How to write an academic CV

As a mid-career academic, you may need to write a CV when applying for:

• A role in another institution
• A new role in your own institution (such as a promotion or leadership role)
• Research funding, such as grants and fellowships.

This guide will help you to prepare a CV that helps showcase your achievements and position you as the best person for the role.

Please bear in mind that this article follows UK academic norms. If you are applying to a role in another country, be aware that CVs in other countries can take a different approach.

Similarly, this article covers traditional academic CVs, not narrative CVs. If you are writing a narrative CV, you may wish to instead visit.

Who is this guide for?

‘Mid-career academic’ (sometimes called ‘established academic’) is a vague term and is generally self-defined. It is nothing to do with your age, or the number of years since you obtained your PhD.

However, as a mid-career academic, you are likely to have established yourself in your field as someone with a strong track record of independent research and/or teaching. You are likely to hold a permanent position, such as a lectureship. More importantly, you have already developed a clear idea of your long-term vision – in other words, what you want to achieve across the rest of your career.

Over the next few years, you may be aiming to lead larger-scale programmes of research with a sustained impact or be looking to become a strategic leader in your institution, initiating changes that affect a broader swathe of academics, staff and/or students.

What’s different about writing a CV as a mid-career researcher?

In many ways, the basic rules of a CV do not change much throughout your career.

What changes at a mid-career stage is the level at which you are expected to work. Job descriptions at this career stage often include phrases like:

• “Established reputation”
• “Significant research projects”
• “Sustained record”
• “Strategic influence”

The emphasis here is less on individual examples of excellence, and more on a sustained record of independent research, high-quality teaching and leadership.

Tailoring your CV

Before you begin writing, consider how you will need to tailor your CV. This is a key part of writing a successful CV, as it makes it easier for reviewers to identify exactly how you are the right fit for the role.

No two CVs should look alike, even for the same person. Each time you submit a CV, you should tailor it to the role and the institution.

Tailoring to the role or opportunity

Ask yourself: what’s the focus of the role? Research, teaching, leadership, or a combination of these? Your CV will change depending on what the role focuses on.

To make sure you know how the role will be assessed, read the job description or assessment criteria. These are what reviewers use to assess your capability for the role. Use them to understand which achievements, skills and experience the employer will be interested in.

If, for example, you apply for a role with a particular focus on student education, you will need to put forward a strong case for your teaching and supervisory experience. This would need to be mentioned at the beginning of your CV, before any research experience.

When applying for jobs, it also helps to contact the person listed on the job description to ask for more information, or to discuss your suitability. If there any assessment criteria you are not sure about, these informal chats are an excellent way to get clarification. They are also a good way of showing enthusiasm about the role, getting a feel for the institution, and ensuring that the hiring manager remembers who you are.

Tailoring to the institution or funding body

As well as tailoring to the role, you should tailor to the specific institution or funding body. At the very least, you will need to reorder sections in your CV depending on the type of institution (and role) you’re applying to.

If applying to a research-intensive university, for example, you’ll need to emphasise your strengths in research, and your approach to research-led teaching, whereas an application to a teaching-focused institution is more likely to focus on your pedagogical expertise and innovation.

Read the institution’s research and/or teaching strategies, at both an institutional and a departmental level. These can give you an idea for the kinds of language that you should include in your CV. For example, a departmental research strategy strongly focused on societal impact indicates that you should clearly demonstrate your own experience of achieving research impact.

When applying for research funding, you should also tailor to the funding body in question. Some funding bodies or funding calls are explicitly focused on leadership, meaning your CV should focus heavily on your experience in this area. To understand the funder better, speak to colleagues with experience of applying to that funder, either as an applicant or as a reviewer, and get their opinion on what the funder is looking for in applicants.

A final point on tailoring your CV

What all of the above means is that in practice, you’ll need to write a slightly different CV for each opportunity that you apply for. This can seem a lot of work, so save yourself time by creating a ‘stock CV’, filled with everything you’ve ever done. You can then tailor this version to meet the requirements of specific roles.

What do you need to include?

Our other guide, the Academic CV Guide for PGR Graduates, covers many of the key sections and content within an academic CV. As a mid-career academic, you need to include most or all of these sections, depending on your field and experience.

As we noted at the start of this article, mid-career academics need to highlight a sustained record of innovation and excellence in research and/or teaching. It’s also expected that you are becoming (or already are) an established leader, both in your field and at your institution.

This may feel hard to do in a CV, where space is limited. So how do you show that you have the necessary skills and experience?

Below are some (non-exhaustive) examples of what you could include. You may notice that some examples span multiple areas (e.g. PhD supervision).

Note that you don’t necessarily need to include all of these examples – most academics at this point are specialised in a particular area and so some of the examples below won’t be relevant. If in doubt, always check the job description.

Examples of excellence in research

• Research income and grants secured
• Publication quality and citation impact
• Collaborative research and innovation
• Knowledge exchange and industry partnerships
• PhD and postgraduate supervision
• External examining
• Public engagement activities
• Reviewer/panel responsibilities for funding bodies

Examples of excellence in teaching

• PhD and postgraduate supervision
• Programme leadership
• Development of new courses, modules, etc.
• Public engagement activities

Examples of leadership

• Strategic leadership roles (e.g. Director of Student Education, Director of Research, Committee Chair)
• Programme Director roles
• Mentoring and coaching
• Editorial board memberships
• Reviewer/panel responsibilities for funding bodies

How do you demonstrate sustained impact?

