVs, learn the truth about how to make yourself stand out, face disappointment, and acknowledge the veracity of a professional system built on privilege. This piece is not intended to promote hopelessness, doubt in self, or say that there is no point in CVs and professional development. The intent is to help future psychology PhD graduates have a realistic expectation of how to develop a successful CV while also balancing the reality that the professional field of psychology is not devoid of bias, hierarchy, and inequality. It would be helpful to start at the very foundation to describe what a CV is and how it differs from the resumes we have long been instructed to cling to. A curriculum vitae (CV) is Latin for "course of life" and is an extensive account of one's professional experiences, activities, academic honors, awards, and research and publications (Smith, 2015). A resume, on the other hand, is much more competency-based, surrounding a more general work experience (Doyle, 2021). This is not to say that there is not overlap. However, a CV is much lengthier and has a more specific focus based on one's career of choice (Smith, 2015). A general CV should, at the very least, contain an applicant's name and demographic information, education experience including degrees, licenses and certificates, professional experience, publications, professional/academic presentations, volunteer work, and teaching/clinical experience (Smith, 2015). These factors should not necessarily be listed in this order, and what is included should be uniquely tailored to what the particular career requires and asks for. It is important to take note of this because CVs are required for nearly all psychology professor jobs. If getting psychology professor jobs were as easy as having a comprehensive CV, then there would be no need to read further and you could open a Word document and begin plugging away. The truth is that that getting a psychology professor job, especially fresh out of a PhD program, is difficult and much more complex than merely describing your academic successes. The unfortunate truth is that the number of individuals graduating from PhD psychology programs is significantly greater than the number of open psychology professor positions (Larson et al., 2015). Not only is this problematic, but if a new psychology PhD graduate CREATING A COMPREHENSIVE CV: THE STRUGGLES OF THE MODERN WORLD Jack Girardi, MA Clinical Mental Health Counselor Psychology PhD Candidate, Northcentral Universit y Student Contributions 12 NCUPA Summer Bulletin

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