Advice from Ravi Regarding CVs

Greetings again. I hope that all is going well for you.

Some of you know Ravi Murugesan, who is in charge of AuthorAID’s online courses. Recently Ravi facilitated an online course on writing grant proposals. The assignments included submitting a CV (curriculum vitae).

After reviewing the CVs, Ravi posted a message giving course members advice to consider when revising their CVs. Because the advice also could help others, I asked Ravi for permission to use parts of the message as the core of a blog post. Ravi kindly gave me permission.

So, here are some excerpts from Ravi’s message:

• “Don't use more than two or three types of font faces in a CV.”
• “Make sure bullet points and numbering appear consistently and are aligned properly.”
• “Leave a blank line between two consecutive sections.”
• “Make sure your CV does not look cramped. It's better to leave out some information than pack in everything very tightly.”
• “If you have any publications, presentations, and other research output, include them in your CV, at least the most important ones.”
• “Mention your complete work address at the top of your CV, and remember to mention the country.”
• “Unless the funder requires a photo with your CV, it's best to not include one in your CV. Similarly, don't include personal details such as whether you are married, your religion, etc. unless the funder asks for this information.”

Thank you, Ravi, for letting me share this material. If readers have additional pieces of advice, I hope they’ll post comments.

Until the next post—

Barbara