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THE

SUBTLE

ART OF

BUILDING

A

GO D CV

A COUNTERINTUITIVE APPROACH

TO LANDING A DREAM INTERNSHIP

Students’

Academic

Cell

SAKSHAM CONSUL

ADIL KHAN

Presenter’s Note

○ This presentation is purely directed for CVs for research based opportunities, be it internships, thesis or Masters, PhD applications.

○ This presentation is made from our collective experience and knowledge gained from multiple seniors and friends. The presenters have tried to include every point but some details may have been overlooked.

○ The presenters have tried to be as precise as possible but human error is possible. In no way are the presenters liable to be held responsible.

○ No matter how skilful one is in the

art of CV building, nothing covers

for the lack of points. All readers are advised to obtain noteworthy life experiences which can be used as strong CV points.

WHAT IS A CV?• Record of all your achievements

• Deal maker/breaker

• Your spokesperson

• The ultimate bait

Desire

○ High Impact

◦ Relevance to position

◦ Skill Set

◦ Organization capabilities

○ High Quality of

◦ Content

◦ Size and Arrangement

“Have just 6.25 seconds. The fish needs

to take the bait!

Preparation for the ‘dark’ arts

To do on a piece of paper:

List all achievements: From school to everything done in BITS Pilani.

Write everything productive done on campus. Clubs, department, teams, workshops, online courses, challenges. Everything

Rank according to importance and tailor points for purpose of CV

• Common publishing tools: LaTex, Microsoft Word, Paper

• Highly recommend LaTex

• Many online templates available on www.overleaf.com

• LaTex is extensively used for publishing purposes. Highly recommended to learn

CV ExampleWhoa! Aren’t you excited?

Header Research Experience Course Projects

DetailsEducation Details Publications/Symposiums Academic

Achievements

Technical Skills Mentorship Experience Key Courses Taken

PORs and Extra-curriculars

Introduction:

Do’s Don’ts

Name Home address

Phone Number Photo

Email ID Social Networking Links

Webpage link Tinder

Github link

Education:

• Include academic information of current institute and one lower. (i.e. BITS and 12th)

• Mention degree to be earned as well as duration and timelineMention CGPA

Bonus: Mention GRE or TOEFL if given.

Research Experience:

• Most important section!• Can club SOP, LOP, DOPs in this section to fleshen it up• Mention guide’s name. Hyperlink it!• Include project duration• Project title on top. That’s catchy!

Research Experience:

• Sub points are vital

• Gives information about project

• At max 3-4 points.

• Each subpoint should ideally take 1 complete line! Not half a line or two lines

• Use action words!

• Bold important figures. Use data and statistics!

Publications / Symposiums:

• Mention all authors! Bold your name.

• Include complete title and publication detail (Journal name, Conference name)

• Status of paper.

• Bold is your friend!

• You can include submitted papers/papers under review.

ADVICE: Upload papers under review/publication at arXiv.org. Then link it in CV.

Helps build credibility of paper. Allows to share work without fear of theft.

Note: Make sure publisher allows it!

Course Projects:

Academic Achievements:

• List your major achieve academic achievements in reverser chronological order

• Cardinal Sin: Mentioning that national rakhi making competition you won in 4th grade

Technical Skills:

• The purpose of this section is to demonstrate that you have the necessary skills to perform the task you are applying for

• It is a good idea to create 3 lists for this section:Programming LanguagesRelevant SoftwareDocumentation Skills

Mentorship Experience:

Key Courses:

• For your core courses, mention only the ones that will prove relevant for the applied internship

• It is a good idea to divide this section into 3 lists:Core Branch CoursesMathematicsMiscellaneous

• Instead of writing Maths I, II and III mention Applied Calculus, Linear Algebra and Differential Equations

Hobbies / Extra-curriculars / PoRs:

• Be aware of the conclusions that might be drawn from your entries here

• It is important to pay attention to how you mention what you mention here

• Try to highlight how your club/departmental activities have a research side to them

• Cardinal Sin: Mentioning watching anime/learning from Quora

Eg. If you are in the Dance Club

Do not write:‘As a member of the Dance Club, participated in

cultural festival of BITS Pilani.’

Write instead:‘Organized and choreographed performances of the

Dance Club, an organization of __(no of members)__ dance enthusiasts at BITS Pilani.’

Other Useful Tips

○ Use active voice

○ Show task completion

○ No slangs!

○ Action words!

○ Bullet points!

General○ Explain points:

What does Merit scholarship mean?

○ Maximum length: 2pages

○ Recheck, recheck and did I mention, recheck?

Research well enough to know what the professor might be looking for

Some people are under the impression that building a CV is, in fact, an essay writing competition. They end up writing long paragraphs, mentioning every little detail, of every single project they have ever done. As a consequence, relevant details are often lost in these bulky paragraphs, and a professor loses patience trying to find them.

• Use bullet points instead• Bullet points are easy to read• Bullet points are beautiful :)

Do not repeat yourself.Do not repeat yourself.Do not repeat yourself.Do not repeat yourself.Do not repeat yourself.Do not repeat yourself.Do not repeat yourself.Do not repeat yourself.Do not repeat yourself.Do not repeat yourself.

make shure there are no spelling and grammatical miskates.

Use action verbs wherever possible:

A perfect curriculum vitae is like an ideal

society. It can only be strived towards,

and never achieved.

~Adil Khan, 2019

(and not the person on the left)

Summarizing the subtle art:

for i=1:infdisp(‘Do cool stuff’);disp(‘Update CV’);disp(‘Seek corrections’);disp(‘Update CV’);

end

Thanks!Need further help?Contact us at

f2016221@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in (Adil)

f2016424@pilani.bits-pilani.ac.in (Saksham)