Common Mistakes You Must Avoid In Your Academic CV

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Do you have trouble creating a strong academic resume? Are you sick of hearing negative comments from CV reviewers?

How can you ensure that selection committees read over your CV for more than the allotted six seconds? This post lists Common Errors in Academic CVs You Should Avoid.

One of the most crucial documents applicants should prepare before submitting their applications to graduate programs overseas in order to be considered for fully-funded scholarships as well as other academic doctorate, research, and postdoctoral posts.

A different amount of detail is needed in CVs for academic and scholarship roles compared to conventional industry CVs. Additionally, because there are so few academic positions available, it’s crucial to avoid making CV errors that could easily be avoided.

Some scholarships, particularly those in Europe, call for a standard academic CV format known as the Europass CV.

Here is a list of frequent errors you should steer clear of making in your academic CV in 2022 in order to make the process of getting your dream scholarship easier for you.

1. Too Many Personal Details

Personal information on your resume that is useless or offensive, such as your birthday, local government area, other mobile numbers, mother’s maiden name, age, nationality, state of origin, gender, and the number of children you have, should be removed. In addition to making me sick, they occupy undeserved areas.

The personal information needed for an academic CV is your name (spelled out in full), your contact email address (perhaps also your home address), and an active mobile number.

Additionally, as long as your active social media profiles are polished and credible enough for a professor to view, you may provide links to your accounts on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Due to the fact that schools do not admit students based on their country of origin, gender, or religion, personal information must be included in the complete application forms or portals.

  1. Get Rid of Your Profile Summary!

A common mistake among applicants is to include professional summaries in their academic CVs. A resume or a CV for a job application are not the same as an academic CV.

Your research interests should be used in place of your professional summary, such as

Wastewater treatment technologies, sustainable chemistry, materials chemistry, and engineering for the environment…

These have to be pertinent to the scholarship or academic post for which you are applying.

  1. Excessive academic credentials

Your elementary or secondary school education has absolutely nothing to do with what a graduate school professor or selection committee is looking for. Every student is expected to have attended these standard primary schools. Hence, kindly do not include them.

The results of your WASSCE, GCE, or A-Level exams do not contribute to your academic resume. Please use the Backspace button if you have included them in your CV.

  1. Insufficient research background

Your research experience should be on an academic CV.

Many new graduate students are of the opinion that they lack research experience, yet one might picture the purposes of their SIWES, Industrial Training, and Bachelor’s and Master’s Thesis programs.

Once the procedures and results are adequately explained, they are solid enough to produce positive research experiences.

  1. Avoid Using Passive Verbs

Action verbs are recommended for the bullets, describing each aspect of research experience, leadership abilities, and accomplishments.

Passive verbs are dull and won’t go you very far, especially when you’re up against thousands of other pupils.

  1. Use Pictures With Caution

Varied nations and continents have different standards for the use of images on academic resumes.

While photos on a CV are necessary in Europe, they are not significant in North America.

Personally, I advise candidates to avoid photographs because they could essentially justify bias in admittance, particularly in today’s society when racism is pervasive.

Additionally, photographs don’t improve your CV’s grading system, so why include them when Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) may occupy that space and improve your research experience more?

  1. Poor Formatting and Styling

Your resume ought to be as well known and adored as you are. It should be handled as though you are going to a face-to-face interview.

Line spacing, font, and font size should all be uniform. Avoid using rainbow colors on your resume; they draw attention and make the document jumbled.

For an academic CV, Calibri 12 point with 1.0 line spacing works well.

  1. Grammatical and Typographical Mistakes

The last error you want to make on your resume is a typographical or grammatical gaffe.

Typographical and grammatical errors are frequently viewed as a lack of focus and attention, thus it’s crucial to proofread your CV as many times as you can before submitting it.

A flawless CV puts you ahead of the other thousands of applicants and moves you one step closer to getting the scholarship of your dreams.

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