Demonstrating impact

One of the most common mistakes that people make when writing any kind of CV, is to simply list the duties or activities that they perform in role, rather than demonstrating impact.

• A classic example of this is listing “Supervising 5 PhD students”. This is a duty, not evidence of impact. A reviewer might ask “What’s the evidence that they’re an effective supervisor? What impact have they had?”.
• Similarly, you might list “Chair of EDI Committee, 2023-2026”. Again, this is a duty, and doesn’t show the reader what impact you have had. The reviewer might ask “What actions did they take as chair? What impact or change resulted from their efforts?”.

A succinct yet effective way to highlight the impact that you’ve had is use a CAR story to explain your contributions. CAR stands for Contact, Action and Result:

• Context: What was your role, or the situation that you found yourself in? (This can sometimes be implied from your job role)
• Action: What actions did you take? If working in a team, what were you specifically responsible for? Be specific and avoid vague verbs and phrases like ‘worked on’, ‘involved in’ and ‘supported’.
• Result: What was the impact, effect or outcome of your actions?

If you’re interested in learning more about CAR stories, the University of Leeds has written a handy open-access guide to help you craft effective CAR stories for CVs, application forms and interviews.

What does ‘sustained impact’ mean?

At a mid-career level it’s expected that your actions have a sustained impact on your field or institution. But what does ‘sustained’ mean?

Rather than an individual, one-off achievement, ‘sustained’ suggests that you’re expected to be delivering consistent results over the long-term. It proves to the employer that your successes are the result of consistent and ongoing high-quality work, which you’re ready to build on in your new role.

• For example, evidence of sustained impact in student education might include multiple years of student evaluations
• Evidence of sustained impact in research might include a record of multiple grants (growing in size over time), a growing publication record, or deepening ties to non-academic research partners.

The key thing is to demonstrate that your individual achievements in particular projects or roles build up to a bigger picture of sustained impact.

What should my CV look like?

In today’s hiring climate, many academic roles attract dozens of applications, if not more. The formatting and visual style of your CV is therefore vital. It helps ensure that the reader can find the most important, most relevant content quickly.

One of the most common questions that academics ask when writing a CV is “Can I have a template?”. Our answer here is – no!

Some institutions and funders do provide a specific template, and if one is provided, you should use this. However, for most roles there is no single ‘correct’ way to format an academic CV. As we’ve already noted, it is important to tailor your CV to the role, the institution, and your own aspirations (see Tailoring your CV). Every academic has a different track record, so every CV will look different.

Don’t worry about making your CV look fancy. There’s no need for complicated formatting and design. However, considering the look of your CV can help ensure that the style emphasises the substance.

Below are a few CV design basics to help you start designing a CV that clearly showcases your achievements.

Improving readability

• In western cultures, you read from left to right, so important information should be on the left. Move less important information like dates to the right-hand side of the page
  • For the same reason, you should avoid using multiple columns, as important information on the right-hand column can be easily missed
• Remove pronouns (I/We/They) and start each bullet point with a verb (e.g. ‘Developed novel approach’, rather than ‘I developed a novel approach’)
• Italics can be difficult for some people to read. Use bold sparingly to highlight any key details
• Use headings to clearly divide sections. You may wish to use shading to highlight headings to help the reader find what they’re looking for:

Research Experience

• Don’t try to cram each page full of information. Use white space wisely – this can help draw the eye to important information and avoid mental overload
• Avoid jargon, particularly institution-specific jargon like module codes. Many strategic leadership roles (like Director of Research) differ from institution to institution, so with certain roles it is worth explaining what the role is

Branding

• Don’t write ‘Curriculum Vitae’ or ‘CV’ at the top of the page. The reader knows what they’re looking at! Instead, write your name in big letters, so that it jumps out from the page.
• Consider how to develop ‘branding’ for your CV. How can you make a CV that clearly stands out as yours?
  • Avoid typefaces that everyone uses like Aptos, Calibri, Arial and Times New Roman. What about Helvetica, Candara, or Tahoma? Be careful, though, don’t choose anything that might be difficult for a visually impaired reader to read (read this guide by Scope for more information about font accessibility).
  • Colour, when used effectively, can make your CV look far more appealing. Pick a single colour and use shades of this in your headings, lines or any design details to make it look more appealing. If applying to a specific institution, you could even find the institution’s colour guidelines and match your CV to that. Do leave the bulk of the text in black or dark grey, however.

Should I mention my personal circumstances?

Whether you’ve taken a career break, worked part-time, or are looking to return to academia after a career in another sector, you may be wondering if and how to mention circumstances that may have impacted your career.

In short, yes! Mention anything that you are comfortable disclosing if it offers useful context for your career profile and track record. There may be circumstances that have affected your ability to, for example, complete data collection, publish research outputs or develop teaching experience.

Cardiff University offers useful advice for academics applying for promotion on this very subject. Most universities and funders have similar guidelines, so check your individual institution or funder to see exactly what their policies are.

You don’t need to disclose the specific details of your circumstances. Instead, focus on the impact that they’ve had on your career.

Align your CV with your online profile(s)

Before you hit ‘Submit’, you have one more job: remember to update your online pages! This includes your institutional staff profile, your personal website (if you have one), your ORCiD ID and, increasingly, your LinkedIn profile. This last one might come as a surprise, but academics increasingly use LinkedIn to network and promote their research.

Reviewers may go online and search for candidates. Make sure your profiles are up to date and show the same roles, publications and career history as your CV.

This can also be useful in increasing your visibility to researchers, prospective students, and research partners.

Best of luck in writing your own academic CV!

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